An old and wise adage says: You cannot look forward without looking inward. So true; real progress is not just moving ahead but must be blessed with an embedded conscience. We are now more than ever conscious that the world we inhabit and the space beyond it is not owned by us. We only manage. As managers we all carry a duty to administer well for our benefit and the benefit of our children and descendants. The key word is sustainability.
Corinthia stands high in this sphere of care, with its very healthy standards and eco-friendly beliefs and visions. This is one of the pillars of the Corinthia spirit and is entrenched also in the 2018 IHI yearly Report: “The Group is committed to reducing its carbon emissions and making its business more sustainable…The Group has developed policies and procedures for energy conservation and waste management to help it instruct employees and standardise approaches on the effective management and conservation of these resources. All operations report on their energy and water performance on a regular basis, with these being constantly reviewed throughout the year.”
Reducing energy consumption lowers operational costs and carbon footprint. To ensure even greater efficiency Corinthia undertakes continuous reviews and investments in energy efficient equipment and practices, including replacement of all halogen bulbs with LED lighting everywhere, constant monitoring of the air-conditioning, replacement of old chillers to ones with a much higher coefficient of performance (COP), replacement of old equipment, such as calorifiers, kitchen equipment, minibars, carrying out of energy audits, optimisation and general management of energy, installation of double glazed aluminium apertures, minimisation of paper usage for notifications to the guests, using in-house TV systems, paperless reservations, solar panels…The list is much longer. 
In 2018, the total energy consumption within the organisation was 411,810,692 Mega Joules- a substantial reduction of almost 2,687,264 Mega Joule from 2017. For better understanding,1 joule in everyday life represents approximately the heat required to raise the temperature of 1g of water by 0.24 °C. One Mega Joule is equivalent to 1,000,000 joules.
In 2018, consumption of water totaled 721,951m3, that is 1.2 per cent less than the amount used in 2017. This is a direct result of assiduous monitoring and metering of consumption, including more frequent inspections to immediately fix water leaks; more efficient equipment, etc.
Extract from Annual & Financial Statements 2018 of International Hotel Investments p.l.c.
Corinthia reduces and manages the waste that it produces, encouraging both concepts of recycling and up-cycling.The Company is making its waste monitoring methodologies more consistent to ensure that data is robust and comparable across the Company.
The Company will be introducing energy saving as a key result area (KRA) target in the Balance Score Card (Bonus scheme) of each entity to ensure that the overall environmental impact is being given its merited and due importance.
The use of better technology is evident. Some examples: Dive-easy entails cold-water soaking to clean highly carbonized kitchen items, thus reducing heating of water. IntelliDisk involves online monitoring of large dishwashing machines, thus reducing cost of water, energy and chemicals. Efficient house-keeping programmes are based on innovative microfiber technology and ergonomic cleaning tools, thus reducing chemicals and achieving better results in lesser time. Whisper technology enables cleaning machines to work with lowest noise possible and provide more effective shampooing of carpets.
Besides the obvious intelligent use of water and energy as an environment friendly solution, Insider Plus also obtained information on initiatives undertaken by each hotel. These are some examples:
*preferring products made of recyclable material (St Petersburg);
*elimination of all use of plastic straws and stirrers and removal of any plastics still used; moving away from LPG (diesel) fueled boiler system which had significant CO2 emissions to a gas powered boilers (Corinthia Palace);
*elimination of single-use plastics in all outlets and bars and replacing with biodegradable ones (Marina Hotel, Corinthia St George);
*stopping and replacing all Air Condition units using the ozone depleting R-22 gas with environment friendly units (Marina Hotel);
*Reverse Osmosis, which turns sea water into drinkable water, supplies all the hotel’s water demands, thus avoiding use of WSC supply or ground water (Marina Hotel); 
*Use of hybrid PV system, producing both hot water and generating power (Marina Hotel);
*stopping the operation/replacing all air conditioning units using the ozone depleting R-22 gas, with new eco friendly units. (Marina Hotel);
*acquired the Eco Certificate from Malta Tourism Authority, proving compliance with several changes and initiatives (Marina);
*starting elimination of plastic bottles and replacing with glass bottles (Marina Hotel, and Corinthia St George );
*use of more solar panels on roof (Corinthia St George);
*mugs for employees to reduce use of plastic and jablo cups (Corinthia St George);
*introducing electrical rental car spaces reserved in car park (Corinthia St George);
*Training of all employees to raise awareness and minimize our environment footprint. (Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands)
* Heavy investment in Polycarbonate drinkware, each of which can withstand over 1000 wash cycles. In just one summer season, 40,000 single-use plastic cups will be saved instead of going to waste. (Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands)
*Refuse the Straw Campaign led to banning of all plastic straws in May 2018. Paper Straws are provided upon request. (Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands)
*Carbon Reduction. All lamps around the resort are being changed to LED lighting fittings which are more energy efficient and also replacing the old type fluorescent tubes to the electronic version type of tubes at the Heart of house. (Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands)
*Reducing utility consumptions. All Hotel lights and Air-conditioning units are controlled and monitored through a building management system and diesel consumption is optimised by controlling and monitoring the temperature of the boilers.(Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands)
*Towel Re-Use initiative. Towel signs in all rooms encourage re-using of towel and support the ‘Just a drop’ campaign.(Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands)
*Public awareness. We participate in international events such as Earth Hour (Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands)
*Responsible Business Committee. The Responsible Business coordinator and Responsible business trainer hold meetings quarterly to discuss the results from current responsible business initiates and looks for new suggestions to constantly improve. (Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands)
*Minimizing Waste. Constantly working on the 3Rs, namely reduce , recycle and re-use. The Resort recycles all material possible, with an average of 450,600kgs of swill, 3,280ltrs of used oil, 125,470kgs of glass and 5,075kgs of cardboard each year. Promotion of waste separation in all rooms by having appropriate waste bins to encourage separation. Support for LIFE FOSTER project to reduce food waste in kitchens by getting familiar with scientifically-proven methods.(Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands)
*Meydan Hotels, operated by Corinthia, was recently rewarded by the Dubai Tourism for the best LED Retrofit Project and considered as super-efficient.
*Use of solar panels to heat bath and swimming pool water, and exclusive use of LED lamps (Corinthia Lisbon);
*Wide re-use of water system, saving 30% of consumption (Corinthia Lisbon);
*Establishing Viver Floresta Reforestation Project, which is a partnership with various other entities including schools to inform and educate younger members of society about the need to save the environment, plantation of different autochthonous species, enrichment of biodiversity especially fauna, promotion of recycling etc. This idea grew after the great fires of 2017 in Lisbon, which destroyed several hectacres of land. Some members of the families of Corinthia staff had lost their homes. The project started with the initiative of Corinthia Lisbon with the aim of giving back to the community through reforestation. Corinthia Lisbon sponsors reforestation and environmental training with employees and schools and carries out activities, such as forest cleaning, construction and installation of nest boxes, scare crows contents and many others. Readers of Insider Plus are invited to visit the website: http://www.viverfloresta.org/
One great thing about Corinthia is that it has a heart which beats and a spirit which cares.