More than 40 delegates gathered at the Iris Ceramica Group’s London Gallery for a Hotel Management International Dining Club focused on sustainable hotel development and design.
A panel featuring Kempinski’s PJ Gilbert, architect Dexter Moren and Giovanni Manfredi of Aermont highlighted the viewpoints and priorities of operators, architects and developers.
While the hotel industry has long spoken of the importance of sustainability, it felt as though 2019 marked a significant uptick in the urgency and tone of discussion. From conference programmes to group-wide initiatives to off-the-record briefings, operators, developers and designers have grappled with issues of environmental responsibility and sustainable operations like never before.
This shift reflects changes within society at large, and the hotel business specifically, driven by a mixture of legislative pressure, corporate demands and guest expectations – all issues discussed at the latest Hotel Management International Dining Club, entitled “Developing Profitable Hotels with Sustainable Design for Unique Lifestyles”, and hosted at the Iris Ceramica Group’s London Gallery on 16 October 2019.
The panel discussion – moderated by event producer Monica Palmas – focused on the meaning and value of sustainable design within the context of shifting lifestyle and operational models, featuring input from three of the key vantage points: the owner-operator, the architect-designer and the investor-developer.
In her introductory remarks, Iris Ceramica Group’s CEO, Federica Minozzi, stressed the importance of bringing disparate constituencies under one roof. “We spend most of our time inside, and the spaces we inhabit directly impact the quality of our lives,” she began. “We should expect our architects and all people within the building community to be more careful, more attentive to the needs of people, whether that’s in terms of air quality, sustainable materials or the comfort of the spaces they create.”