September is International Month for the Deaf and to raise awareness around the challenges and solutions for the deaf, we did a case study with Park Inn by Radisson Cape Town Newlands whose workforce comprises of 30% hearing impaired personnel.

Based on an estimate from the World Federation of the Deaf (www.wfd.org)), about 70 million Deaf people are living In Africa and approximately about 80% of the South African population do not know sign language. This makes it paramount to have organisations such as DEAF SA to assist with educating and destigmatising any society’s perceived limitations for the deaf. That is exactly how the partnership between Park Inn by Radisson Cape Town Newlands and Deaf SA came about

According to Deaf SA Western Cape, the strategy with the partnership is not only to uplift and empower the deaf but to get more organisations in various sectors and industries to employ the hearing-impaired.

This is a remarkably empowering initiative and if different companies across the continent could follow the same pattern there would be no stigma associated with the deaf, subsequently this would also motivate the rest of the staff to learn sign language to be able to communicate effectively within the company.

As we continue to raise awareness, we are also particularly proud of the effort that both Park Inn by Radisson Cape Town Newlands and Deaf SA have undertaken, and we are eager to see more possible partnerships and collaborations from other organisations soon.

As we approach the end of the International Month for the Deaf, take it upon yourself to learn sign language, read about it and continue to raise awareness from wherever you are

Should you wish to collaborate with DEAF SA or perhaps wish to learn more about their services, feel free to contact them on the details listed on their website (www.deafsa.co.za)

Services of DEAF SA include:

• Deaf awareness and outreach programmes.
• Early Intervention Programme:  Psycho-social support services to Deaf individual and their family including group therapy and life skills workshops.
• Facilitate job placement programmes for Deaf individuals.
• Advocacy and language support (interpretation of policies and procedures for deaf people in courts)

With our business case above, it demonstrates that businesses within the hospitality space function well, and even prosper, when giving the community that it surrounds hope and prosperity to function in the world of work.  Disability is referenced in various parts of the SDGs and specifically in parts related to education, growth and employment, inequality, accessibility of human settlements, as well as data collection and monitoring of the SDGs, for instance: 

Goal 4 on inclusive and equitable quality education and promotion of life-long learning opportunities for all focuses on eliminating gender disparities in education and ensuring equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities. In addition, the proposal calls for building and upgrading education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and also provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all. 

In Goal 8: to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, the international community aims to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value. 

Closely linked is Goal 10, which strives to reduce inequality within and among countries by empowering and promoting the social, economic and political inclusion of all, including persons with disabilities. 

Goal 11 would work to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and sustainable. To realise this goal, Member States are called upon to provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, such as persons with disabilities. In addition, the proposal calls for providing universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, particularly for persons with disabilities. 

Goal 17 stresses that in order to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development, the collection of data and monitoring and accountability of the SDGs are crucial. Member States are called upon to enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS), which would significantly increase the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data that is also disaggregated by disability. 

When incorporating talent practices within our businesses that both serve the Sustainable Development Goals and the community we are able to impact the SDG’s in a favourable fashion and our world we live in. 

Credit: Park Inn by Radisson Cape Town Newlands and Deaf SA Western Cape 

Join us in our purpose to create more sustainable extended stay accommodation in Africa & feel free to share your initiatives
with us.

Email us at info@myresidence.africa

We would love to hear from other properties on what you are doing so we can write and share your journey and help encourage others to become more and more sustainable.

The post A Case for Sustainable Development: Deaf Awareness appeared first on My Residence Africa.

Case Study 2 – BEYOND is Sustainability in Practice

Key to MyResidence.Africa’s sustainable initiatives of sharing Global Sustainable best practices within the extended stay industry sector, we had the pleasure of chatting to James Fry, Owner & Founder of BEYOND Aparthotels based in the United Kingdom. James has a tangible passion for sustainable business and has made sure, that he has gone  above and beyond to address their extended stay needs without leaving a mark for the future. BEYOND are setting a new precedent for sustainable business travel. They are the first & best of London’s fully sustainable extended stay self-serviced apartments.

In our interview James clearly noted, and I quote “We have stayed away from accreditation simply because I don’t believe it works.” He went on to say “Sustainability is part of our DNA, part of the culture of the business, it leads us into every decision we make.” He mentioned that in the future when people announce that they are going to build a green hotel, that his wish for a reply would be ‘Oh, are you going to be like BEYOND?”.

He confirmed that the majority of clients are still booking for location but are however quickly converted when the depth of sustainability initiatives are so evident, not to mention their response to the various health benefits derived by the VOC paint and filtered air, to name but a few. James has a passionate and refreshing view on sustainability, one that has inspired us and we aim to share this with our property partners in supporting them make visible strides in improving their sustainable development practices.

As James’ business is UK based we understand that he has been focusing on more of the green initiatives but we do feel that both green & social initiatives could be successfully introduced in Africa.

Some examples we feel our property partners could implement, are:

• Learning
  Educate your staff on sustainable development, exposing them to both green and social developments within the extended stay industry.

• No single-use plastic
  Refill cosmetic & cleaning products into their original containers by buying product in bulk. This will help eliminate single-use plastic.

• Recycle
  Separate the refuse and recycle glass, paper and plastic products that you are not able to re-use.

• No chemicals
  Use chemical free cleaning products. You’d be surprised at the number of suppliers in your area if you just Google ‘chemical free cleaning products’!

• Energy efficient
  Invest in low energy LED lightbulbs and low energy appliances, where possible.

• Go Green!
  Plant a vegetable or herb garden on your property.

Join us in our purpose to create more sustainable extended stay accommodation in Africa & feel free to share your initiatives with us.

Email us at info@myresidence.africa

We would love to hear from other properties on what you are doing so we can write and share your journey and help encourage others to become more and more sustainable.

The post A Case for Sustainable Development: BEYOND Aparthotels appeared first on My Residence Africa.

Case 1 – Hotel Verde

Sustainable Development is a large and looming topic that is gripping the Temporary Housing sector and as our Director René Stegmann has grown to realise, the topic also sets in a sense of paralysis which is not helping drive the topic and action towards authentic sustainable impact.

René is a shareholder of MyResidence.Africa, an agent with a supply chain of over 400 properties and 11 000 rooms on the continent of Africa. We believe in positive change and have taken certain steps to enforce our vision. MyResidence.Africa has a low impact on carbon emissions which is the most urgent aspect of sustainable development to tackle but this does not stop their actions to aim for a “climate positive” impact. In our own office building, we have a rain tank, solar panels, an edible vegetable garden and low energy motion-triggered lighting.  MyResidence knows that carbon reduction is only one element of the 17 sustainable development goals so their work in ernest towards the other 16 goals, continues. For this case we need to focus on how MyResidence can educate their large supply chain to join them in the journey of reduced carbon emissions (which essentially is tackling the Scope 3 emissions for more technical terminology).

The MyResidence team thought it best to demonstrate some of this through an interesting case study. Hoping to incentivise their property partners to consider elements that are easier to implement and less capital intensive.

We went to visit ‘Africa’s Greenest Hotel’, The Hotel Verde, based at the Cape Town International Airport, which has won multiple sustainability awards and retaining the title of design has sustainability at its core. Not only is the building sustainable, but green principles, processes and measures ensure all operations are eco-friendly and continually assessed for improvement. The hotel has a LEED certification for both their building and the operations, there are various globally recognised certifications for the hospitality sector and LEED is globally recognised standard, there are others such as the Green Star which is awarded by the Green Building Council of South Africa.

This hotel is unique structurally and in their business processes. They have actively been involved in “hearty” projects where they have shone the light on the social elements of sustainable development.

Hotel Verde was the first hotel in Africa to offer 100% offset carbon-neutral accommodation and conferencing. The foresight of the developer is clear as the hotel is built around a reed bed which boasts a magical, natural filtration feature, which is unique for a relatively industrial area.

What we want to reveal with this case is that there are a broad range of issues from a sustainable perspective and each of them important. We wish to motivate businesses and our property partners to prioritise the areas to focus on and develop. Each small step forward will create impact.

Here’s a brief overview of our sustainable features at the hotel and we are going to categorise them into Capital intensive features, Capital features, and less capital intensive.

Energy Efficiency

• LED low-watt lighting
• Sophisticated heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system to reduce energy consumption
• Renewable energy generation
• The boreholes in the hotel are used to pump water down below the earth’s surface in order to cool it and make for effective air-conditioning in the rooms.

Sustainable Design

• During design and construction, the project has followed the criteria of the Green Building Council of South Africa and is pursuing 5-star certification
• Regenerative drive elevators
• Responsibly sourced, recycled and eco-friendly furniture and products used where feasible

Water Efficiency

• Grey water recycling systems installed using a natural filtration system
• Natural swimming pool using aquatic plants to keep it clear
• Recycling greywater from showers for use in toilet cisterns

Waste

All waste sorted on site and, where possible, recycled

Green Conferencing

• Venues have separate bins for items that can be recycled
• Eco-friendly stationery, recycled paper, carbon-neutral printer
• Energy-efficient air-conditioning, lighting and technology
• Double glazing on all windows

Sustainable Operations

• Sustainable procurement – conscious purchasing decisions
• Recycling and waste management
• Vegetable Garden
• Hydroponic Garden for herbs used by the kitchen
• Bee farms
• Outdoor gym
• Art project – all art in the hotel is from students Grade 11/12 who were paid for their art as well as having their tertiary education paid for! Incredible.
• There is a wall inside the hotel which is a vertical garden and this assists with producing oxygen for the interior of the hotel
• The carbon dioxide air filters installed in the garage/basement of the hotel are there to reduce the carbon dioxide in the basement

Walking through the hotel I noticed other small initiatives that are truly reflective of a property who “walks the talk”.  They had a suitcase at the area of check out which had a note stating that if you wanted to leave items behind you could instead of carrying extra weight in your luggage.

The AVANTI Program- this is a program that Hotel Verde run internally on a monthly basis where they meet with staff members and they come up with initiatives/activities  that they can put in place to be more Green and sustainable and through that initiative they have seen staff creating sustainable methods and Implementing them such as switching off our lights and non-essential device as we leave our offices and using digital signatures as much as possible to decrease our paper usage and if they have to print they only use black and white and the econo mode.

The hotel also encourage their staff to utilize stairs as much as possible, and lifts are only to be used when carrying large loads such as Housekeeping Skips, and Guest room service trolleys or other operational equipment however Housekeeping is an exception to the rule.  This creates a sense of wellness and truly living the sustainable brand.

They also reward the guests through an in-house currency (Verdinos), where guests are rewarded for being involved in the hotels sustainable journey by making green choices, such as:

• Using the stairs instead of the lift
• Correctly sorting waste in rooms
• Reusing towels
• Not using additional pillows
• Using the power-generating equipment in the gym
• Taking a walk or jogging around the wetland

Ways to spend Verdinos:

• Off-set your accommodation cost
• Reduce your bill at the Nuovo Restaurant

We realise that sustainable development in this sector of Temporary Accommodation has both a long way to go and a lot of both investment to convert to becoming fully sustainable.  Our role is to share these sorts of cases on how some properties have managed to take the giant leaps of sustainable development to ensure they thrive as a business and to ensure their communities thrive too.

We would love to hear from other properties on what you are doing so we can write and share your journey and help encourage others to become more and more sustainable.

The post A Case for Sustainable Development: Hotel Verde appeared first on My Residence Africa.