RIU Hotels & Resorts is pursuing its commitment to hotel sustainability together with its partner company Preverisk Group (Gestión de Riesgos Ambientales S.L.), a company with more than 20 years of experience in the sector. Since 2015, this Mallorcan company has been responsible for providing RIU with consultancy services, sustainability training and internal audits of RIU hotels around the world. Preverisk Group carries out the relevant inspections and pre-audits, then the British certification body Travelife, which specialises in sustainability management for the tourist industry, steps in to officially audit the hotels.
This partnership with Preverisk Group represents a significant investment on the part of RIU Hotels in resources allocated to sustainability and corporate social responsibility. In 2018, pre-audits were carried out in 72 of the company’s hotels and, this year, that figure rises to 88 establishments where exhaustive work will be undertaken to achieve the sustainability goals set out in the Travelife certification.
For the CSR director of RIU Hotels, Catalina Alemany, Preverisk Group “is a perfect fit with our approach because we share such important values as humility and a passion for service.” Caterina Ramis, head of operations for corporate projects at Preverisk Group, says, “it is a pleasure to collaborate with the directors, delegates and, in particular, the corporate social responsibility team at RIU, because of their professionalism, willingness and commitment to sustainability.”
In terms of Preverisk Group’s training and consulting for RIU Hotels, in 2015 and 2016 the focus was on actions aimed at middle management roles in relation to environmental awareness and sustainability, as well as disseminating the chain’s policy, developing in-depth knowledge and a sense of belonging to the brand. In 2017 and 2018, 1,313 courses took place with 25,570 new participants who learned about the same topics as in previous years, but with new training in the Travelife programme and, in certain destinations, in the EPCAT code, which aims to prevent commercial sexual exploitation of children in tourism and travel.
This year the collaboration between RIU and Preverisk Group is even closer, as the latter has become the direct and operational spokesperson for RIU Hotels & Resorts in matters of sustainability. From this year, Preverisk serves several destinations simultaneously, which is a novel approach that streamlines the working time needed to achieve sustainability certificates. In addition, with this partnership RIU reinforces its training in sustainability, the ECPAT code and ongoing improvement, with the help of a specialist external company.
Preverisk Group has subsidiaries in Mexico, Dominican Republic and Turkey, and it currently operates in 18 countries and around 30 tourist destinations, with an international corporate team of 120 professionals, including consultants, managers and staff, as well as a portfolio of more than 500 clients. They have a permanent presence of professionals working in the key destinations of Spain, Cape Verde, Portugal, Egypt, Turkey, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Morocco, Mauritius and the United Kingdom. They also operate in Costa Rica, Aruba, the Bahamas, Jamaica and the USA, as well as other destinations. In 2019, Preverisk is expanding its operations map with RIU Hotels by carrying out audits and training in the Maldives, Morocco, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.