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Protection & Regeneration of Nature
2 | Advancing
Corporate Office
Minimise negative impacts and initiate positive impacts
Outcomes
By the end of this stage you will have achieved the following outcomes from the Pathway Framework:
Application of policy, monitoring and oversight.
- The organisation provides and records in-kind or other support for biodiversity conservation in the local area.
- A local biodiversity / ecosystem impact baseline has been created.
- A local biodiversity management plan is in place on a hotel level. Properties are actively managed to support biodiversity conservation.
- Impacts on wildlife wellbeing are regularly monitored and addressed.
- The supply chain has been reviewed to identify products at highest risk of contributing to biodiversity loss (e.g. palm oil, cocoa).
- Alternatives have been found for products which contain endangered or at-risk species or ingredients which cause negative biodiversity impacts (e.g. unsustainable palm oil, unsustainably fished seafood).
Setting up for success
Take ownership
Identify owners across all key organisational teams
Implement a Sustainability Monitoring System (SMS) if not done already
Review and update governance procedures
Engage stakeholders
Review and engage stakeholders previously mapped, and identify any additional key external stakeholders in the value chain to engage with
Find other brands and management companies you can learn from
Establish a feedback mechanism for key stakeholders to comment on sustainability initiatives
Check whether there are any local, regional or national plans that could be aligned to support wider efforts
Understand impact & dependencies
1. Work with hotel teams to identify priority habitats and species on their properties which they should work to protect and regenerate
Resource: Biodiversity factsheet
2. Identify how brand standards might impact on biodiversity, including on-site requirements, and the products and services you purchase or mandate through your standards
3. Review procurement policies and criteria for environmental aspects
4. Support hotels to set baselines for local biodiversity impacts
Set targets
5. Review and strengthen company targets, property-level targets for managed hotels, and suggested targets for franchised hotels to reduce negative impacts on nature, and promote protection and regeneration. Include a goal to remove products which contain endangered or at-risk species or ingredients which cause negative biodiversity impacts
Take action
6. Review available guidance to identify and select additional relevant actions to reduce negative impacts on biodiversity or support local biodiversity. You should include finding alternatives for products previously identified as containing endangered or at-risk species, finding alternatives for ingredients which cause negative biodiversity impacts, actions to support local biodiversity conservation at hotel locations (either on-site or in the local area)
7. Develop guidance and a decision tree to support operational staff / site managers to assess whether their actions will impact biodiversity
8. Engage key suppliers to see what their commitments are, share targets set and how they can help achieve goals
9. Engage with local and international actors (municipal governments, NGOs, conservation groups, partnerships, coalitions etc.) to increase the scale of progress achieved
10. Join efforts that advocate for smart economic incentives that support hotel environmental efforts
11. Determine financial and non-financial resources needed, create a business case and gather required resources
Resource: Responsible Procurement Factsheet
12. Update procurement policies to include environmental considerations and develop a supplier code of conduct
13. Update brand standards (and standard operating procedures, if set at Brand level) to reduce the disturbance of local biodiversity and protect endangered species
Resource: Environmental Management for Hotels (Section 1.6)
14. Raise employee awareness of environmental commitments, and their role in achieving them
15. Engage with customers and enable them to make more environmental choices
Reviewing & Reporting Progress
Monitor & Report
Conduct an external audit on key environmental and social data
Review progress by comparing against previous performance and industry benchmarks where available (such as CHSB). Repeat on a regular basis (e.g. monthly/quarterly)
Review benefits seen through actions
Review challenges encountered along the way and plan solutions to implement
Update leadership on progress
Create a revolving fund to reinvest savings from efficiency measures into new sustainability initiatives, if not done already
Inform corporate customers and investors of performance and activities by including information in communications and meetings
Publicly report progress against company targets on an annual basis
This guidance was developed with support from Considerate Group 
Share your case studies with us!
As hospitality companies progress towards Net Positive Hospitality, the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance is keen to share good news and best practice from across the industry. Our Net Positive case studies are shared across our website and LinkedIn, acting as a positive space to celebrate these actions, achievements, and commitments.
We invite hotels to get involved by sending case studies to press@sustainablehospitalityalliance.org and / or tagging @Net Positive Hospitality and @Sustainable Hospitality Alliance within LinkedIn posts relating to environmental sustainability or social responsibility.
Protection & Regeneration of Nature - PDF Checklist
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Test the outcomes of ESG solutions
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3 | Accelerating - Neutralise negative impacts and build robust positive impacts
Ready to move on to the next stage?
Once you have completed Protection & regeneration of Nature – 2 | Advancing, you are ready to move on to 3 | Accelerating.
