Rotana Corporate Sustainability Report 2017

7 T he United Nations has proclaimed 2017 the ‘International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development’. Under the aegis of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) the declared aim is to strengthen awareness of tourism activities that contribute to sustainable development. Sustainability is one such priority that we uniformly embrace at Rotana across all of our teams and offices. And it is with great pride, I share with you our 3rd Corporate Sustainability Report, which will take you through the various initiatives Rotana has undertaken to advance environmental sustainability, in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our aim is to facilitate a balanced development of economies, societies and environments through more meaningful business engagement and value creation, with a sharp focus on our communities’ health and wellbeing. The report provides key insights into Rotana’s key achievements, targets and even some shortfalls. With workplace diversity and equal opportunities being among our most integral values, Rotana proudly employs 11,163 colleagues from 106 nationalities of which 17.8% are females. Our contribution to the community in the last year increased by 4% though employee-volunteering activities, fund raising and cash contributions. Among other achievements, 80% of hotels in the portfolio are HACCP-certified with a total of 44 hotels accessed for health and safety risks. Further, feedback from our guests has been positive too, achieving a 66.4% on our guest satisfaction survey. As part of our responsibility towards the environment, we are proud to have reduced our energy and water consumption by 7.74% and 21.25% per guest respectively over the reporting period, while in 2016 and 2017, we converted 190, 000 litres of our kitchen used frying oil to biodiesel. Similarly, in the areas of ‘Governance and Compliance’, Rotana achieved 100% success in the training of all our colleagues to ensure they adhere to our codes of ethics, integrity and anti-corruption. We remain firmly committed to making sure our fundamental values never change. We understand that only a strong sense of commitment, passion and hard work will allow us to turn challenges into opportunities as part of our efforts to achieve our sustainability goals well into the future. In fact, there are certain targets we have already set for ourselves to achieve by 2020. They range from our vision to operate 100 hotels, right down to meeting environmental goals such as reducing energy consumption by 10% (kwh/guest) and water consumption by 25% (litre/guest) from 2012 baselines. We will continue to see the future through the lens of sustainability, as we reiterate our role as a change-maker enabling a real difference in the lives of our partners, colleagues and guests. Christiane A. Zeidan Corporate Director of Environment, Health and Safety Head of Sustainability Message From Head of Sustainability For more information about this report, please contact Christiane Zeidan on christiane.zeidan@rotana.com