One year on since the launch of its Palladium Cares programme, Palladium Hotel Group reflects on the leaps and bounds made through its corporate social responsibility initiatives. Launched in 2023, Palladium Cares encompasses a wide range of initiatives focused on three key pillars: Our People, Our Community, and Our Planet. These pillars aim to improve quality of life for both employees and surrounding communities.
Palladium Cares has already made significant progress in both Europe and the Americas within its first year, with a total of 486 CSR initiatives – including 156 environmental, and 190 internal and 140 external projects – being undertaken. To ensure the smooth function of all initiatives, CSR Cabinets have been established in all hotels, whose work is to monitor and analyse compliance with the plans. In addition, the company has introduced a senior Corporate Sustainability Committee.
Actions in Europe
Within Europe, activity has focused on the “4 Causes to Take Action” project, developed cyclically in four quarterly phases throughout the year, and created to tackle the issues of Childcare; Inequality; The Planet; and Care for the Elderly. The fourth phase (Care for the Elderly) has now reach completion, having seen the participation of over 200 volunteers from Palladium Hotel Group-managed hotels, collaborating with 16 NGOs to positively impact the lives of over 450 elderly individuals through initiatives such as nursing home and hospital visits.
Throughout the year, Palladium Cares has delivered numerous other noteworthy activities in Europe within the other focus areas, including professional training programmes, offering day passes at hotels, and composting and reforestation programmes. These efforts have seen the participation of over 700 volunteers in total across all four focus areas, collaborating with 58 NGOs for 2,427 dedicated hours to positively impact over 2,000 individuals. Specialised sustainability training has also been provided to all teams in Europe to underline the importance of a companywide sustainable outlook.
According to Gloria Juste, Corporate Social Responsibility Sr. Director of Palladium Hotel Group, “’4 Causes To Take Action’ has been a beautiful journey in which we have learned a lot from magnificent professionals and the collaborating NGOs. This was a year – the first of many – in which we wanted to identify the local societal needs in the destinations where Palladium Hotel Group operates. Where we believed we could contribute the most, with meaning, with commitment and real impact. This has all been thanks to our teams who have dedicated a lot of time and energy to these projects.”
Actions in the Americas and Caribbean
As part of ‘Our Planet’, one of three key pillars underpinning Palladium Cares, Palladium Hotel Group has collaborated with local organisations to reduce the brand’s environmental impact. At Grand Palladium Imbassaí Resort & Spa, Brazil, an agricultural production centre has been set up to provide schools, clients and other local stakeholders with environmental training and education on sustainable practices.
In Mexico, the innovative “Soap for Hope” project, which fulfills both social and environmental goals, has processed and recycled over 6,000 hotel soaps during its pilot phase, reducing solid soap waste and CO2 emissions. This project has also seen 1,932 soaps donated to those with very few resources, in order for them to be sold as a means of income.
As part of the ‘Our Community’ pillar of Palladium Cares, a new professional training and family support centre will open in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, in September 2024, representing a significant investment in the local community. Partnering with Fundación Origen, a local organisation, the centres will provide training, education, emotional and nutritional health services, and wider family support. In Jamaica, 5 training centres are already open. This year, 90 students have completed internships, including 20 at Palladium Hotel Group hotels. Additionally, plans are underway to allocate land for creating a new sustainable agricultural centre integrated within the community, reinforcing the group’s commitment to a circular economy.
In the Dominican Republic, the group has focused its efforts on support for the elderly. Here, 57 volunteers have already dedicated their time through initiatives such as nursing home visits with entertainment, benefiting over 312 individuals in collaboration with three NGOs.
The ‘Our People’ pillar of Palladium Cares has put employee wellbeing in the Americas and Caribbean into focus, through initiatives such as the creation nursing rooms, partnerships with daycare centres, and a Mexican university scholarship programme which offers employees’ children full funding for their university studies and accommodation.
According to Gloria Juste: “The company’s purpose in this area is to help reduce and close the inequality gap, offering support to those who face greater difficulties in developing professionally. In this way, we contribute to improving their prospects for stable and qualified employment, providing an opportunity to access the labour market successfully and, consequently, improving expectations for progress and the future.”