Press Release
June 15, 2023
Driven by a sense of purpose to build a future where people and place enrich one another, Rosewood Hotel Group is proud to announce Rosewood Impacts, a groupwide roadmap for delivering positive impact on all its communities and the planet we call home. With deeper commitments to empowering people across the brand’s entire ecosystem and a sustainability approach that puts circular hospitality at the core of business operations, Rosewood Impacts is both a recognition of the group’s ongoing programs and a strategic roadmap for future efforts. With tangible goals in the fields of sustainability, employment, partnerships and more, the comprehensive roadmap champions consequential policies and programming under two distinct pillars: Rosewood Empowers and Rosewood Sustains.
“At Rosewood Hotel Group, we are wholly committed to rooting ourselves more deeply in every place we are in. With Rosewood Impacts, we are not only championing the exemplary efforts being made across our organization but setting new benchmarks for positive impact that will propel us forward to a more sustainable and equitable tomorrow,” says Sonia Cheng, Chief Executive Officer of Rosewood Hotel Group. “We are proud of the work that our group has accomplished over the last forty-plus years of operations, but firmly maintain that we must do more.”
Rosewood Empowers
Rosewood Empowers encapsulates the group’s belief that equal access to opportunity is the key to uplifting communities. To this end, Rosewood is dedicated to:
Through all Rosewood Empowers programs and initiatives, Rosewood’s A Sense of Place® philosophy ensures that the brand’s efforts speak to and support the communities and environments where each property sits. An exemplary case study is Rosewood Mayakoba’s work with Centro Educativo K’iin Beh, a non-profit school in the Riviera Maya, Mexico. With a mission to support not only the hotel employees who needed adequate schooling for their children but the larger community, the resort’s leaders raised resources required to reopen the school in 2017, after a number of challenges threatened its ongoing operations and forced it to temporarily shut its doors. Today, the school welcomes over 400 students, all of whom receive economic support for tuition and supplies through Rosewood Mayakoba’s scholarship program. The resort brings guests into the impact journey through fundraising and a special volunteer and donation program, “Padrino,” that ensures the continued development of the students. In Fall 2022, guests’ donations contributed to the development and launch of the center’s new High School, allowing local youth to continue their education.
In Asia, Rosewood Hong Kong’s commitment to the local community is further realized through the BluHouse, Rosewood Hotel Group’s first restaurant inspired by the concept of a business-with-purpose. BluHouse is committed to co-creating neighborhood resilience through donations, employment, and impactful experiences in support of underserved groups in Hong Kong. The restaurant has pledged 1% of revenue towards this mission, and leverages the group’s Opportunity Employment program to partner with NGOs to offer employment to refugees and ethnic minorities and close the opportunity gap.
The groupwide Opportunity Employment program is building a new pipeline of talent from underserved groups not just in Hong Kong, but across its global portfolio in 20 countries. Properties from London and Vienna to Sao Paulo and Phuket are reaching out to the most overlooked groups in their neighborhoods, including minorities, people with disabilities refugees and others, and hiring from them. A newly launched program, Rosewood Bridges, is about connecting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with internships at the group’s hotels. Starting with sending vocational students from the Hong Kong Vocational Training Council abroad for internships—an opportunity not typically available in vocational education—to partnering with local NGOs to give young people with autism a chance of a career at Rosewood Beijing or Guangzhou, the group is acting on its commitment to be a truly inclusive company.
Rosewood Sustains
Rosewood Sustains showcases a commitment to growing Rosewood’s lifestyle ecosystem responsibly and protecting the environment for future generations. From pursuing carbon neutrality, to engaging in regenerative practices, to driving the evolution of circular hospitality and eventually eliminating waste, the Group has set significant targets for environmental sustainability. These include:
An indisputable environmental steward, Rosewood São Paulo is the centerpoint of the Cidade Matarazzo Complex – the largest upcycling project of a century-old property in Brazil. Supported by a dedicated solar farm as well as collaborations with local government agencies, the hotel achieved its mission for 100% of its energy supply to be fully sustainable in early January 2023, less than a year after opening. This will amount to an estimated savings of 17.342 tons of CO2 emissions annually. Rosewood São Paulo also vows to run a waste management program where 100% of all solid and organic disposables will be recycled and reused, and the property houses a biodigester and glass crushing machine to minimize having to outsource these sustainable measures.
In The Bahamas, a nation of islands with 95% of its territory underwater, Rosewood Baha Mar is preserving the pristine marine environment off Nassau’s Cable Beach through its partnership with The Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation (BREEF) and educating the next generation of Bahamians and visitors on how to protect coral reefs, which are critical both for ecosystem preservation and for supporting local livelihoods dependent on fishing. Guests are invited to take a hands-on approach through Rosewood’s Citizen Science Program, where they can enjoy a snorkeling adventure with experienced ocean guides, with 100% of the proceeds going to BREEF. They can also adopt coral fragments to plant within the surrounding waters and volunteer for local beach clean-ups with the organization.
At the forthcoming Kona Village, A Rosewood Resort, opening on the Big Island of Hawai‘i this summer, the brand’s principles of circular hospitality, operational sustainability, and environmental stewardship come together in a way that ensures both the health of the environment and the longevity of culture. A commitment to the environment is evident throughout the entire property, which has been designed for LEED Gold Certification and is powered by 100% solar energy, while an on-site cultural center provides both visitors and locals with perspective into the rich natural and cultural significance of the surroundings.
Rosewood Sustains is being championed by the group’s outstanding restaurants as well. Caruso’s at Rosewood Miramar Beach has truly put sustainability at its core and been recognized for it through the award of a Green Michelin star. Helmed by Chef Massimo, who has built strong relationships with surrounding farms, the restaurant sources most of its ingredients from a 5–6-mile radius around the resort and is committed to giving all food waste to farmers to use as compost. Multiple properties including Rosewood Hong Kong, Rosewood Bermuda and Rosewood London have partnered with EcoSpirits, a low-carbon, low-waste spirits distributor, to champion circularity in the food and beverage space.
“Both Rosewood Empowers and Rosewood Sustains have been designed to work in harmony together,” Mehvesh Mumtaz Ahmed, Vice President of Social Impact for Rosewood Hotel Group, explains. “We are committed to doing business in a way that drives the hospitality industry’s evolution towards circularity and environmental conservation while simultaneously uplifting all our communities.” Expressing excitement about the group’s ambitions, she adds, “our actions today have a direct impact on the long-term viability of the planet. Being part of a company that’s making it clear that our efforts can no longer be secondary but must sit at the forefront of everything we do gives my hope for our collective future.”
Rosewood Impacts represents the overall principle that true impact is the most powerful when the social and environmental are considered holistically. Through this framework, the brand is able to measure its success and continue to set ambitious benchmarks. Rosewood is proud of the advancements the entire group has made towards the Rosewood Impacts mission, but recognizes that more must be done, and is evolving every part of the business and operational strategies with this in mind. With Rosewood Impacts at the leading edge, Rosewood Hotel Group looks to the future with optimism.
