The Council, through the Madrid Destino Tourism Department, has sponsored the collaboration between the NH Group and NGO Equoevento to donate safe surplus food from events organised at the Hotel NH Collection Eurobuilding to food kitchens. Implementing a meticulous system to collect, preserve and transport food will guarantee that surplus is donated appropriately. This initiative aims to put an end to food waste and help people with fewer resources.
Tourist sustainability
Madrid is a European leader in the field of event hosting. This puts the Spanish capital on a par with other European destinations and complies with the premises established for this issue by both the European Commission and the World Tourism Organisation, currently celebrating the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development in 2017. The goal is to promote a new model of tourist sustainability in three key areas: economic, sociocultural and environmental.
“Making Madrid a sustainable city is something we all have to work on: both the visiting tourists and the citizens of Madrid. Therefore, we have subscribed an institutional collaboration agreement to support this initiative by Equoevento, and hope it will set an example for other companies in the hotel and events industry in Madrid,” said Miguel Sanz, Tourism Director, Madrid Destino.
The donation of surplus food on behalf of Hotel NH Collection Eurobuilding, the first hotel in Spain to undertake this initiative, and the distribution of the surplus in food kitchens on behalf of Equoevento, endorsed by the Tourism Department of Madrid Destino, pools the resources of all three players: a leading stakeholder in the tourist industry, hotel group NH; an NGO, Equoevento; and Madrid Council, through the Madrid Destino Tourism Department. The initiative underlines the importance of inter-institutional collaboration to make Madrid a sustainable and generous city.