Hilton Worldwide announces its participation in the 2015 Sustainable Seafood Festival, organized by the World Wildlife Fund-China and the Marine Stewardship Council.
Nine Hilton Worldwide hotels across Beijing and Shanghai are supporting the festival, which brings together hotels, restaurants, retailers and suppliers to raise awareness and promote sustainable seafood options. This marks the largest number of hotels from a single hospitality company participating in the festival.
Participating Hilton Worldwide hotels in China will line up a series of special dining promotions at their restaurants, featuring sustainable seafood dishes, to raise awareness of responsible consumption among guests and members of the public. These menu items use only seafood items that have been certified by the MSC.
?As part of Hilton Worldwide?s global corporate responsibility strategy, Travel with Purpose, we embrace a company-wide commitment to responsible operations and to reduce our environmental impact,? says Bruce McKenzie, senior vice president, operations, Greater China & Mongolia, Hilton Worldwide. ?This festival presents a great opportunity for people to learn about the importance of making sustainable seafood choices while enjoying our chefs? exceptional culinary talents.?
Markus Schueller, vice president, food & beverage operations, Asia Pacific, says: ?We currently operate over 130 hotels in Asia Pacific and this provides us with a great platform to look at how we can adopt best practices in the area of food & beverage and refine existing operational processes in consideration of the longer-term impact of our operations.
?Following our ban on shark fin dishes last year, our collaboration with WWF through supporting the Sustainable Seafood Festival is a continuation of a journey towards doing the right thing, and we look forward to expanding this partnership beyond the existing countries of Singapore, Malaysia, China and Hong Kong.?
Last April, Hilton Worldwide implemented?a shark fin ban?across all restaurants and F&B facilities operated by its owned and managed hotels globally. This was followed by an announcement in May to partner?WWF?to evolve the hospitality company?s global business practices, reduce its impact on the environment and make the hospitality industry more sustainable.
Dr Lin Li, WWF China executive director of programmes, says: ?WWF works with Hilton Worldwide to improve its seafood sustainability to reduce the environmental footprint of its global operations. This is part of WWF?s global efforts to support the continued improvement of fisheries and seafood resources.
?With the efforts of businesses such as Hilton Worldwide, there is a great potential to improve the sustainability of economically and socially important sources of seafood around the world.?