On Wednesday, May 31, 2023, Red Clay, a specialist hospitality and tourism consultancy practice, launched its sustainability and ESG tourism leadership webinar series. The company wanted to transform the tourism industry sustainably and integrate sustainability thinking into the industry.
The factors that affect design, investment, and financing decisions that ultimately determine what is built, the materials used, and how these materials contribute to the user experience and long-term economic, environmental, and social performance of the structures were examined in the first session on design, funding, and investment practices.
Principal Advisor at Red Clay and convener of the series, Dr Adun Okupe, explained the need to address some of the challenges in the multi-layered and multi-disciplinary nature of the industry and the role a sustainability mindset can play in tourism development.
Dr Okupe has worked on tourism strategies and master plans for several Nigerian states, including Lagos, Ekiti, and Edo. He has shared that investors increasingly require evidence of sustainability thinking in the type of tourism projects they fund.
Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani, the Chief Commercial Officer at Mixta Africa and a speaker at the event, explained the market trends for developments integrating living, working, and playing. Real estate developments increasingly include hospitality asset classes in their portfolios.
She shared that sustainability influences the viability of projects in terms of the physical structure and market performance.
Investors and infrastructure financiers are considering sustainability considerations and ESG metrics in the projects they fund, even as developing economies seek to address the challenge of building sustainable communities.
Dipo Adebo of DAA Architects, who recently worked at the Marriott Hotel, Ikeja, explained that for the international and regional hotel management brands, ESG and sustainability are requirements to meet global standards, including the design and materials used in hotel construction.
One challenge is the localisation of supply chains. Given the prohibitive costs of local manufacturing, a possible solution is for local manufacturers and construction workers to be upskilled and empowered to meet these standards while remaining competitive.
He highlighted the need for proper documentation, design documentation, planning approvals for buildings, structural integrity tests for building projects, and developers’ responsibility for the quality of materials and builders used.
He shared the need for regular inspections by key agencies to ensure the buildings are structurally sound in the wake of the recent collapse of the building in Lagos State.
Godson Ikiebey, a sustainability consultant and speaker at the webinar, highlighted the need for a comprehensive framework for sustainability reporting in the hospitality and tourism industry, together with the required capacity building and awareness creation, to ensure key stakeholders can work together towards a more sustainable future for Nigerians.
Overall, the hospitality, tourism and real estate industries are rapidly evolving. As investment and consumer trends change, innovative solutions will be needed to address the need for more sustainable communities.
“The next webinar in the series will look at cybersecurity and consumer protection and how ESG and sustainability thinking can address these security challenges for the hospitality and tourism industry,” Dr. Adun concluded.
