Tsogo Sun walked away with 5 of 9 possible category awards at the recent 2012 Imvelo Responsible Tourism Awards held at Montecasino in Johannesburg.

The Imvelo Responsible Tourism Awards programme is organised by the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (FEDHASA) in association with the National Department of Tourism. Imvelo awards tourism businesses that demonstrate sustained responsible practices in their operations. It thereby creates significant awareness of environmental management issues in the industry.
Tsogo Sun’s Riverside Sun took the Overall Winner award, and also won the energy management and water management categories in the Best Single Resource Management Programme awards.

Riverside Sun Resort has been on a drive to green its property since mid-2010. It has a gold rating from Heritage, the Environmental Management Company. It is focused on reducing the environmental impacts associated with its operations to ensure a sustainable future for the resort.

The Tsogo Sun group took the award for Most Empowered Tourism Business. This award is given to a group that has addressed the issues of empowerment and has contributed to a globally competitive, demographically representative tourism industry.

Among the initiatives undertaken by Tsogo Sun are: the Tsogo Sun Academy, created to transfer skills to employees from previously disadvantaged communities; the Tsogo Sun Book-a-Guesthouse entrepreneurial development programme that provides business support to women in the South African tourism industry; and procurement policies, which see R2.6 billion worth of goods and services purchased from black economically empowered businesses annually.

The InterContinental Sandton Towers and Sandton Sun Hotel together won the Best Overall Environmental Management System award. They share a common environmental management system.

All the hotels and resorts within the Tsogo Sun group fall under Tsogo Sun’s SunCares Environmental Management Programme. The programme is renowned for its ongoing commitment to effective environmental management.

‘The sustainability of our business practices and our communities is core to our business strategy and in this vital pillar of the SunCares programme, Tsogo Sun is a catalyst for change through partnerships that champion the wellbeing of our planet,’ says Dhrupal Amin, Group Commercial Executive, Tsogo Sun.

Graham Wood, Tsogo Sun managing director, said it was always a proud moment when any one of Tsogo Sun’s properties won an Imvelo Award.

‘These awards embody the principles behind our SunCares programme and our desire to hold responsible tourism in the highest regard. We believe that the more responsible we are, the more likely we are to extend awareness of the need to protect our global environment to every guest who comes through any one of Tsogo Sun’s doors,’ he commented.

Source: Tsogo Sun