The half-day Sustainability Conclave for the hotel industry successfully held on the 4th of October 2024 in India, brought together key players from the hospitality sector to raise awareness and foster the adoption of the LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) initiative, as envisioned by the Government of India. Held with the mission to address pressing sustainability challenges, the event presented a platform for discussion and action toward achieving a more sustainable, responsible, and resilient tourism sector.
The conclave featured in-depth deliberations on environmental issues in the hospitality industry, focusing on the key pillars of air, land, and water sustainability. Attendees explored strategies such as resource efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, minimizing water consumption, and implementing the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle). These discussions were pivotal in outlining a path for hotels to adopt more sustainable practices in alignment with India’s G20 priority of Green Tourism.
A central theme of the conclave was the Travel for LiFE program, developed under Mission LiFE by the Ministry of Tourism. The program seeks to catalyze large-scale behavioral change among tourists and tourism businesses, encouraging sustainable travel habits that contribute to environmental protection and climate action. With significant attention on supporting India’s global sustainability commitments, the conclave goal was to promote actionable engagement from the hospitality sector toward responsible tourism.
GSTC Vice Chair, Mr. CB Ramkumar, moderated the session “Resource Efficiency, Circular Economy, and Minimizing Water Consumption: Towards LiFE @ 100.” In which participated:
- Mr. Gaurav Pokhariyal, Executive Vice President, IHCL
- Ms. Aradhana Lal, Senior Vice President – Sustainability & ESG, Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd.
- Ms. Deepali Bhatia, Area Director of Sales, Marriott International
- Mr. Rajesh Radhakrishnan, Area General Manager, The Park, Chennai
“Hotels in India have done a lot of good work in the space of sustainability and are very generous in sharing this work. This panel did just that with leaders sharing mind opening concepts that they have worked with. Their thoughts and the discussions were very enlightening for me as the moderator and for the audience on the day. We look forward to more such important discussions” shared Mr. CB Ramkumar.
The Sustainability Conclave concluded with the aim for the hospitality sector to align with the Government’s mission and further advance India’s vision of responsible tourism.
GSTC and HAI signed a MOU
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and The Hotel Association of India (HAI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the 4th of October, 2024, at the event, aiming to improve and strengthen cooperation and collaboration between the two parties to generate respective synergies and promote the application of sustainability practices and the GSTC Criteria in the hospitality industry in India.
