Carbon neutral, zero waste, and serving seafood only from responsible suppliers: Many boutique ecotourism destinations, especially those catering to small groups of high-end travelers, are achieving or achieving these sustainability goals. You can achieve something close to that, but what about resorts that have been around for decades? Are you a company that operates 97 facilities in 14 countries?
As Global Director of Sustainability at Iberostar Group, Megan Morikawa strives to prove that major travel companies can be better stewards of the planet. A Stanford University-educated marine biologist, he applies science to achieve these goals and more. For example, we are helping a privately held hospitality company build a coral lab and reduce kitchen waste using AI-powered trash cans.
In a nearly two-hour video conversation, Dr. Morikawa discusses pivoting his career from academia to the hospitality industry, the importance of collaboration across the travel industry, and providing destinations with sustainable tourism research and strategies. He spoke about his new role at the nonprofit Travel Foundation. And training.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Why did you decide to study coral reef mortality for your PhD?
Basically, the theme of my technical background is how we can use genetics and genomics techniques to better conserve species on Earth.
My PhD advisor, Stephen Palumbi, focused on genetics, genomics, and coral reefs. His whole proposal was this. “Can we find the world's hardiest corals, learn what makes them hardy, and use that to help predict climate change winners and losers? So managers can restore reefs? You'll have a better understanding of how, right?”
How did you end up traveling?
That was towards the end of my doctoral program. While at Stanford University, I met Gloria Fruxa Thienemann, Vice Chair and Chief Sustainability Officer at Iberostar. My advisor and I racked our brains and asked, “What kind of interest do Spanish hotel owners have in our research?”
From our first conversation, I could tell that she was genuinely interested in science. Gloria's passion for marine science has fueled much of what we do today.
I moved from academia to Iberostar because there are really passionate people who want to use the private sector to scale critical ecosystem solutions like coral reefs.
Iberostar currently has three coral research institutes and seven underwater farms in three countries. How did it start?
In my first year with the company, we built our first coral laboratory on site in the Dominican Republic. If we were doing this from an academic perspective, it would take four or five years.
Coral Lab is three functions in one. This is an outreach center where guests and others can stop by and see coral for the first time, for many. But it's also a gene bank. Corals in the Caribbean face many challenges, including the spread of disease and bleaching events. Having a gene bank is an important asset saver for preserving genetic diversity. Our third objective for her is to recreate coral bleaching. The lab has sophisticated technology that recreates heat waves in small tanks to stress individual corals and predict winners and losers, much like I did during my Ph.D. There is a system.
Iberostar has partnered to eliminate fossil fuels from hotels and build a waste management system in Brazil. How are these changes taking place?
The question is always how to scale sustainability. Scaling is an interesting combination of being able to talk about high-level strategy, such as business goals, and being able to translate that into practical actions for hotel directors to take.
Because it's not just our executive leadership. From our business operations to our procurement teams to our HR leaders, we all recognize the risks that climate change poses to our business. So the passion and enthusiasm to do something about it was there and we didn't need to summon it.
Please tell me about this trash can.
We do a lot of work against food waste and serve around 45 million meals a year.
In partnership with AI waste management company Winnow, we installed devices with AI-assisted cameras and scales in our kitchens. This allowed the chef to train the model based on camera footage during his first month. Over time, the system automatically registers what is being wasted.
Using that data, we can get feedback not only on carbon emissions losses, but also on economic losses. Finally, what are we throwing away? And how does that help inform how to produce food the next day?
What are the biggest challenges to Iberostar's sustainability goals?
Travel consists of various businesses in different sectors. And how it all fits together can be very difficult to understand, especially in the role we all play in protecting natural resources. We're a beachfront resort company, so that's very evident when you look at erosion and other impacts to that area. However, some of our tour providers may not think much about it on a daily basis.
As scientists, we know that discovering ways to do things that have never been done before requires the ability to absorb new material quickly and speak multiple languages. This doesn't mean language. What I mean is, I'm going to talk from a research perspective, a government perspective, and a business perspective. Many of the barriers to collaboration were the inability to communicate effectively with each other.
Are these changes visible to guests?
We've been somewhat bold in saying that we're proving that luxury hospitality experiences don't need single-use plastics. What I'm saying is that when you see a room without single-use plastic, it's hard to get rid of it. In many cases, you may need to delete the item first. But I think our operations team has thought critically about how to elegantly deliver an experience that is a better product. So this is probably the most concrete way you can see it.
What is the purpose of the Travel Foundation?
The Travel Foundation is a UK-based NGO that provides tourism research, strategy and support to the greatest benefit of all destinations around the world and to help local communities and environments thrive. . The role I took on was that of chair of the board of directors.
Their recent research paper looked at how to model pathways to net-zero emissions for aviation, transportation, and hotels. The Travel Foundation also supports destinations in developing management plans. California's Lake Tahoe is doing great work to help the region weather the new tourism boom and help residents figure out how to have a voice.
What steps can travelers take regarding changing human impact on the environment?
One of the best things tourists can do is incorporate mindfulness into their decision-making. It may sound really silly, but the more meaning you derive from the choices you make when consuming, the more likely you are to maximize the value you get from it and make it a memorable experience.
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