After eight successful years, the Sustainable Hospitality Challenge (SHC) is once again set to host its semi-finals in Amsterdam on June 21-22. This year, additional to the participation of top hospitality institutions, the competition is joined by top design and engineering students from prestigious institutions, including Politecnico di Milano, Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (Didi), Nanyang Technological University Singapore and TU Delft.
The Sustainable Hospitality Challenge (SHC) is a Hotelschool The Hague initiative that aims to enhance the evolution of sustainable hospitality, foster innovation driven by the leaders of tomorrow, and nurture talent on a global scale by bringing them close to industry organisations who want to reimagine the future of hospitality. The global hospitality industry is forecast to grow to 5.8 trillion U.S. dollars in 2027, reiterating the importance of sustainability within the industry.
Ahead of the semi-finals, Paul Griep, founder of the Sustainable Hospitality Challenge, Director of Alumni and Industry Relations Hotelschool The Hague, explained:
“The great enthusiasm from industry leaders and students, as well as the past years’ winning concepts, have inspired the SHC team to bring the Challenge to a new level: Its incredible momentum and recognition from the industry, along with last year’s winning concept now becoming a reality and contributing to the sustainable future of hospitality, has pushed the Challenge forward, resulting in an upcoming SHC 2023 edition that will be like never before: broader in participating disciplines, higher in synergy, and an event you will not want to miss. I have always been most excited about the student experience and the process leading to the winning sustainability concept, but now, more than ever, I can’t wait to see design, hospitality, architecture and engineering students come together to bring even more ingenuity to this year’s winning concept.”
The Sustainable Hospitality Alliance is proud to support the competition as a SHC partner, alongside NEOM, The Bench, and Kerten Hospitality, and our CEO, Glenn Mandziuk is honoured to be a Jury Member for the challenge.
Chris Newman, Executive Director at NEOM Hotel Development said:
“We are delighted with the level of creativity from the students participating in The Sustainable Hospitality Challenge. These brilliant concepts will serve as the building blocks that will hopefully pave the way for a more responsible and sustainable future.”
Glenn Mandziuk, Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance said:
“The SHC Challenge is a unique platform to promote and evolve sustainable hospitality, and I’m excited to see the semi-finalists and their concepts brought to life. Innovation is at the heart of the Alliance as we aim to nurture and develop a truly Net Positive sector that gives back more than it takes – the SHC is pioneering positive sustainable advancements within the industry.”
Sustainable Hospitality Challenge in collaborative effort with TU Delft
From a challenge to a course, this year the SHC has expanded from hospitality to design, and created in a collaborative effort with TU Delft a project-based course: Interactive Technology Design (ITD). As part of the Sustainable Hospitality Challenge, students from TU Delft have been working on ideas, innovations, and prototypes to support the industry’s sustainability efforts.
In the course, students produce a prototype every week for 20 weeks from February to July 2023. As a whole, the course functions as a creative melting pot for innovative and critical ideas generating a wide range of out-of-the-box solutions to project assignments.
To find out more about the theme and entrants in this year’s challenge, visit https://sustainablehospitalityalliance.org/launch-of-sustainable-hospitality-challenge-2023/, and to explore the semi-finalists’ concepts, head over to the SHC LinkedIn.
