Sustainability: Karisma Hotels & Resorts: strengthening Sustainability in the supply chain

KARISMA HOTELS & RESORTS:

Strengthening Sustainability in the supply chain

After the Amazon, the Selva Maya is the largest tropical rainforest left on our continent; it is a refuge for very important species of flora and fauna, including the jaguar (and other endangered species). It is home to a Mayan culture that, despite being recognized for the beauty of its Archeological Zones, continues to be more alive than ever in its traditions, customs and day-to-day life.

A major productive activity in the Selva Maya is tourism. About 23 million tourist visit Quintana Roo every year, and although many of them go to the northern part of the state and stay at beach resorts, it’s the rainforest that supplies them with the resources they need to have the vacation of a lifetime, even if they sometimes don’t realize it.

However, consumption of local products by the tourism sector in Quintana Roo is still low. One of the reasons for this is, the local communities cannot cover demand

SOCIAL-ENVIRONMENTAL EVENTS (3 Saturdays) with low production capacities. In addition, during this project, we also discovered that the tourism sector is often unaware that these products exist, and when we are able to align supply and demand strategies, we have seen some very positive results. One of the action we used to the way to close the gaps in marketing local products was documenting success stories, identifying the challenges these projects faced and the way they overcame them.

This is the case of Karisma Hotel & Resorts. The company has worked arduously developing policies, standards and actions focused on promoting sustainable consumption of local products, working hand-in-hand with its value chain to ensure it. The data presented in this document has been collected through information obtained in documentaries and interviews of key stakeholders and was documented by the Sustentur team in June of this year.

ORIGINAL SITUATION

Since 2012, Karisma Hotels & Resorts has developed a sustainable management system that brings together aspects of different issues, such as ways to manage waste, water, energy, flora and fauna, and guest information, to name a few. The group’s properties have received various certifications, the most important of which are Travelife, Rainforest Alliance and,

One of the group’s hotels, Hotel El Dorado Royale, has a 1-hectare hydroponics greenhouse, where they grow several types of vegetables and aromatic herbs, like tomatoes, chili peppers, mint and cilantro. Their produce supplies approximately 20% of the demand of the region’s hotels. It should be noted that the Greenhouse is certified by the Rainforest Alliance and is the only one in the coastal area certified by this organization.

The hotel chain has a history of sustainability and continuous improvement, the sustainability certification processes have led the group to work on diverse projects related to improving their processes, implementing systems, prohibiting the use of plastics and changing equipment to increase energy efficiency, amongst a few. Currently they are putting substantial efforts into responsible purchasing and developing sustainability in their value chain.

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AUGUST – DECEMBER 2020

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International Whale Shark Day International Beach cleanup Day recently, EarthCheck.

World Car- Free Day International sign language Day World tourism Day/ National Environmental Awareness Day

FEATURES OF GOOD PRACTICES

Karisma Hotels & Resorts actively promotes responsible tourism at all its destinations. As a result, Karisma has created a comprehensive program entitled “A Passion for Sustainability”, which is implemented from the corporate offices down to each department of every hotel in the group. This program monitors Karisma operations, making sure they are aligned with the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria, local and national regulations and the certification agencies with which we work. All Karisma properties implement the different components of the Passion for Sustainability Program, integrating a Green Team of colleagues, coordinated by a member of the Corporate Sustainability Team. The different components of the Passion for Sustainability Program are focused on achieving the greatest efficiency possible in hotel operations and in creating a greater number of benefits for the environment and communities.

Karisma Hotels & Resorts’ focus on sustainability is based on the conviction that businesses depend on the people around them and the environment in which they are located. The group’s policy states the following:

Our commitment as a company is to integrate principles and actions that contribute to fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into our day-to-day operations, in order to create a positive change in our guests, co-workers, society, the environment and culture.

The company has defined 10 Principles that make up its program, amongst which Principles 3, 4 and 5 support the group’s work on “buying local”:

3 4 5

Doing everything possible to promote a strong local economy by prioritizing the contracting of co-workers, suppliers, producers and services in the area that meet the company’s high standards.

Ethically close every commercial transaction with suppliers, at all times promoting the use of fair trade practices and building the local economy.

Contributing to the reduction of environmental impacts by preferring the products and services that use sustainable measures in their processes.

Besides these principles, Karisma Hotels & Resorts has a Purchasing Policy that clearly establishes prioritization of biodegradable, local and community-based products, fair trade, and refillable or returnable packages.

In the area of processes, the Negotiations and Sustainability Departments works in collaboration to implement policies and practices, especially those related to:

1. 2.

3. Waste management Change or replacement of products for less polluting ones Biodegradable products

For local purchases, the decision-making processes can come through several channels:

a. A specific request from one of the hotel departments. This sometimes is the case with chefs looking for traditional products. b. Through visiting trade fairs, like the Sustainable & Social Tourism

Summit and Expo Turismo Sustentable, where we contact suppliers. c. Through changes in regulations, like the Quintana Roo Waste Law. d. Through direct contact with potential suppliers or organizations that have products or that are working on sustainable issues, like in the case of free range eggs, as explained further on.

Some of the products Karisma buys locally include:

1.

2.

3. 4. 5. 6. Jams, in association with the Pitahí brand, both large presentations for food displays and small ones for gifts or individual consumption. Honey, with brands promoted by the Mexican Civil Counsel for Sustainable Silviculture. Insect repellant. SPA products, bought from communities in the Yucatan Peninsula. Some perishable goods. Cage-free ranch eggs.

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International Day of the Girl child OCTOBER 13 TH

International Day for Disaster Reduction OCTOBER 16 TH OCTOBER 17 TH

World Food Day International Day for the Eradication of Poverty DECEMBER 3 RD DECEMBER 20 TH

International Day of Persons with Disabilities International Human Solidarity Day

CAGE-FREE RANCH EGGS

La política de pagos de Karisma, como la de la mayoría de hoteles Karisma’s payment policy, like most hotels in the region and the world, is at 90 days. However, for some local products, like honey, we’ve agreed with producers that payment will be made one week after product delivery. This is important to recognize because, in general, changes in payment policies are very unusual.

In the specific case of wood, since Karisma Hotels & Resorts is a hotel operator but does not own the hotels, decisions on remodeling projects and the products used for them are made by the owners, and the operator has little influence on them. One of the most interesting endeavors implemented by Karisma Hotels & Resorts is the launch of the “Getting to know Karisma’s Supply Chain” survey, the objective of which is to learn more about its suppliers and identify that group’s progress on sustainability, so we can make better decisions and push for a sustainable value chain.

The survey was done on-line with 128 suppliers, and yielded the following results: · 20% of suppliers produce something in the 3 states of the Yucatan

Peninsula, and 55% in Mexico. · 79% of suppliers have offices in Quintana Roo. · 37% of the suppliers interviewed report products with some type of eco labeling. · 10 of Karisma’s large suppliers have their own foundations supporting environmental and social causes.

One of the recently launched projects that is focused on boosting buying local and animal welfare is the alliance with Animal Equality, an international organization working with society, governments and businesses to end animal cruelty on farms. After a series for conversations with the organization, Karisma Hotels & Resorts signed a public commitment to only consume eggs coming from cage-free farms by 2023.

The interesting thing about this process was not the change to a practice directly linked to animal welfare, but rather Karisma Hotels & Resorts’ decision to join together with suppliers to support implementation of this new way of producing. So, instead of looking for new suppliers that already have these solutions in place, they decided to develop along with the existing supply chain, thus adding value to this proposal.

IMPACT

The actions taken by Karisma Hotels & Resorts to reinforce sustainability in its supply chain have had different types of impacts.

On one hand, they have allowed us to understand the characteristics and expectations of our 128 suppliers, facilitating the design of policies and actions focused on fortifying those businesses that provide products to hotels for their daily operations.

The fact that they are supplied by these businesses, of which almost 80% have facilities and infrastructure in Quintana Roo, promotes local employment and reduces the carbon footprint of the products we consume.

The cage-free ranch eggs project will allow suppliers to not only meet Karisma Hotels & Resorts’ requirements, but also add value to a product that they can market at a better price, while promoting animal welfare.

Finally, providing guests information about the actions the hotel is taking on sustainability, and particularly focusing on ‘buying local’, allows us to create greater awareness and contribute to the creation of more responsible markets.

Sustainability Month

As we do every year, during the month of October we will have a series of activities related to Sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals. Expect to hear from us soon!

OCTOBER

Our platform for Training and Development

Last month, Karisma Hotels & Resorts launched our own LMS (Learning Management System), named “AcademiK” available to all existing collaborators within the Karisma Group.

After more than a year and a half of enormous collaborative efforts by various departments in our company such as Human Capital, Information Technologies, Art & Design, Strategic Negotiations, Finance, Travel Club, and Operations, to name some, today we have a powerful technological tool that will allow us to homologate the look, feel and quality of a large volume of bilingual, interactive training content designed especially for our collaborators in all the countries where Karisma has a presence.

But what is an LMS?

Learning, because it´s used to deliver education courses or training programs. Management, because it helps to organize these courses (create them, change them, assign them to students, follow progress, grade them etc.) System, last but not least, is just a fancy word that translates to “software”. An LMS is a computer program.

Just like Word helps you write documents and Outlook helps you manage your emails, an LMS is a software program that helps you create, manage and deliver e-Learning courses.

So, what will we use an LMS for?

Employee Training – Teaching new skills, with less business disruptions, lower costs, at different paces, with more insight on employee´s progress and reporting tools.

Employee Orientation – Automated onboarding, more personalized contents with detailed roles and responsibilities, and ensuring policies & procedures learning.

Knowledge retention - valuable skills, techniques and information readily available at all times.

Education – Online lessons, supplement to classroom training, business education, etc.

We invite you to visit AcademiK and take all the available courses, especially those that have been previously assigned to your account. And stay alert for upcoming notifications of new content and webinars that will be uploaded progressively!

Karisma continues to make progress alongside large international corporations now with this new staff development tool! Please take advantage and enjoy Academik!

As adults we are sometimes reluctant to change and find it difficult to implement, or we just think that technology is only for basic matters and just to have fun.

But being able to get online training is a great opportunity to learn new things, from the basics of how to use our cell phones and computers, to the main topic of the online course we are taking.

Now in the “new normal” we are bound to live in, taking training online has helped us to get acquainted with new topics, get informed on how we will deal with changes in this global situation, and to constantly get updated with the department´s and the hotel´s operation issues. In addition, it has supported us by becoming a form of distraction during the social confinement we´re living in. We must take 100% advantage of these tools that we are getting the opportunity to have, generate awareness in all our employees to support it, and drive them to get ahead, prepare, and grow professionally and personally.