Case Study- Hilton
Collaboration with Seafood Legacy Leads to Sustainable Seafood Sourcing Success - Hilton
Hilton
Regional Director, Supply Management, Japan, Korea, and Micronesia（Currently Regional Senior Director, Supply Management, Japan, Korea and Micronesia）
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Promoting Sustainability as a Global Hospitality Industry Leader
Hilton is a leading global hospitality company operating hotels in 123 countries and territories. In 2011, Hilton launched its corporate responsibility strategy “Travel with Purpose.” It was redefined with a new goal for 2030 in 2018. Hilton is committed to double its social impact investment and halve its environmental footprint by 2030.
With the setting of these new goals, responsible sourcing was also positioned as an important factor. Specific targets were set, one of which was sourcing at least 25% of our procured seafood from the MSC and the ASC certified by December 2022.”
Learning from Practical and Rational Training
We began to contact organizations and companies with expertise in sustainable seafood to determine the best way to achieve our goal, and that is when we came across Seafood Legacy. We learned that Seafood Legacy’s sustainable seafood workshops, and we requested them to conduct seminars for our Team Members.
Since 2016, Hilton JKM region has been holding an annual “F&B Masters,” an internal food and beverage competition for Team Members from hotels in Japan and Korea. One of the programs is to educate Team Members through “Sustainable Seafood Seminar.” For the first time in 2020, Seafood Legacy took charge of the Sustainable Seafood Seminar for the F&B Masters.
The seminar was incredibly beneficial for our operations. Their lectures were practical and focused on feasible tips of sustainable seafood sourcing, while also highlighting the importance of theoretical aspects. Seafood Legacy's deep understanding of the seafood industry, from the fisheries to the seafood companies and end-users, was impressive. The seminar equipped us with essential tips on how to procure sustainable seafood.
This seminar led to a collaboration between Hilton JKM region, Seafood Legacy, and UMITO Partners, the organization that promotes the sustainability of the ocean and the fishery. In October 2021, Hilton, Seafood Legacy, and UMITO Partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding, forming strategic partnership, to improve the sustainability of the seafood production sites and the marine environment throughout Japan by promoting and achieving sustainable seafood sourcing goals in the region.
Analyze and Prioritize Current Status and Challenges with Strategic Manner
Seafood Legacy helped us in multiple ways. First, they introduced us to seafood companies that we did not have connections and provided information on what kind of certified seafood products we could procure in the future. They also analyzed to achieve our goal of “Sourcing at least 25% of the MSC and ASC certified seafood.”
Hilton manages the seafood products purchased data. Seafood Legacy looked at this data and analyzed it in detail and identified solutions such as increasing transactions with suppliers that provide MSC/ASC certified products, reviewing the species of seafood sourcing to purchase, and helping us prioritize the issues to be resolved.
Creating a roadmap that addresses issues to be tackled while promoting our priority products, partnerships with existing suppliers who have been increasing their certified seafood products, and visualizing the tasks ahead was also beneficial in achieving our sustainable seafood sourcing goal.
Introduction and Follow-up with Suppliers
Although there are some challenges in Japan, such as only a few suppliers outside of the Kanto region handle certified products, and those tend to be expensive, Seafood Legacy recognizes our needs and connected us with appropriate suppliers. They also supported us in our negotiations with the suppliers, which was very helpful. Such efforts contributed to the increase in the sourcing of certified products.
In December 2022, we achieved 25.9% of our seafood sourcing be MSC/ASC certified products.
The invaluable assistance of Seafood Legacy made achieving our objective possible. Their support was crucial in our success. The hotel Team Members’ awareness and proactivity have been significantly boosted by accomplishing the target of obtaining 25.9% of MSC and ASC-certified seafood products in procurement. It seems that they have also gained confidence, and no one showed concern about setting higher goals.
We look forward to continuing to work closely with Seafood Legacy to achieve our higher goals.
Travel with Purpose
Travel with Purpose | Environmental, Social and Governance at Hilton
Hilton Promotes Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy in Asia-Pacific “Travel with Purpose”
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000094.000033161.html (in Japanese)
Hilton, UMITO Partners, and Seafood Legacy Sign MoU on Collaborative Partnership
https://seafoodlegacy.com/news/20211028 (in Japanese)
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