How we manage and implement sustainability

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We translate the Objectives & Key Results from our sustainability programme into central Policies and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for implementation in all of our hotels.

Our most important Policies include:

• Sustainability Policy: Description of our action fields and impact per action field as well as our long-term vision for each of them.
• Quality Policy: Emphasis on the importance of exceeding guest expectations and achieving the highest level of guest satisfaction.
• Employment Policy: Employment guidelines describing the work environment ALH provides.
• Local Community Policy: Description of our relationship with the local community, our commitment towards them and the actions underlying that commitment.
• Procurement Policy: Guidelines on our expectations regarding our suppliers and what sustainability goals we follow with our procurement practices.

We empower our employees to follow those guidelines through training and awareness creation sessions. We see sustainability as a tool for innovation and thus aim to motivate employees and guests to bring in suggestions.

In addition to our Policies and SOPs, we have also implemented and certified Management Systems based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO):

• Quality Management System ISO 9001:2015: We are dedicated to providing the highest quality of service and hospitality and our Management Systems support us in doing so
• Environmental Management System ISO 14001:2015: Supports us in managing our positive and negative impact on the Environment. To do so is not only our understanding of good business conduct but also a moral responsibility towards our employees, their families, the local and global community and successive generations.
• Energy Management System ISO 50001:2018: Supports us in decreasing our fossil-based energy consumption as the biggest stepping stone on our way to decarbonization.
• Occupational Health and Safety Management System ISO 45001:2018: Supports us in protecting our employees and providing them with a wellbeing-orientated work environment.
• Informational Security Management System ISO/IEC 27001:2013: Supports us in protecting our employees’ and guests’ data and privacy.
• Food safety management system- HACCP Codex Alimentarius: Supports us in continuously excelling at the most hygienic and safe food preparation and processing.
• Biosafety management system BV BSMS standard: Supports us in providing the most hygienic, safe and health-supporting spaces.

Continuous improvement and external validation

Sustainability is a process of continuous improvement. We take it step by step and re-assess our impact and improvement potentials on a year-to-year basis. To do so, we actively pursue external input and validation. Apart from maintaining a lively stakeholder dialogue with our employees, the local community and our partners, we go through various certification and validation processes:

• ISO Management Systems: All of the before mentioned management systems have not only been implemented but also certified for all of our hotels – certifications available upon request
• Travelife Gold: Each of our hotels is certified by Travelife Gold. The holistic sustainability criteria catalogue has been acknowledged by the global authority on Sustainable Hospitality and Tourism, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). It requires measures in different areas of sustainability such as Business Polices, Legislation, Communication, Human and Financial Resources, Energy, Water, Waste, Pollution and Erosion, Wildlife, labour and Human Rights, Community Integration, Guests and Suppliers.
• Considerate Collection by SLH: Our Hotel Excelsior as well as our Hotel Bellevue have become a part of this handpicked collection of sustainable luxury hotels under the roof of Small Luxury Hotels. The strict criteria not only demands efforts in reducing the negative impact but also asks for how sustainability and luxury are being connected through enhancing wellbeing and providing serendipitous experiences.
• GBAC Star: A strict protocol for the highest hygiene standards connected with the membership of Small Luxury Hotels of our Hotel Excelsior and Hotel Bellevue.
• UNESCO Sustainable Travel Pledge certificate: Each of our hotels has a certificate demonstrating our commitment to supporting global sustainable travel. By working with others, we aim to ensure that future generations can also appreciate the beauty of our world.- certifications available upon request.

Our ISO certifications are evidence of the quality of our management practices. Our partners and guests can rest assured that we as Adriatic Luxury Hotels conduct our business to a globally recognized, high standard. Our Travelife certification is a specific acknowledgement of our social and ecologic engagement. We embed social and ecological considerations in all areas of business and pay particular attention to our employees’ and guests’ mental and physical wellbeing. Travelife also challenges us to drive performance in ecological and social dimensions.

Travelife certificates for each individual property are available upon request.

Read our full Sustainability report for 2022 here.