As a non-profit platform, The CSR Journal convenes business leaders, practitioners, policymakers, academics and investors to share concrete strategies, case studies and ideas towards a sustainable future. The CSR Journal aims to provide a space that actively promotes a collaborative culture towards this shared vision initially through the written word, and in real-time.
The CSR Journal Partners with Wyndham Hotels, Ajman to delve into ‘profitable sustainability’
Ramada Ajman Hotels hosts roundtable with sustainability and hospitality experts
Ajman, UAE (January 2020) – To kick off 2020, The CSR Journal partnered with Ramada Ajman Hotels to deliver a roundtable raising the bar around the sustainability discourse: for this one, honing in on sustainability’s inherent correlation with profitability.
The panel, composed of seven experts in the field of sustainability and hospitality, discussed their respective insights. With the theme “Sustainability: responsibility or profitability?”, the panelists discussed their personal experiences around the commercial advantages of more sustainable business models, various eco-friendly practices, and deliberated on the challenges around bringing more players on board. The panel discussed the practitioners’ success stories and the combined need for corporate leadership, and political will to see sustainability practiced at the integrated levels that optimize its full potential. Of critical importance, the panellists seemed to agree, were: Creating awareness across all stakeholders; Aligning the company’s business and sustainability or CSR visions, and understanding the natural ROIs and financial gains of sustainable initiatives.
“Dream big, think simple,” was the parting advice Khadeeja Balkhi, CEO and Editor-in-Chief The CSR Journal offered. She emphasized that sustainability must be leadership-drive – sharing successful case studies from her experience as a sustainability consultant. She finds family businesses particularly impactful to work with as part of her Sustainability Starts @ The Board initiative.
Iftikhar Hamdani, Cluster Manager, highlighted: “Sustainability has always been in our agenda and we intend to keep the ball rolling and kickstart the year 2020 with a very insightful discussion on a cause that we are truly passionate about.
“Ramada Ajman has been campaigning for sustainability since 2012 and we have established an outstanding case study on its commercial benefits within our operations. We have an annual savings of AED120,000 from our ‘zero landfill’ initiative alone, and have proven that it is possible to have a profitable and socially-responsible business.”
His organization’s human talent retention rate has risen over 57%, given his personal involvement in the well being of his most important stakeholder group – his team, his family. Every initiative he has undertaken under the sustainability umbrella has directly translated into higher profit for the business.
The intimate roundtable was organised in partnership with Qissa’ Go, a storytelling collective. Its Founder and CEO, Tanya Daud, served as the moderator of the roundtable. She added: “As storytellers, we understand the importance of reaching out to the audience, speaking their language, and finding out what drives them to take actions. This has been a very informative discussion on how each of us, as individuals and organisations, can act and motivate others to take positive actions to promote sustainability, no matter what field we are in.”
Panellists included John Arnold, Director, GreenGood Eco-Tech; Harbinder Singh, MD, Sudeku; Rafik Kamel, Director for Franchise Operations for Middle East and Africa, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts; Fraz Ajmal, Chief Services Officer of Qissa’ Go, and Shehara Rizly, Assistant Editor of TravTalk Middle East.