What is the Strategy pillar?
Strategy is the pillar of the HOLITRA Hospitality Sustainability System — built around a structured sustainability strategy framework that aligns ambitions with an organisation’s business objectives, governance structures, investment decisions and risk management.
Most hotels and hospitality groups don’t lack sustainability activity — they lack a shared sense of priority. Certifications get pursued opportunistically, reporting gets assembled department by department, and capital gets allocated without a clear view of what matters most for this property, this market, this ownership structure. A sustainability strategy framework is where that gets resolved.
HOLITRA’s approach combines a structured assessment of current position with sector-specific benchmarks from hospitality and tourism — not generic ESG frameworks retrofitted onto a hotel. The result is a prioritised, resourced roadmap that ownership, management and operations teams can execute against, and that the other five pillars of the system are built to support. See the full Hospitality Sustainability System →
What the sustainability strategy framework covers
01
Strategic priorities
Identifying which sustainability topics genuinely matter for this organisation, not a generic checklist.
02
Current position
An honest view of what already works and where the most significant gaps and risks sit.
03
Governance & ownership
Who owns sustainability priorities at leadership level, and how responsibility is distributed across departments.
04
Targets & KPIs
Measurable objectives and a realistic roadmap that make the strategy a management tool, not a list of intentions.
05
Operational connection
How priorities translate into purchasing, staffing, supplier and investment decisions.
01
Standards & Certifications
Strategy sets the priorities that certification requirements are built against.
02
Buildings
Capital planning should follow what the strategy prioritises, not the other way round.
03
Operations
Day-to-day practice executes what the strategy defines as important.
04
Reporting
Strategy defines what needs to be demonstrable to investors and certification bodies.
05
Continuous Improvement
Reviews whether the strategy’s priorities still hold as conditions change.
How Strategy connects to the system
Go deeper
Read the full explainer, or go straight to the service this pillar supports.
What a Hotel Sustainability Strategy Actually Looks Like
Sustainability Strategy (Service)
FAQs
FAQ – Strategy
What is the difference between a sustainability strategy and sustainability measures?
Measures are individual actions — a certification process, a supplier change, an energy audit. A strategy is the management framework that defines priorities, responsibilities and targets so those measures add up to a coherent direction rather than isolated activity.
Does a hotel need a strategy before pursuing certification?
It is strongly recommended, though not always a formal prerequisite. Certification bodies increasingly assess whether a credible management system exists behind individual measures — hotels with a strategy in place typically find that certification preparation reveals fewer fundamental gaps.
Who should own sustainability strategy at a hotel or hotel group?
Ownership typically sits with senior management or ownership, with clearly assigned operational responsibility across departments and, for groups, coordination across properties. HOLITRA facilitates this process directly, consistent with its boutique, owner-managed advisory model.
How does Strategy connect to the other pillars of the Hospitality Sustainability System?
Strategy sets the priorities and sequencing that Standards & Certifications, Buildings, Operations and Reporting are built against, and is itself kept current through Continuous Improvement — the pillar that reviews whether the strategy still fits changing conditions.
Next step: Turn this pillar into your strategy
Sustainability Strategy is the HOLITRA service that turns this pillar into a structured, resourced roadmap for your organisation.
Connect with us
Discuss how Strategy fits into your organisation’s sustainability system — from priorities to a working roadmap.