The company has achieved the highest score in the hotel industry thanks to its transparency and performance in climate change management.
Melia Hotels International has achieved the highest score in the hotel industry in the last report of the Iberia 125 Project (forming a part the Climate Disclosure Leadership Index), which assesses efforts made by Spanish and Portuguese companies with the largest market capitalization to reduce CO2 emissions and transparency in reporting results.
The company has obtained a score of 83 points out of 100 for transparency and a "B" rating for performance (out of a total of five levels, "A" being the highest). With these results, Melia Hotels International is the industry leader in Spain and, furthermore, among the four hotel companies with the highest index rating in the world.
In the last three years, the company has managed to improve both its transparency score by 57 points and its performance rating, a significant improvement that, in the words of Gabriel Escarrer, vice-president and executive director of the chain, "is the result of having improved our transparency and commitment to climate change management, a key factor in achieving a more responsible management of tourist destinations and one of the priority strategies of our company so as to grow in a sustainable way."
Featuring among the most important milestones is individually calculating the environmental footprint of each one of the 187 properties comprising the group, the Responsible Tourism Certification of 10% of the chain’s property portfolio, and consolidating the SAVE project, the environmental programme designed by the company, which includes initiatives to improve energy efficiency at its properties and reduce emissions of pollutant gases. Along these lines, in 2012, the hotel managed to reduce CO2 emissions per stay by 4.3% and water consumption by 6.4%, with respect to the reference period 2007-2011.
As regards reporting, Melia Hotels International continues to improve transparency with the publication of its sustainability report, which is increasingly more precise given the growing importance of its international property portfolio. The 2012 report obtained, yet again, the maximum rating (A+) according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
