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CEO Sustainability Series |Olivier Monceau, General Manager of Singapore & Malaysia Club Med

As part of the Sustainable Business initiative, the French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore presents a leadership interview series where we invite CEOs and key executives to discuss crucial management qualities that drive successful sustainable transformation

 

Question 1: What does sustainability mean to your organisation?

For over 60 years, sustainability has been a part of the Club Med DNA. Throughout our history, we’ve forged a strong belief: the moments of happiness we offer to our guests are to be shared, but at the expense of others or of nature. Hence, we ensure our developments reflect this: our resorts blending in harmoniously in their surroundings, being vigilant with energy efficiency, saving, treating and recycling our water, controlling the water treatment and recycling techniques.

 

Q2 : Could you please tell us more about “Happy to Care”?

‘Happy to Care’ is Club Med’s global sustainability program based on three pillars.

1. Preserving our exceptional natural heritage — We’re experts of our dream locations, conscious of its fragility. We’re committed to concrete eco-commitments such as the elimination of single-use plastic, combatting food waste and the promotion of animal welfare. Currently almost 80% of Club Med’s resorts are GREEN GLOBE certified, one of the most demanding international and independent sustainable tourism certification recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. There’s also frequent activities conducted to help our G.Ms discover and protect nature.

2. Pioneer in tourism, accelerator of local development & to share value locally — With the Club Med Foundation, charity is at the heart of your vacations. For example, with ‘Friends around the world’, children from local communities get to meet our G.Ms and learn from them. Our ‘Green Farmers’ scheme supports local farmers and agroecology and an on-going collaboration with ECPAT since 2005 supports our fight in preventing child sexual exploitation and abuse.

3. Offering more than just a job: it’s a life changing experience — More than a job, Club Med’s G.Os and G.Es live an experience that challenges and transforms them. Here, we offer experiences, for self-development and to forging bonds for life. A happy G.O and G.E makes happy G.Ms. 75% of jobs in our resorts are created locally and 100% of our Chefs de Village comes from internal promotion. At Club Med, we celebrate diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities – 46% of our management committees consists of women and we have G.O’s from at least 9 different nationalities in 90% of our resorts.

 

Q3: How can travel and tourism operators balance the need for profitability with the goal of sustainability?

Tourism business success is no longer measured by economics metrics. It goes hand in hand with sustainability. The balance is to drive the demands towards a more responsible offer. Today, the industry needs to contribute more than ever: to the preservation & respect of our exceptional heritage, to the local economic development & the sharing of the generated value with the host communities. This is what we continue to strive for at Club Med, while going further in our commitments. 

 

 

This interview was conducted with Olivier Monceau, General Manager of Singapore & Malaysia Club Med

March 2023| French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore

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