Spa & Wellness MexiCaribe 36, Invierno 2019/20

SUSTAINABILITY: PART OF EVERY CONVERSATION
Finally, the focus has shifted towards sustainability - in spas, hotels and resorts, clothing
and fashion, architecture and design, wellness travel and tech.
Bill Bensley, of Bensley Architecture, has written a set of environmental hotel design
standards that can help the thousands of hotels due to be built to reduce their
impact on the environment. At one location, a bottling plant was set up to eliminate
single-use plastic bottles, the investment was paid back in just 1.2 years, making
good business sense and reducing plastic waste!
Dervla Louli of Compare Retreats surveyed their top 500 clients and found that
sustainability was the strongest motivating factor when booking. Jessica Jesse of
BudhaGirl presented her new concept, LANA, Look Around Not Ahead. As fashion is
cyclical, what can we reuse and repurpose? Noel Asmar explains, "When you buy purposedriven
fashion, you seldom throw it away." The waste caused by fashion is tremendous - just
in Hong Kong alone, 370 tonnes of textile waste goes into landfills each day.
It’s time to take sustainability seriously, let’s all consider this with each business decision we make!
WELLNESS IS BIG BUSINESS!
The sale of MindBody this year, back to a private investor for 1.9
billion USD (60% higher than its value on the NASDAQ), certainly
made the industry sit up and take notice. Susie Ellis interviewed
Rick Stollmeyer, asking him to share his insight into the success of
the online scheduling platform which caters to boutique wellness
and fitness studios and their clients across the globe. The fact that
investors are dedicating funds of this size to purchase innovative
wellness businesses shows that the future potential of the industry
is strong and expansion is expected to continue.
In a second interview on the main stage, Nancy Davis spoke
with Neil Jacobs about the acquisition of Six Senses Hotels and
Resorts, the wellness-focused brand developed largely by Neil
Jacobs and Anna Bjurstam. Sold for 300 million USD, the brand
included no physical property. Six Senses have achieved success
and recognition by maintaining their principles and ensuring their
brand partners align with their vision and mission. This includes
a clause in their contract which obliges partners adhere to their
sustainable practices in addition to dedicating half a percent of
total revenue toward sustainable initiatives.
PURPOSE AND PASSION
Does purpose make good business sense? Patricia Dwyer, The
Purpose Business, asks how many of us are inspired and to think
about our vision and our 'why' in business. In the years to come the
market will demand that companies adhere to socially responsible
guidelines - so start now and ensure you stay ahead. Do you need
to check or update your company vision? If it can be understood by
a 7-year-old, you’re on the right track, if not, keep working!
Frederick Chavalit Tsao, OCTAVE Institute, explained that purpose
and passion must be at the core of good business in the new era of
sustainable development and conscious capitalism. Governments
are now appointing happiness ministers and allocating wellness
budgets but without clearly defined goals and agendas can they
affect real change?
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