Dr Stroma Cole, Reader in the School of Architecture and Cities, spoke at the Mainstreaming Net Positive Hospitality Summit, organised by the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, on driving sustainability in tourism through equality and inclusion.
The event explored how to push positive change in the hospitality industry while keeping sustainability at the heart of operations. The organisation has recently launched a five-year strategy to support the growth of the sector sustainably and responsibly to support their goal of bringing the hospitality industry together to tackle worldwide environmental and social challenges. The conference saw multiple speakers share their expertise on how they have faced issues around sustainability in the hospitality sector and guests were able to network and create new connections.
Dr Cole’s talk was titled Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: Driving Sustainability in Tourism through Equality and Inclusion. Her presentation covered gender equality in the workplace and how to embed gender equality in company policy, such as addressing sexual harassment in the workplace or how to offer family friendly working conditions. She also discussed how the absence of women during company decision-making is stalling the advancement of women and preventing the exchange of crucial insight to pass between men and women.
She said: “There’s so much research that demonstrates that companies promoting gender diversity at all levels of their workforce outperform their competitors. When women are in leadership roles they contribute to enhanced decision-making processes, and they bring fresh perspectives that drive innovation and growth.
“Achieving gender equality, or working towards it, also helps attract and retain staff and makes companies more attractive to the next generation of the workforce. For example, Gen Z often looks for value alignment in their workplaces. So, promoting gender equality in the workplace is not only the right thing to do, it also improves companies’ financial bottom lines.”
Find out more about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at University of Westminster.
