Hans Pfister is currently in Singapore where he just gave the following acceptance speech on behalf of Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality, winner of the Conde Nast World Savers Award 2010 for Small Hotel Chains. Hans also spoke as a panelist on the topic: Preserve and Protect, where his focus was demonstrating that not only can going green coexist with luxury, but going green is the new luxury.
“Thank you, Conde Nast, for this award and all of us at Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality are very honored to be recognized in this way. We have been doing sustainable hotel management for over 15 years and are happy that today we are getting recognition for our work.
A special thanks to our visionaries that many years ago started to make Costa Rica the leader in sustainability and ecotourism. We were the first country in the world to abolish our military, the second country in the world to have mandatory education; 26% of our territory is under National Park protection and 95% of our electricity is produced with renewable resources. No wonder that the Happy Country Index declared Costa Rica the happiest country in the world.
I truly do believe that there is a connection between sustainability and happiness. Why not make sure that there is more sustainability and therefore happiness in the world? When you go back to work after this conference I ask you to do two things:
- Engage your guests in sustainability. Share your success, your challenges and make sustainability part of their experience
- Stand up to purveyors that do not adhere to sustainable business practices; you have the power to make them change.
Go back to work and make sure that the hospitality industry that we are all so passionate about will lead the way in sustainability. This is not a trend, this is the right thing to do. Sustainability is here to stay. I invite all of you to make a difference.”
