The Cluster ESG Manager responsible for the group’s properties in Hong Kong and Macau highlights the various ways Hyatt is doing good for the local community and the planet.

Photo: Hyatt Hotels Corporation — Photo courtesy of Grand Hyatt Hong Kong

Firstly, tell us a little about your role. What exactly does a Cluster ESG Manager do?

Essentially, I oversee and manage all environmental, social and governance related topics for five Hyatt hotels, namely, Grand Hyatt Hong Kong; Grand Hyatt Macau; Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Sha Tin; Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui; and Hyatt Centric Victoria Harbour Hong Kong.

My tasks range from developing action plans for specific initiatives, creating new opportunities with partners to address a specific issue, to supporting our marketing teams with content as well as developing training materials for our colleagues. I also build and maintain working relationships with partners from various industries and keep track of any new regulations and reporting requirements that come about so I can better equip and advise our hotel leaders.

I joke that my work involves touching base with almost every single department you can think of in a hotel, except security (for now)!

In your opinion, what is the most fulfilling part of your work? And the most challenging?

Sustainability or ESG, is still quite new to most people, so when I see or hear that colleagues remembered something during a training session or asked questions related to sustainability, it means that my work has had some sort of impact on them, whether or not they know it. In addition, creating something from scratch and seeing these projects come to life is also truly rewarding.

The most challenging part of my work is that there are such differing levels of awareness and hence, engagement. The work I do is heavily reliant on our hotel-based teams so engaging them is crucial to ensure that we do not become stagnant and complacent. I do my best to hold ourselves accountable to the projects we work on and sometimes that means playing the bad cop, which is inevitable in our sustainability journey.

I also enjoy connecting with counterparts from other hospitality companies and building a network of sustainability professionals to share best practices and challenges that we all face. I am a strong believer in collaborating within the industry as it requires as many players in the industry to move the needle towards more sustainable hospitality.

A Harbour View Deluxe room at Hyatt Centric Victoria Harbour Hong Kong. (Photo: Hyatt Centric Victoria Harbour Hong Kong)

Last September saw a record-breaking rainstorm paralyze Hong Kong. How does Hyatt go about building resilience in preparation for more frequent extreme weather events?

We were very fortunate that none of our hotels sustained any long-term damage during September’s extreme weather events. Apart from ensuring that our physical built environments were able to withstand extreme weather, all our hotel teams proactively made plans to ensure that our guests and colleagues remained safe and were not affected. In addition, supporting solutions and programs that aim to combat climate change is something that all our Hong Kong–based hotels are pursuing. All our hotels have restaurants that contribute to Zero Foodprint Asia’s 1% pledge, which is directly channeled to local farms in Hong Kong to support farmers’ transition to regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture not only restores soil health and sequesters carbon, but also improves soils’ ability to retain storm water, effectively reducing flooding in low-lying areas.

Hong Kong and Macau import the vast majority of their foodstuffs from elsewhere. What are the ways you’ve been able to reduce food miles and ensure supply chains are sustainable?

Given the nature of where we operate, we do have to import a large amount of food items. Despite that, our food philosophy of “Food. Thoughtfully Sourced, Carefully Served.” guides us on how we procure food. We prioritize sourcing locally (as much as feasibly possible); we have identified several partners locally in Hong Kong that produce vegetables aeroponically and traditionally (in soil); which supports our local economies. One of the farms we purchase from, we give coffee grounds and lobster shells to, which they then make into compost.

Introducing chefs to the potential of locally grown produce has actually inspired them to incorporate more of these vegetables in their menus. Our culinary teams strive to introduce more plant-forward dishes, which don’t necessarily have to be vegan or vegetarian; and we ensure that our restaurant menus have options for all diners to create an inclusive dining experience.

Another priority is that seafood should be sourced sustainably and responsibly. All our hotels have an internal target to achieve when it comes to sustainable seafood. We are members of the Hong Kong Sustainable Seafood Coalition and in 2022, more than 50% of the seafood served at our hotels was sustainably and responsibly sourced. Our chefs and procurement teams are aware that when looking for a new seafood item, the priority is that it should be certified sustainable. Seafood stock levels fluctuate rapidly and we have to keep ourselves in the know of what species we should and shouldn’t serve. Last year, we took unagi off our menus at Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, because the species of eel typically used is actually endangered. It was not an easy decision to make, but it was a necessary one.

A farm on the outskirts of Hong Kong supported by Zero Foodprint Asia’s Restore Fund. (Photo: Zero Foodprint Asia)

Grand Hyatt Hong Kong has recently started using AI technology to track food waste. How does that work in practice, and is there a plan for rolling that out to the other Hyatt hotels in town?

The Lumitics food waste management system is equipped with weight sensors and a camera that increases the transparency of what goes into our bins. These photos and data points allow our chefs to identify hot spots for reduction by weight, item, cost and/or service period.

At Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, our culinary team are actively exploring using “ugly” fruits (aesthetically imperfect but perfectly edible fruits) for compote and jams, incorporating fruit and vegetable offcuts into stews, sauces, and even beverages such as kombucha or jamu, and experimenting with new recipe ideas that generate minimal food waste. Our three sister hotels in Hong Kong also have food waste management systems in place are actively working on various measures to identify and reduce food waste.

Climate change is causing unpredictable rainfall patterns and prolonged drought around the world. What strategies are in place to cut unnecessary water usage at the properties under your remit?

Water is a commodity that is forgotten due to its low cost, but more needs to be done to preserve water. We track metrics including energy and water consumption on an internal platform that allows our teams to observe trends and identify areas for improvement. All our Hong Kong–based Hyatt hotels have low-flow regulators in place in our restaurants, kitchens, and guest rooms, and our engineering teams are constantly looking at ways to manage the temperatures in our spaces. All our hotels in Hong Kong have also recently completed a water audit, which has already shown us areas for improvement that we are looking at implementing in the next few months.

Another big area that we are working on is education for our colleagues as water is something that we use both at work and at home. The training we provide to our teams is another way that we, as a business, assume responsibility to ensure that good water stewardship is encouraged.

When it comes to taking care of staff members, is there an effective method or formula for assessing their overall wellbeing?

At Hyatt, our purpose is to care for people so they can be their best; putting people at the heart of everything that we do. We are guided by this purpose to ensure our colleagues’ physical and mental wellbeing are always looked after.

We send out quarterly surveys to colleagues to understand sentiments about work and their mental health. We have access to a variety of tools that we can use—for example, Hyatt has a global partnership with [meditation app] Headspace that all colleagues have access to. Our Hong Kong hotels hold monthly talks between colleagues from various departments and leaders, who may not be their direct superiors, to allow for more open discussions about anything that we can do better, and our leaders also operate on an open door policy which allows colleagues to have a conversation with them at any time.

I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all method, but it is important that companies have monitoring measures in place to ensure that staff do not feel forgotten or undervalued.

Hong Kong–based Hyatt employees prepared Christmas meals for underprivileged families at the local chapter of Ronald McDonald House Charities in Kwun Tong District. — Hong Kong–based Hyatt employees prepared Christmas meals for underprivileged families at the local chapter of Ronald McDonald House Charities. (Photo courtesy of Grand Hyatt Hong Kong)

Post-pandemic travelers expect hotels to make a positive impact on the locations they’re in. How does Hyatt give back to the local communities in Hong Kong and Macau?

Caring for our communities is core to our purpose of caring for people so they can be their best. The pandemic definitely put a spanner in our community efforts, however we have reinstated various programs to give back to our communities. In Hong Kong, all our hotels have close ties with various local community organizations. For example, our hotels donate excess edible food to FoodLink Foundation, a local charity that redistributes food to the underprivileged in Hong Kong. Our partnership with Soap Cycling Hong Kong involves the donation of gently used soap bars and leftover liquid amenities from our large format bathroom amenity bottles. Soap Cycling reshapes soap bars, drains liquid soaps, and refills them into bottles for distribution to the needy. In addition, the bottles are channeled to plastic recycling streams to ensure proper management of waste. Similarly, Grand Hyatt Macau collects soap bars that are channeled to Clean the World for redistribution.

Our hotels have active partnerships with various other organizations such as The Children’s Cancer Foundation and Ronald McDonald House, where activities are planned for beneficiaries throughout the year. In addition, every April, we come together to make a positive impact in our communities through our Global Month of Service Initiative, when colleagues are encouraged to participate in the variety of volunteer activities planned throughout the month.

In terms of achieving carbon neutrality, what specific targets has Hyatt Asia Pacific set for properties in Hong Kong/Macau and the broader region?

In 2021, Hyatt’s science-based target was approved by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi). The targets aim to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and build on our previous goals to reduce emissions, which we achieved in 2018.

In the Asia-Pacific region, we work on smaller goals that contribute to our wider global targets. For example, all hotels in Asia Pacific have been asked to reduce food waste per cover by 20% in 2023, contributing to our global goal to reduce food waste by 50% per square meter by 2030 compared to 2019. Our hotels in Hong Kong had set energy and water reduction targets in Q1 of 2023 and have since achieved EarthCheck’s benchmark bronze accreditation which benchmarks our hotels’ performance in energy, water, and waste, against other hotels in the city. This has allowed us to set meaningful reduction targets for 2024 and beyond.

Hyatt hotels in Hong Kong send gently used soap bars to local NGO Soap Cycling for processing. (Photo: Soap Cycling Hong Kong)

Samantha de Mello of Hyatt Hotels Corporation

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