So, good morning and afternoon, everyone again, and welcome to today's Circular Economy and Tourism Webinar. This is the 6th session of the Circular Economy and Private Sector Development Webinar Learning Series. And the webinar is co-hosted with our tourism for Development Webinar series. Um, and this aims to share ideas to help accelerate the shift in the tourism sector from crisis to sustainability. So we've got a great lineup of speakers here today to help us move from linear to circular thinking, um, and that's our challenge for you today. So, To make sure everyone can hear well, we've muted all the non-speaking participants. To make sure we get to your questions, please use the chat feature. We'll monitor this throughout the webinar and direct questions to the moderator, uh, for the Q&A portion at the end. This webinar will be recorded. Copies of the PPT will also be shared um with all those who are SVP. So no need to take screenshots. Um, now, without further ado, I'm very pleased to hand over to Martha Lacetti, our Practice Manager for Markets and Technology at the World Bank Group, and the host of this morning's webinar to introduce the session. Martha, over to you. Many thanks Luis and welcome everybody. Good morning. Good afternoon. Indeed, uh, we are very happy to have all of you at the 6th session of the circular Economy learning series. This session today is focused on the tourism sector. For those who have attended, we are looking through different. Sense of how circular economy can be improved across sectors. We are really grateful for this session for the support of our partners, the Competitive Industries and Innovation Program, Rob Blue, the Korean World Bank Group Partnership Facility, and of course the tourism for Development Learning series. Tourism is one of the largest service sectors in the world. As well as providing jobs, however, it also responsible for a large scale impacts on our environment, particularly our coastlines and oceans where most of the tourism activity takes place. In this succession we will, we will look into how new and circular business models can transform the way tourism operates, enabling greater sustainability, improved profits, and higher resilience, particularly in coastal and marine environments. This webinar is also timely given the events of 2020 which have brought the tourism sector to a standstill, as you know or maybe aware of other seminars that we have, uh, uh, we have conducted, particularly in the tourism sector. The WTC and the OECD projected 120 million jobs losses and 60 to 80% decline in the global tourism economy in 2010. The COVID-19 related tourism pause is an opportunity for all of us and all of the stakeholders to not only look for improved efficiencies but also try to rethink, refocus, and reimagine their existing and most often I would say linear business models and apply the circular economy as a framework for guiding a sustainable and resilient recovery of the travel and the tourism industry. There are a few examples of how circular value creation and related business models that are uh that are already being implemented and potentially have transformational effects across value chains in the tourism sector. Some of them could be the waste management, hotels, uh, uh, what other may sell used textiles and linens, other restaurants that sell food waste, grease for their drainage, ecodesign, which is applicable to both furniture and any related. The products and devices such as refurbishing of hotels and new constructions, we manufacture products, uh, that are use of equipment, furniture, cutlery, which also, uh, can happen across in hotels and restaurants, collaborative consumption through digital platforms matching consumers in temporary need of a specific uh object and willing to lend it, uh, such as watering local campers, tents, and noise vehicles, bicycles in the same way as other, um. And non-use uh assets that they might have bio-based materials supplying new forms of sustainable packaging and bioenergy as a means, uh, reduce problematic materials that have lower market value. So these are a few of the examples, uh, that and potentially we look forward to hear more, uh, from the speakers today, uh, in how we can actually incorporate in, in both, um, in developed and and and less developed economies. In a way, circular economy is a call for a paradigm shift designed to be restorative and regenerative. Today we have an excellent lineup of speakers from both the private sector and public sector who will be reflecting on these topics. This webinar brings together policymakers and leading private sector stakeholders to discuss this. Transition to a circular business model and how in practice the tourism sector can be built a more circular economy tourism system for the future we hope that you enjoy the session and thank you very much for joining us today back to you looking forward to the discussion thank you very much to all. Thank you so much, Martha. Um, and now I'd like to turn to our topic introducer for today, who's Virginia Fernandez Trapa, Program Officer at the, uh, UNWTO, the World Tourism Organization. Virginia, uh, open, over to you. Thank you, Luis. Uh, thank you, Martha, for the introduction. Uh, good morning and good afternoon to you all. Uh, I'd like to start by expressing our gratitude to the World Bank Group for the invitation to join this learning series on circular economy and private sector development and also to thank all the participants for their interest in this important topic. During this 10 minute presentation, I will provide a brief introduction on the opportunities that a circular economy can bring to tourism, the status quo, and some recommendations for stakeholders to take action. Next slide, please. It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to frame the discussion with the One Planet Vision for a responsible recovery from COVID-19. The vision reflects the collective views of the members of the Sustainable Tourism Program of the One Planet Network, which is an implementation mechanism for SDG 12 on sustainable consumption consumption and production. The visual, vision calls for a recovery of tourism from COVID-19 which is anchored on sustainability and uh supports the transformation of the sector to better balance the needs of people, planet, and, and prosperity. And one of the lines of action recommended in this vision is the circular economy. Next slide, please. Before the COVID pandemic, the circular economy was being increasingly discussed as a strategic approach for the tourism sector, notably from the point of view of minimizing its environmental impacts, including waste and pollution as well as CO2 emissions. Uh, given the potential of the circular economy to decouple growth from resource use, uh, currently, as the sector is facing its biggest crisis as one of the hardest hit sectors, uh, by the pandemic, the discussion on circular economy is also emphasizing the capacity of a circular economy to provide societal benefits and build resilience. So for tourism businesses, the circular economy can bring competitiveness, uh, not only in connection with opportunities for innovation, differentiation, and the diversification of, um, income streams, but also as the trend is for government support, shareholders and lenders to invest in companies with strict ESG policies. This not only affects the cost of capital of companies in the short term, but can also be critical for their survival when competing for funding in the long term. The circular economy allows uh businesses to take responsibility for the impacts of their operations while creating competitive advantages in the long term. For tourism destinations, the circular economy offers the opportunity to enhance the sustainable development impacts of tourism, generating well-being for the local population. Through the creation of new jobs, mm, through more inclusive social, uh, local value chains and thus create a virtuous circle between businesses and territories. Integrating circular economy in tourism policies can contribute to a better, uh, positioning of tourism destinations, attracting investors and entrepreneurs and tourists as well as recent perception surveys point at an increasing demand for sustainable tourism. And for tourists, the circular economy brings an opportunity to leave a positive footprint, to travel with purpose, and can lead to multiplier effects when it comes to the transformation of the whole tourism ecosystem through behavior change. Now, uh, looking at the bigger picture, as you see on the slide, the circular economy can contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and it is also uh strategic to tackle the three major challenges of pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change. When it comes to climate, we all know the scaling up of a of action is remarkable. The need for scaling up, and according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, uh, relying solely on energy efficiency and switching to renewables will only address 55% of greenhouse gas emissions, global greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, by adopting circular practices, uh, the remaining 45% of global Greenhouse gas emissions can be tackled. As of December 2019, CO2 emissions from tourism were forecast to increase at least by 25% by 2030 and therefore further advancing resource efficiency and integrating circularity in the tourism value chain represent an opportunity for the tourism sector to stay aligned with international goals. Next, please. Um, the integration of, uh, circular economy principles and practices in tourism is in its initial stages, uh, given that tourism is trade in services and the concept of a circular economy is about materials. Nevertheless, the extensive and transversal value chain of tourism offers numerous opportunities to think how can we make Longer, better, and more circular use of the materials and products that we utilize to deliver our service, creating value and partnerships and bringing land, landfill waste as close to zero as possible. I'd like to acknowledge the work of those researchers who have embarked on developing the first publications approaching the topic of uh circular economy and tourism. And at the same time, I'd like to take the opportunity to encourage further research in this field. Next, please. When it comes to policies and strategies, for the time being, the majority of the national tourism policies are still not addressing the opportunities of a circular economy, except for some exceptions. The uh National Tourism strategy of Portugal released in 2017 was the first strategy that we found, making a brief reference to the circular economy, and we will be learning more about this development later as uh Sergio is among the panelists. The most recent one we have seen is the National Sustainable Tourism Policy of Colombia which was adopted last December, making a strong connection between tourism and the circular economy. Please note that the examples on this slide are not exhaustive. Um, in parallel, more countries are developing circular economy strategies where tourism is included as a priority sector, for instance, Slovenia or Spain. It would be essential for policymakers to ensure that the necessary enabling conditions and policy instruments are in place for tourism operations to become more circular. Next, please. So, it is clear that we need policies and we need research, but what can the private sector do? This slide shows 3 recommendations provided by the One Planet uh Vision. Can, I think it's taking a little bit of time to load for this slide. Uh, anyway, namely, these three recommendations shown in the vision are a shift towards, uh, circularity of plastics, the prioritization of sustainable food approaches, and investing in, in transforming tourism value chains. So I will take each one in turn. Next, please. Uh, for the plastics, we identified that addressing plastic waste and pollution can be a catalyzer of circularity in tourism and therefore UNWTO is supporting the shift towards a circular economy of plastics through the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative. This initiative has the objective to reduce marine litter and plastic pollution by tackling plastics at the source to preserve the attractiveness of destinations and to trigger multi-stakeholder pre-competitive collaboration on topics such as waste management at destination level. UNWTO is leading the initiative together with UNEP and in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Uh, all types of stakeholders, uh, can become signatories. I better start, who's, for example, today represented in the panel, is already a signatory. Next, please. Uh, as a second entry point, um, we could highlight sustainable food approaches in tourism for circularity as the sector can take effective action on sustainable procurement, on sustainable menus, and food waste and loss reduction and management. A good example is the initiative led by the municipality of Machu Picchu in Peru, in collaboration with Its partners, which consists of the recovery of food waste from hotels and restaurants and its transformation into biochar in a local paralysis plant. The biochar is a powerful fertilizer which is then being distributed to the local producers, reducing their costs as less fertilizers have to be purchased while enhancing the capacity of the soil to absorb carbon. The cooking oil, for example, which before ended up in the Vilcanota River is now being transformed into biofuel, which is used to heat uh some of the hotels and at the same time mixed with uh diesel in the case of uh the vehicles. And lastly, the glycerin uh resulting from the process of developing the biofuel is being used to, to clean the streets. Um, thirdly, supporting the integration of, uh, circular economy processes, uh, in tourism can promote innovation, the creation of sustainable business models, added value, and local economic development. Circular economy processes, so the R's that you see on the slide can reduce economic leakages in the tourism value chain as well as waste and pollution as they contribute to keep materials in circulation. We can find materials subject for circularity in every stage of the tourism value chain and therefore, these processes help organizations um leave the comfort zone and move beyond resource efficiency towards circularity, developing a greater connection with the environment in which they operate. When it comes to business models, uh, the most commonly used classification is the one proposed by Accenture. Which includes 5 business models, uh, as shown. These models are built on one or more of the previous processes and are also being applied in tourism. Uh, Martha already mentioned, uh, a number of examples in her introduction. Uh, the panel will be sharing more examples of circular business models and solutions being applied in tourism. And then, next slide to conclude, please, um, I wanted to reiterate that tourism is a service and therefore we will face some limitations in the integration of circularity, but at the same time, we can benefit from the knowledge being generated in other sectors. Which could be applicable in different parts of the truth and value chain. So there's no master plan, but we are rather facing a constant learning exercise and therefore, we would like to encourage all of you to join us in defining our common vision, uh, collectively. The transition towards uh more circular tourism requires changes throughout the value chain, including product design, new business and market models, new ways of turning waste into a resource, and changes to consumer behavior. So in summary, the transition leads us to collaborate, rethink, regenerate, and inspire, collaborate to Redefine the relations between suppliers and clients and relations between business partners so that the value propositions beyond financial value can be identified. Rethink, be efficient so that we are efficient in the way that we manage resources and make sure to go beyond pure resource efficiency, finding ways to create a virtuous circle. Their destination and always measuring progress, regenerate through our procurement choices, through innovation, nature-based solutions, and the use of technology and inspire by communicating progress in a transparent way and engaging tourists, making circularity part of their experience with storytelling and fostering local satisfaction with tourism. Um, this is all from my side, as I'm sure that, uh, the audience is now eager to learn about the experiences of the panelists. I, of course, remain at your disposition, uh, and, uh, look forward to collaborating to make tourism more circular, sustainable, and resilient. Charlie, I'm, I'm handing over to you for, for the panel now. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Virginia. I hope you can all see me and thank you for setting the stage, Virginia. Good morning, good afternoon to everybody. My name is Charlie Arden Clark. I'm head of the One Planet Network Secretariat uh at UN Environment Program. I'm going to be moderating, moderating today's session, and I thank my World Bank colleagues for inviting me to do so. In this session we're going to learn about existing circular economy solutions being implemented by leading government and industry stakeholders. And we're going to explore some of the new business models and changes in value chains and capacities which enable value creation in the tourism industry. Which also enables this sector to shift towards greater circularity and sustainability. Uh, we have a, a number of exciting speakers here today, um, and these are as follows. So, we have Sergio Guerrero, who is senior director of Tourism de Portugal. Sergio. Hello, everyone. Thank you for inviting us. It's a pleasure to be here. Looking forward. We also have Jenna Jambeck, who is co-leader of the Source to Sea Plastics Initiative at National Geographic magazine in the US. Hello, hello, everyone. Good to see you today. We have Karen Strand, who is vice president of expeditions at Hurtigruten. Hello everyone. Very nice to be participating in this, and thank you for having me. We have Megan Morikawa, who is Director of sustainability at IberoStar. Good morning. Good afternoon, everyone. Looking forward to the discussion. And finally, we have Kevin, who is co-founder of Winnow. Hi everyone, thanks for joining and glad to be here with you today. So thank you all for being here and thank you all to our participants for joining. um. So, as noted by Virginia in her presentation, if we are going to futureproof travel and the tourism industry and make it more resilient with new and circular business models. Uh, these are what are required to change tourism and the way it operates. Virginia has shared a few country examples of circular economy strategies linked to the tourism sector, and now I want to turn to our panelists one by one. We will be ending this with a question and answer session. So, first, I will start with Sergio Guerrero, senior director at Tourism Portugal. Sergio Among other countries, Portugal has taken the lead in developing a circular economy action plan integrating all sectors such as tourism. Can you tell us what are some of the chal what are some of the reasons why Portugal has chosen this path and what have been some of the challenges? To, uh, move on to it and the lessons learned. Well, thank you, Charles. Uh, as Virginia stated, uh, yes, Portugal was, was the first one to, to launch a strategy based on the principles of sustainability and more than just based on the principles of sustainability. We, we're committed to, to that. I think that's the first Uh, note that I would like to put on this commitment. I think this is a matter of commitment, not only marketing or, or, or putting on, on the table. And we did it. Why? Because we believe that tourism has a role to play in terms of, uh, promoting, um, a sustainable activity, uh, a sustainable economic activity. Throughout the country. And that's what basically we try to do. We tried to use tourism to, to, to tackle some of our issues connected to seasonality, to connect it to some concentration of, of, uh, of tourism flows in some parts of the, of the country. So basically, we will, we would like, we will see tourism and we want to affirm tourism as a hub for, for economic. Social and environmental development throughout all the, the, the territory and at the same time, adding value as, as Virginia put it, we see that this strategy adds value to Portugal as a brand. And we aim to be one of the most sustainable destinations in, in the world in the next 10 years. Um, so basically, what we, we aim with this is to, uh, to foster our development and building a cohesive territory, uh, which is innovative, which is competitive, and which is basically values work, values that are. Or in various, various environments. So sustainability is actually the DNA of our, of our strategy. And as I said, we've committed to specific goals to achieve in 2027, both in, in, in, in the three pillars of sustainability. So we have uh economic uh goals to achieve in 2027, but I think that's no news. What we've also did, we committed to social, Uh, measures connected to qualifications, to employment, and to seasonality, and at the same time, we have goals in terms of, uh, of environmental, uh, issues that we wanna, we wanna put on the table connected to waste energy and water management. So, but more than having a strategy, that's, I think that was the first pillar, and I think we did it in a, in a, in a good way, uh, being, building a participative and, and a shared strategy. But most of all, it's important to put it on the, on, on, on the field and, and, and make it happen. So we've, we've launched several initiatives and In that, in that field, we've created a program to foster development in the, in the less developed regions. We've created under that program, dedicated lines of funding to support projects uh of sustainability, and most of them also connected to impact. So generating and transforming um the, the point and also an agenda of raising awareness initiatives to Put on board all the private sector in order to, uh, to change, uh, to, to the next level and to become more, more, more sustainable and more environmentally friendly. We also launched, connected with our Ministry of Environment, global agenda, specific agenda on circular economy. Including, um, training, um, sessions on reducing the use of plastics. We recently joined the UNWTO, um, Global tourism plastics initiatives. We're planning to design guides to on best practices to support our industry to, to work on. We are now finalizing the program that we, um, We call re-educate. So the, and the aim here is to re-educate the tourism workforce to deal with, uh, with energy, water, and, and waste management, uh, issues, but also food waste, uh, in, in restaurants and food is one of our biggest assets in the country and it's, it's fundamental. But we also believe that the state has also another role to play, which is a legislative and normative. So basically, what we did, And we are keeping improving is changing and um putting into legis legislation and also um the, the criteria for, for supporting investment, we put there specific criteria connected to sustainability as um as uh a move to, to go forward. Now, Joe, may I, may I interrupt you? May I ask you to talk a little bit about the, the critical partnership between government and the private sector, which enables you to do this. I was, I was just moving to give you one precise example of one, I would say flagship program that we've launched. We, we call, it's revive program and Revive program is basically a, uh, uh, a project that aims to promote the, the process of rehabilitation and valorization and vacant public properties that we had throughout the country. And some of them were, were in, in, in bad conditions. And basically what we did here, we The, the state created the idea. It was, first of all, a government initiative in trying to identify which assets would be available, uh, and in which conditions. And then we've invited the private sector in in using those, um, those assets and transforming it to, uh, the economic activity that has been, I would say, a very important, uh, process to feed our strategy in terms of diversifying the offer. And until now, for example, we had, uh, until yesterday, actually, we've launched 23 tenders of, of monuments and, and, and real estate throughout the, the country, and two of them are actually open in, in less developed regions. So by this, we are creating and we're putting into action, this, this vision of, of transforming the sector and reusing instead of building something new. So I think it's It is, uh, it is something that we did, I would say on a daily basis with the private sector and worked quite well and I think it's, uh, it's something I would like to, to share also. Thank you. That's great, Sergio, thanks, and I think that's a really nice example of using redundant infrastructure and re-valorizing it. It's very Resource efficient way of going things about it as well as a very good way of revitalizing parts of the country's economy and contributing to social objectives. So, could I now turn to Jenna, please, Jenna Jamback, who is co-lead of the Source to Sea Plastics initiatives. Um. So Jenna, Sergio was just discussing some of the challenges faced when fostering circularity in the tourism sector in coastal destinations. Would you be able to give us a couple of examples of where current circular solutions are being implemented to eliminate waste which is currently reaching the oceans and seas? Could you tell us a little bit about how this is being done and what are the challenges, particularly in a developing country context? Sure, um, thanks, Charles, and I think, you know, you heard at the start, ah, Virginia say that, um, you know, plastics and circular economy is, is one of the, the foci, um, that, that really people are looking at, and I think in general, there is a growing awareness of the single use of plastic and how, ah, the use of them adds up over time, especially when we're thinking about sort of the flux that we see in the tourism sector. Um, and I think awareness by both, um, tourists and the hospitality industry and the tourism sector has Um, led to, you know, even high-end hotels to budget friendly places to independent hotels, and then major hotel chains do things like, um, offer water, refilling stations and reusable bottles, um, and also offer toiletries in, in bulk, um, and I think you see a cost reduction in this sense as well, potentially. Um, I think other changes include. Alternative materials and products. So we see, um, in some cases complete removal of straws. In other cases I've seen, um, an innovation with grass used as straw. This is an example, um, from Southeast Asia where this grass grows natively, um, in places like Vietnam. I've also seen the replacement, um, of single-use items like cups and utensils made with compostable materials. And this is, you know, well meaning and I think even more expensive sometimes for hotels, but without, uh, industrial scale composting system this really is not, um, a big improvement in circular economy and actually things like PLA, um, a compostable polymer, when it's littered in the environment, it's not really any different because it doesn't biodegrade in those situations so it doesn't reduce plastic pollution in that case. Um, so a couple of specific examples like you asked about. Um, one thing I wanted to talk about, we did some work. I'm also a professor at the University of Georgia for the World Bank in the Seychelles, and we surveyed hotels. It's a big sector there about waste recycling and plastic. 8 of the 11 respondents mentioned their customers ask about. Where, um, or they ask about waste separation recycling. Can they participate? What's happening? What can they do? And one hotel mentioned that they were completely plastic-free, and their customers were aware of why and were supportive. And so I guess that illustrates really that, that growing awareness and desire, um, by customers in Phuket, Thailand. Um, a hotel I stayed at for a conference had water refilling stations and also, um, we're actually creating water for use through condensation. Um, and in Delhi, India, uh, the same chain that I was at in Thailand had switched to reusable bottles that were refilled but did a lot of advertising around that, um, and so there was a, there was sort of. Messaging in the elevators and in the rooms about, you know, cutting back on plastic and then I want to, um, say that even some hotels are encouraging customers to track litter that they see on the beaches. So a hotel in Miami Beach used a mobile app that we co-developed um here called Marine Debris Tracker, um, with NOAA and then is now funded by Morgan. Stanley, which is important because it means it's free in both the app stores and the data is free and open for anyone to download and use, um, and so I think tracking litter on beaches or in communities with the express purpose of preserving the ecosystem, wildlife and human health is an activity people can do while on vacation to connect them more with the local communities and you heard Virginia talk about this as well, like that connection to place. Um, and buying in the environment, and so even though people are there a short time, they can appreciate and feel ownership. Over 3 million items have been tracked around the world, um, with the tracker. And just a brief, you asked about specific challenges. Um, I'll talk about too, I think people are gonna have more specific examples, but I think right now, and especially in times. Um, with the global pandemic, there's a customer perception of sanitation with single-use plastic, but we've seen these challenges addressed, um, with signage and messaging in the hotel, um, and especially now that we know that things like, um, reusable masks and hand washing make a difference, so that can change when we, when we learn and are aware of the science. Um, and I think the second challenge is the real or perceived, um, expenses that come along with making some of these changes. Of course, investing in a reusable water bottle system, um, may have a lot of capital costs upfront, but hopefully that would be recouped later. But, um, that all comes down to sort of budgeting and return on investment. Thank you very much, Jenna. That was very interesting, uh, and You know, I think one of the, one of the points that arises is, is one of the upfront capital costs. Uh, you know, I very much hope that organizations like yours are reporting your experience because we'll only find out about the long-term cost savings and the resilience if people are actually keeping a very close track of this. If, if I may now talk, ask, uh Karen Strand, the vice president for exhibition expeditions of Hurtig Gruten, to uh come into the picture, please, and. In the context of circular models for coastal and marine destinations, Hertig Gruten has recently signed the largest contract for liquefied biogas in the history of the shipping industry with biocraft. Can you tell us a bit more about this and what are the main benefits for, for you as a company and what have been the challenges? Thank you so much, Charles, and, and, uh, um, yes, um, uh, the, the, the benefits, of course, um, with a, a very forward leaning, uh, uh, management and, and leadership in our company is, of course, to not exhaust yet another natural. Unused resource, but to focus on a resource that has already been in motion once and see if we could reuse waste, in this case, fish waste, to to be used as fuel. The challenges we've had is, of course, that anything new doesn't have an infrastructure that is readily at site. So just to have a readily plant at a strategic location was of course something we needed to work on and did take us a bit of time before we got that in place. And just the sheer financial strain on the company doing something like this, not having the sure outcome. And in the beginning, but having to be there with, with the development and with the science as it goes forward for a private company, it is, it's a hard and it's, it's a big task to take on being in the forefront. But we, we looked at the pros and the cons and we looked at The ability for us to be able to succeed and found that the percentage was in our favor so we went on with it but I would like to just point out what Virginia was saying on on support to private sector when we start the transformation and when we have a broad Support amongst the other industry players to do transformation that in view of both COVID-19 and even if we didn't have COVID-19, we would have needed to get and we will need to have support in order to get this transformation done and I, and that goes both from an economical point of view and it also goes to what Sergio was mentioning to have NGOs and governments pushing us in the right direction and being a part of that teamwork that we need to to. To, to also comply by, by, by visiting Portugal and by visiting the new destinations, working tightly with with the forward thinking destinations like, like Portugal to to get this goal reached. And then from what I really like what you were presenting Jenna, when it comes to these. Challenges that we have both from from a fuel perspective but from a plastic perspective is the fact that we very often don't really know where, where our waste goes, so to speak. We, we have a challenge as a private sector to actually trace and track where the waste that we produce goes. And so I think when, when it comes to challenges on On the private sector and where we maybe have come the furthest is plastics and waste, but it's still a long, long way to go. But I think that's the first thing that most of us as operators looked at first as the low hanging fruits, although there's a lot to do. But fuel, as we were, as you were asking me about Charles, is maybe the most difficult one to tackle, and there hasn't been a lot of will in the Industry until now, maybe because it's not readily available, but it's, it's starting to change and I think COVID-19 and everything that we have had a little bit of time to think and, and maybe this could, could have, uh, it could have been a good break for us to, uh, to develop further. So, thank you, Karen. I think one of the things that struck me about what you just said is that support for the private sector during transformation is key from other private sector partners, but I seem to understand from governments and the public sector too. Um, would you like to say any more about precisely what kind of support you think would be useful from other private sector partners, from governments, from the World Bank? For example, I think things like just getting the opportunity to be, um, and I'm talking from, from, from my industry, so I might be a little bit in a bubble. I'm sorry for that, but And just being able to connect to land-based power when ships are alongside in large cities. We know that, you know, lying there with diesel engines running is an issue, but just getting there is a build of infrastructure both on the land side and on the ship side. And I think we will need support to get, to get that widely available around the world. Same thing with fuel development. I mean, we will need help to be the shipyards and the tech that goes into developing machinery and fuel opportunities. We will need to join forces and NGOs and governments and the World Bank and everybody also need to be there to help us. There's no way that we as an industry alone can manage that transformation with or without COVID-19 draining our financial resources. I think those are really interesting examples, and I do think the er fuel in the cruise industry is a critical um challenge, and it, you're right that it hasn't been addressed much, and it's great to see somebody breaking the ground on that. So thank you, Karen. Um, now, to all three of you who've spoken so far, um, could I ask you. What changes in mindset will be required by stakeholders, and take your pick which ones to make the transition to a circular economy, for example, skills, training, you know, investment, the kind of partners that you don't usually work with. So, let's start this time with Jenna, please. Sure, um, I think that's a great question. I think, um, you know, I think touching on what Karen was just saying about sort of the, the awareness and the, the data, um, you know, being a researcher, I think, you know, really knowing what's going on sort of in your local context, um, and that also includes, I think the. Culture. So again that connects people to place and means that um you would have the skills to sort of engage them in any programs that you set up. Um, also a word from Virginia's pre uh presentation, the storytelling, um, you know, National Geographic prides itself on, um, storytelling as well, and that really is a way, you know. To get buy in and um and bring people in to the program that you're setting up and I think continuing to take responsibility, um, as you know, for all of the environment and sustainability initiatives, but for me focusing particularly on waste, uh, materials used, waste generation, and management, um. That's what I would say. OK. Thank you. That's great. Um, so Karen, please. Yes, I, I really believe that that skills and training goes hand in hand. And if we are to succeed, as Jenna so rightly was saying, we need to know about each other. We need to know what is moving around, and we have great examples of tourists even only with a 10 or 12 hour stay, were able to clean up beaches in northern Scotland just because they wanted to give something back, and I think that is at least that's what We're experiencing in in in the modern guest of 2020 onwards is that there is a there's a whole different mindset to the travel, and that consumer power that the traveler has is extremely important. So I think skills and training goes not just by the industry itself, but it actually goes for those who are traveling too, the guests that are out there, you know, spilling their money, so to speak. OK, thank you, Karen, and I think that's a very good point that we should be thinking about this from the consumption side too, and what individuals and consumers can do because it's really an underutilized. Many of our initiatives on circular economy are are basically supply side, production side, and yet there's an enormous potential out there on for engaging consumers. So Sergio, uh, your answer to this question, please. Yeah, very quick. I had a, I was here putting my notes and, uh, I, I, I was hearing, Karen, I think it's, it's. Sometimes we forgot that the tourism industry is a system. It works like a system. So I have to, uh, taking care of all of the points of the system, including one which is one of the most important, which, which is the tourist. So I think they have to be also part of the, of any strategy that we, we build towards, um, towards um circular economy or I would say any other. But I would say, from my point of view, uh, Understanding is the key issue. We have, as a system, we have to have a common understanding about that, and then it's connected with data. So basically, when we've launched our strategy at the same time, we've launched the process in gathering data, putting it publicly available so people understand where we are, where we are, um, in, in our, in our roadmap. So we understand defining where we want to go. There, then comes the how. So the, the how is not a voluntary thing that we do, uh, as, um, as a As an industry, it starts to be a roadmap to a certain objective. And I would say here are three points that I would like to um put in a, in a very fast way. First one is working together. We, we are a system, so there are no individual uh Um, uh, tasks that, they have to work collectively, uh, towards, uh, um, uh, we'll take shared, uh, shared vision. Second one is the role of skills and training. And that's where we are putting a lot of effort in terms of changing like in this area or in digital is the same. Basically, we need to foster our tourism workforce to, to Inspire the industry to change. And someone told us, spoke about bringing new players and what we've done in the last three years also. We've created a community of startups and younger generations of, uh, of, of, especially tech guys, but not only tech guys, um, that basically are working on specific issues that the industry has, and some of them are uh are focused on, on sustainability because I think we also as a, as an industry have to have the, I would say, To be humbled to learn from other sectors where circular economy really uh is more developed and we have to learn from them and integrate it into our, into our business models. And I'll say that's all from my side. Thank you, that, that's great, Sergio, and I, I can't, um, resist the temptation to mark this remark on this point that keeps coming up of learning from other sectors. Um, we've seen this really happening in the One Planet Network and, you know, in the tourism sector, food has been mentioned, plastics have been mentioned, and we are starting to see the communities of practice who've been working separately on individual issue on the within a sector like tourism on an issue like plastics or on an issue like making the food sector more sustainable. When these communities of practice actually come together, there is. There is an opportunity for both innovation and scale, so, you know, I very much hope that we see this increasing trend continuing. So now I'm gonna talk, turn to our last two speakers who are Megan and Kevin. Um. And This is where we're going to move to the hospitality and food industry and gain some insights. Uh, from them on existing circular economy solutions. So Megan. Iberostar has committed to embody circular economy in all its operations. I want, I understand you want to become waste free by 2025, which sounds very ambitious. And potentially costly, but could you tell us how these commitments are being achieved and how they are impacting on your bottom line, please, Megan. Yeah, absolutely, and I think that one of the ways that I can start is linking this to the discussion about plastics and food that the other panelists have brought up in a lot of really illustrative examples, but at Iberosar, I think one of the important components about circular economy. Is finding the business case and finding the ways in which it can benefit the business to be able to immediately and and uh and thoroughly invest in these sorts of solutions. So Iberostar is a family owned Spanish based hotel chain. Uh, we have 19 countries of operations and 120 facilities, and in 2019 we committed to removing all single use plastics from our operations in 2. Years and so in this sweeping change we required a lot of of of really strong commitment from our executive committee all the way down to our employees, but we found that in this first step, it took us on the pathway towards a circular economy and really helped us to demonstrate that actions that that were a part of this uh this step which is part of our wave of change movement could demonstrate direct. Savings could actually improve some of our processes, give our employees and company more purpose, and also build resiliency, which were all features that we found manifested during the pandemic. Uh, when I'm talking about direct savings, I think this is an example where plastics and food were a reality for us at Ibero Star in our first step of removing all single-use plastics from our rooms across our operation. This is over 600 tons of plastics annually that now we're diverting to not go into landfill or into recycling, but there's also cost savings within that volume, and a lot of that comes from just removing products that are not necessary in the first place. I think that's a really important tenet of circularity is asking whether a product is necessary in operations in the first place. But we also took this step towards water. We implemented. Just as Jenna was talking about fountains that could help us to eventually avoid 7.2 million bottles of plastics, plastic bottles annually, and so there's also potentially cost savings that are within that, but I will say that the returns on those investments are hard to see amidst the signal of COVID-19 and that effect on our business. We also are working on reducing food waste, and I'm sure that Kevin will talk a lot. About some of those returns on investments, but I think a number that really guides us is for every $1 you invest in food savings, you can get $7 in return and recover 95% of that investment in the 1st 2 years of implementing solutions. So I think this is a really clear case to build for businesses immediately as they're looking towards cost savings in the return to business. Why not have that cost savings directly intersect with the circular economy? But we also see this as improving processes for us in order to achieve that no waste sent to landfill by 2025. We need to be able to separate and segregate all of the residuals we generate in our facilities at um with, with, uh, you know, uh, perfect segregation in order to make sure that the streams can be analyzed and recycled and managed properly. And in the process of creating an entirely new department dedicated to the segregation and waste management, we realized just how inefficient that process was, how inefficient this ownership of these items was, and it helped us to improve upon these processes. But finally, we think a circular economy is something that must go beyond products and look more towards the restorative and regenerative nature of the products that we're using or the places that we're operating in. And part of our commitment is also towards improving coastal health. We have a commitment that all ecosystems that surround our properties are in improving ecological health alongside profitable tourism by 2030. We have teams of scientists and conservation practitioners, part of our wave of change movement to help us realize that, but that's really about creating restorative and regenerative solutions in our destinations, looking at marine protection. Looking at how it is that we can actually invest in nature-based blue carbon to offset our carbon emissions, so we launched a program committing to offset our total greenhouse gas emissions by protecting and restoring nature in our destinations, which could mean that Iberostar is actively protecting upwards of 140,000 acres of forest by 2030. And so in this. we find that you're you're looking at investing in these ecosystem services, and these are the sorts of investments that we believe will pay out in the crisis to come in in crises that come from climate change, in crises that come from biodiversity loss, and so a lot of this is a tenet of how it is that we're thinking about the business case of of circularity and how we've implemented that within IberoStar over the last couple of years. OK. Thank you very much, Megan. So, Kevin, the, the tourism sector is actually a significant generator of food waste, um. This also costs the industry millions of dollars a year. Can you give us some facts and figures on the scale of food waste in the tourism sector and tell us how your company is leveraging artificial intelligence to reduce food waste in the hospitality sector? Yeah, thanks, Charles, really, really happy to do that. Uh, I guess first just want to acknowledge, uh, it really resonates with me what Megan was saying about looking for a real business case to drive the change within their business. Uh, and, and I think that food waste is really very clearly one of those areas that does make really good business sense to invest in driving prevention first and foremost. Um, some of the, some of the stats you asked for, uh, food waste is estimated globally to represent about $1 trillion a year of cost, uh, which represents about 1.3% of all global GDP, all, all productive human activity on the planet. Out of that, roughly 10% is coming from out of home consumption, so about $100 billion a year is coming from the the commercial establishments and kitchens that serve food outside of the home, and the large majority of that is preventable. So food is generally the number 1 or #2 cost in a tourism food business, and of the budget for food in those, in those establishments, typically between 8 and 25% of that food is going to waste, or 8 to 25% of that food budget, more importantly, is going to waste. Uh, so food waste is, is really, really valuable in addition to being really important, uh, for, for the environment. So when we're talking about the circular model here today, uh, with food waste, the priority really has to be about prevention. So, while it is great seeing projects like the biocharhart program at Machu Picchu that Virginia shared earlier, that's commendable, uh, most of the economic and energetic value of the food has already been lost, if it Passes the human consumption stage that it was intended for, so you can really only recover about 3% of the energetic value in sort of best case recycling or reuse of of food once it falls past human and animal consumption. So much better is the 100% savings you get from preventing food waste, and so that's really where our focus needs to be. Uh, regardless of the circular economy model, it is really in that, in that prevention and minimization space where, where we get the most value. So what we know sort of recognize is that this is both a viable business opportunity for these kitchens, as well as a really important environmental challenge, and what we decided to do was see where we could help bring tools into the kitchen that would help them better understand how and why food was being wasted in their business, and then use the information from that to drive different changes in their activities. So fundamentally what we know does today is in the kitchens where we work, uh, we collect data on all the food that's going into the food waste bin, specific to which item that is, and we're giving that data back in a granular way through daily and weekly reporting to both the management team, but also the teams in the kitchen. And those teams in the kitchen are looking at, here's what we wasted yesterday. How do we change our food production process today to waste a bit less? Here are the top opportunities by by value, and so they can really laser focus in on these are the specific root cause problems that we can solve with ideas that we can implement today in our kitchen. And we try to make that really easy and really low in terms of time cost to those kitchens. So in an effort to do that, we've made that something that is costing those kitchens maybe 15 minutes a day to register the food waste over time because they are using a touch screen usually to identify what that food waste is. But more recently we've also added AI to the equation, and we're actually pointing a camera down at that food as it gets disposed and trying to recognize what that food is to save the team in the kitchen even more time and automatically register what that food is without them having to engage with a touch screen there. So we're getting to the point now where we can, uh, pretty effectively recognize food in the countries we work with around the planet, uh, and give that data to the teams in the kitchen with very little, uh, sort of input from them. And what they're able to then drive with that data in hand is typically they can have their food waste within the first year of working with us. The average reduction, I think, on our global scale is at 53% by value, and then they're able to sustain that as long as they keep the focus on it. Uh, the big key is what you measure, you manage, and, and sort of, uh, that's what we set out to do at Winnow and, and what we're doing with lots of great companies around the world. So, um, that's enabling companies, knowing that there are solutions like that that are financially viable, to come out and make some big statements about what are their objectives for food waste prevention. So Megan talked about the strategy at Iberia Star, Carnival Cruises, the Costa Cruises subsidiary set out a 50% food waste reduction target. Accor Hotels set out a 30%. Reduction target and Hilton Hotels has recently set out a 50% food waste reduction target by 2030. And we think those are all really viable because we've, we've been able to demonstrate that around the world over and over, that that's the opportunity without hurting the business. This, um, The margin increase available for these businesses can be 50 to 100% profitability increase in that very narrow margin food business. So this is one of the elements of the circular economy and the drive towards sustainability that actually has the most compelling business case with payback periods that are often very, very easily within the first year. So the That we think that there's a continued opportunity to drive this up to scale and so while we're working with companies in about 45 countries today, uh, we've set a target window to help our customers prevent a billion dollars a year in food waste within 5 years. But again, that's still scratching the surface. We need a lot more action because that's 1% of that $100 billion that I mentioned at the top. OK, thank you, Kevin. That, that was great, and there's some very exciting examples in there, just. Uh, both you and Megan have talked about the, the payback times and returns on investment within 2 years or even within a year, and it's really interesting, these figures, it's also really interesting to see, particularly from your presentation, Kevin, the, the real-time data gathering and reporting on the, the process. Which enables you to reduce food waste, that is having that information and seeing how the system works and where the losses are is really critical, and then creating the feedback loop that, you know, in the case of food goes beyond the kitchen, goes to management, so. They see the The cost reduction opportunities and then it happens and it's scaled up. So, there is now just one more question for the pair of you, Meghan and Kevin, to answer briefly before we go to the question and answer session, and that is. What particular role do you envision for the private sector to fast track the development of circular solutions in the, in the tourism and hospitality sector, and I would say, in addition to the idea of making it fast. How can you help to get scale quickly, because I think there's a lot of people around the world doing exciting things, but we don't have the scale yet, and. You know, in a global sense, we're still only scratching the surface, so any ideas you have on this would be welcome from the pair of you in within the next 6 minutes, and I give the floor first to Megan. No thank you Charlie. I think the uh response that the tourism sector particularly had to return in many locations business uh with huge process and operation changes in response to the health crisis of of COVID-19 has demonstrated that sweeping changes and processes can happen at scale when it is needed, um, and, uh, this is, this is, I think, a challenge. Demonstrate that when when the need is is very present, you can change supply chains, you can change the ways in which a service is given to customers and still maintain a product that is is core to its true values and so I think the same thing needs to happen with any topic that is around. Climate change or biodiversity loss or in this case as well around circular economy, the difference is, you know, businesses in many senses when you're talking about the executive leadership team are thinking every day about scale. They're thinking every day about changes in processes and if these values are held as equally important to any of the other. Bottom lines, then it becomes something that is very relevant to be able to do at scale. This is something that we saw at Iberostar when our executive leadership was taking their purchasing teams to make these sweeping changes in our supply chain to remove some of these plastics. Now to look towards sourcing increasingly more materials from non-virgin sources. As part of a circular economy, it's in the micro decisions that are made every single day in which you can achieve scale rapidly and in order to do so, there needs to be a lot of top-down involvement, but we demonstrated, I think, very clearly in the last couple of months that that is possible if the need is present. So I think the next test will be whether or not we can do that again for a great reset and responsible recovery. That's great, Megan, thank you. Your timing is immaculate, Kevin. Yeah, I mean I, I agree with all of that. I think the private sector also needs to support innovation, uh, particularly in those areas where those innovations may have clear economic benefits, uh, and, and once they do, then it's really about education and and leadership. Education in that once everyone understands that there is a really clear business case, then it's, it's much easier to get it prioritized and scaled up. Uh, and, and leadership in that, uh, for those that are not striking out the leadership position on those things, uh, they do need to see others succeeding at scale. And so someone does have to take the baton and have the break. to lead on those things and demonstrate that they've done them at scale, and there has been a bit of business benefit to doing those things at scale. Uh, Once that happens, then the, the others will follow. Uh, but as long as many are just taking an experimental small bite, uh, it's very difficult for anyone to decide, uh, without, without some element of bravery to be the first to really scale that up. Thank you, Kevin, yeah. I, I do agree that actually going to scale is the, the biggest challenge. You can make, uh, many of these things work on a small scale, but it's making that leap, and I think seeing that you're not alone in the private sector in doing this must be a very important part of this. So, I think now we've actually reached the end of the um Of the presentations, we're now going to move into the question and answer session. So Louise and Gemma and the team have been collecting the questions that have been coming in and we, we, we'll see how many we can get through, um, and we will put the questions out one by one and we will ask for brief answers to these, and I will. Start with the first one, which is on the interface between governments and the private sectors, so. And I will, I will assign these questions as well, so to Karen and Kevin. If you could work with government on one piece of regulation in your sector that would help you achieve your objectives, what would that? What would that piece of regulation be? So, again, Karen. Thank you, thank you for that. I think for my part that would be emissions and circularity on, on, on, on the biggest issue for us at the moment is fuel emissions and, and regulations and legislations around that. Yeah, I think, I think you're absolutely right. Given most of these emissions are extra jurisdictional and nobody is really controlling them. That's, that's quite a hard task. It's a hard task, but I think it's a task that, that, that needs to, uh, to, to be taken, uh, by its horns, so to speak, because it's been avoided and I don't think that innovation will prosper unless there is an industry demand and that there is industry need, and if we go along with business as usual, the demand and the and the pressure will not be there to to push innovation either. So I think that's a thing that needs to be done through NGOs and the industry and the innovation part of the industry. That's a great point, Karen, I have to admit it's a very strongly held personal opinion as well. Kevin. Yeah, for, for, for my favorite piece of regulation. Yeah, for, for my part, I'm really passionate about a carbon tax, but I think that's a, that's a, a big topic and hard to push through. One that is much more modest and, uh, and would be really meaningful in the food waste, uh, problem is legislation just to require businesses to have separate collection of food waste, so that it doesn't end up in, in landfill. Uh, the, the environmental impact of food. Waste getting to landfill is absolutely the worst with the methane produced there. And, and so by separating food waste collection, you would both prevent that from happening because none of that ends up in landfill, but you would also incentivize them because they have separated the waste streams to make it much easier to measure and understand and then prevent that food waste from happening. OK, and I think you've put your finger on another huge problem. I mean, methane from landfill and the role of food waste in that is, is huge. So, the next in this list of questions we have, um, COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the tourism sector. Do you see this helping or hindering progress towards circularity? Um, and this is to, uh, Jenna and Meghan successively, um. So Jenna, please, and I'm sure it's not a black and white answer. Yeah, um, well, I mean, obviously with people not being able to travel that's had a huge impact, but I think sort of from my perspective I've seen, um, you know, kind of two main impacts from COVID, and I kind of alluded to this earlier, single-use plastics increased, um. And especially in, you know, PPE where and in fact I just wanna tell you that, you know, the participatory sensing through marine debris tracker we saw within a week of um. You know, starting to use PPE that people were telling us they were seeing it on the ground. So that was really interesting from a data perspective. Everything we sort of do in society, we, we can see that leaking out of our systems. Um, but I think in a, in sort of a positive way, people also became more aware of waste. When you are at home and not going anywhere, you're much more aware of the waste that you're generating and people, Um, became aware of people having to collect and manage that waste and what to do with that waste if it was hazardous, and, and I've seen, um, in some countries, people have been more willing to separate waste, um, because of, of what sort of they're learning through this process. Um, so I think, you know, while we've seen some hindrance with when the science comes out, we can learn that we can use reusable masks and do hand washing and the same kind of, we can take that as a corollary to as we've, we learn science moving forward in circular economy. Me, um, and what we can do, I think people are willing to make the change, and that's the other thing we've seen with this. People can adapt quickly, um, and they will, and so maybe we can take this as an opportunity to make some of those changes that seemed more dramatic before. Thank you very much, Jenna. Megan. I couldn't agree more with, I think, Jenna's, uh, examples and retrospectively for tourism as well there's also been, you know, a mixed signal where, uh, without, uh, tourism presence we've seen some, uh, environments thriving. Also we also see increased levels of poaching or or illegal fishing in some instances without tourism to be there valuing life and and so I think even in in in looking in a number of arms and accesses this is this has been a mixed picture. But I think retrospectively it is one thing, but looking towards the future is another, and whether or not COVID-19 is or isn't beneficial, I do strongly believe is a choice, a choice that businesses can make today on whether or not they can use this great reset and processes to make those processes more efficient, to build back more responsibly, particularly when there are great guides like the one that One Planet. Launched this year and talking about what tourism can be doing for this recovery, but I think it is, it is a choice that needs to be to be made and how it is that we can use this reset to reset behaviors and to reset mindsets on responding to what we're very clearly seeing as an increased interest in sustainability in many industries but also in tourism as well. OK, thank you, Megan, and I just add this, this point of engaging the consumer, I think we need to, I'll keep coming back to it because we know in the One Planet Network that more can and should be done on consumption, but I think the tourism sector. A, a number of people have alluded to the fact that tourists are aware about the environment that they're, they travel to enjoy in an environment, they want it to remain pristine, so they come with a kind of ingrained. commitment to the place they stay in and it I'm not sure it's the right word, it hasn't been properly exploited, and I think that the private sector with help from other partners is in an excellent position to. To really engage the tourists to make uh the business to, to make the experience better for the tourists, but, but to make the business more viable and sustainable and resilient. So, another question that's come from uh one of our participants. And they would like to know if and how panelists have involved tourist guides in telling the story and encouraging guests to become more responsible travelers. So what is, you know, you can, how do you actually reach the consumer to the tourists to engage them, and what experience is there? From anybody um among the panelists that they could speak to this, so, so having some kind of an interlocutor. Recruiter in between. The tourist, um. Uh, To engage the tourists in the action or the particular kind of consumption that's required, so the floor is open, first come, first served. I can, I can, I can start on that. This is quite a little interesting story actually. It's in the expedition cruise industry which, which we belong to. A lot of our guides are educated as biologists, geologists, glaciologists, and so forth. And when it came to the plastic initiative for us when we went single-use plastic-free about more than a year ago, No, 2 years ago now, sorry, we, the initiative came from one of our biologists. She was absolutely fierce and she cornered our CEO when he was on board one of our ships and said, basically, you're not leaving this vessel until I have had my lecture on, on, on plastic waste, and she did, and he went straight back to his, his, his management. And said you have 6 months to manage this and get us a single use plastic free, and that all came from this wonderful person called Helga Borsdotter who was so passionate about the world oceans and, and the horrifying results she had seen in her previous research opening up seabirds and seeing the amount of plastics that had and the development there. So I think that, and I have countless examples of that in our teams and from the entire expedition cruise industry and I think more as well from land-based and so forth using guides, I think are the ones that are on the ground and that maybe are ahead of us. We might think that we need to teach them, but my experience has been that they have been actually the one, the forefronters and the one we need to listen to. So I think that's a, it's a It's a a kind of synergy between us, so leadership needs to be there. They need to be forward leaning, but I think there's a lot of competence that can be drawn from, from the guides, and they are in the forefront already. Thank you, Karen, that's a, that's a great example. Uh, I'm actually conscious that this question of mine essentially is getting a little bit, uh, we're coming towards the close. I'd like to bring in a couple of other people, so. This is a question for Sergio in his, in the particular context of Portugal, so. Sergio, do you believe that becoming more sustainable will also entail a reduction? In the number of tourists who come to your country, especially by plane. This is kind of the elephant in the room question, but no, it, it, it is actually a very, a very interesting, uh, question, and I, um, I would say um. As I was speaking here, and I'm not running from the question now, I'll, I'll, I, I'll answer you to try to, to, to, to To explain what we've been trying to do. But I would say, thinking about a system, uh, in tourism as a system, uh, travel and, uh, airlines are also part of the system. So I, I believe there is a, everyone must do, and I believe airlines are, are, are, are doing that, that, uh, that work in trying to make, uh, reduce the, the, the path of, of, of each one of them. What we believe here in, in Portugal for, for, for that is Uh, first, we believe that one very important, uh, um, way of maximizing the value of tourism that we have in our country, um, and minimizing, uh, or reducing the, the economic, environmental impacts of that is, is extending, um, the state. I would say that's, that's 11 thing that we, we, we spend a lot with our, with our destinations and working at is extending that. Because I think, believe, uh, and I would say, Some lessons from, from, from COVID-19 are, are moving towards that. People might be available and perhaps the transformations that we have with, with COVID of our relationship with work, our working from home, and so on can be good opportunities for trying to shift this because the problem is, we've been in, in, in recent years in, in, in the travel and tourism industry, traveling became easier and cheaper. So, that makes uh me sometimes cheaper from moving from Lisbon to London for a weekend than moving to the interior part of my country. So that's um uh basically the, the, the point. So, we have to change also the product and attractiveness of, uh, of, of destinations in order to extend the length of stay of tourists because that's one thing that, that it's been reducing in In recent years. So that's 11 area. Then the topic of more or less tourists, we believe that it's the topic of management. And another elephant in the room sometimes is destination management and the, the ability that, that I have as the destination to manage flows, to influence flows where they go or not they go. Sometimes I'm, I'm more of a victim than a manager. And I believe there is a role uh for management, um, the flows, uh, all around the destinations. Trying to make them as, uh, uh, sustainable as we can. OK, great, Sergio. So last question in this question and answer session, I suggest this might be for. Virginia, um, so Virginia, from your perspective in the UNWTO, how can Circular economies synergized in the SDGs and sustainable development goals and in the national policies of countries, you know, in the tourism sector, just a really a couple of quick examples, please. Thank you, Charlie. Um, I mean, we all, we all know that um there are specific targets for tourism in the SDGs, notably under SDG 8, 12 and 14 on decent work, sustainable consumption and production. And life underwater, um, but, uh, tourism can contribute to more than those three SDGs. Uh, the same happens for the circular economy. Circular economy does not have an SDG, uh, listing it explicitly, but SDG 12 we could think is the most, um, directly connected to the circular economy. And on top of that. Uh, there are targets all over the SDGs that can be connected to a circular economy. Think of SDGs 6 and 7 on water and energy. Think of SDG 8, which I mentioned already that. Has target 8.4 directly on decoupling uh resource use from growth. I mean, it's all over, it's all over the, the, the agenda. So, um, basically, I think we just need to use the SDGs as, as a, as a compass to guide our development of policies and I think countries are doing it. Uh, most of those tourism policies that have been drafted after 2015 already have references to the SDGs. So my recommendation would be that uh we use this great framework, we maybe prioritize those SDGs that have more to do with circular economy, and we engage all the stakeholders necessary. So it's participatory. Thank you. Virginia, great, great answer, thanks, and, and I would I would concur with your observation that circular economy is actually all over the sustainable development goals. We, we did our own count because we work on sustainable consumption production. We did our own count and we found. There are 49 targets across 13 goals which are essentially contingent upon achieving a more circular and sustainable economy. So it is a great compass. And I think I have now discharged my responsibilities, so I am turning now to. Um, Etien Etienne Etienne Keician. Who leads these learning series, as well as the green competitiveness agenda at the World Bank. So, Etienne, the floor is yours, um, and thank you for this opportunity to moderate this, uh, fascinating and rich webinar. Thank you so much, Charles. It's been indeed an honor to have you and other uh panelists and participants on this uh uh webinar series. Um, I want to sincerely, before I start on the closing marks, I want to sincerely thank Luis and Gemma, uh, and the tourism for Development team for, for putting this together, um, and, and everyone, um, for taking the time to prepare for this event. It's been really fascinating. The circular economy and tourism, um, has its peculiar challenges. Um, Especially, we spoke a lot about things that are happening in, let's say, in the, in the developed world, but a lot of countries that we're working on, they're, they're dealing with some basic challenges, and understanding the challenges that have been already faced can help us translate them into our programs as well. The, the tourism sector has, has also an additional challenge. A lot of times it is the market, uh, it is the service industry that is receiving the products rather than managing or controlling the design of these products. And as Sergio mentioned, I think that really requires uh the tourism industry to interlink and connect with all the other uh parts of the value chain um in order to manipulate or influence the way things are designed because the core part of circular economy is the design not waste, right, before we go into the waste management part of the uh equation. Um, so I think that's a very fundamental part. Another thing I really like, uh, is the discussion on, on the data-driven approach to, to circular economy. Um, uh, you know, a lot of times it is a mystery word to a lot of, uh, uh, players, and maybe even a buzzword. Uh, bringing it down to earth and helping us understand the economics of it, uh, helps us then scale, uh, the initiative. Unfortunately. At the moment, as was mentioned by one of our colleagues, it is uh a lot of small bites or mosquito bites, let's say, in the, in the system, and the scalability will be based on its ability to succeed or make profits for those who are involved in the entire process. Um, and I think that's a very fundamental part of uh of what we're taking away from, from the learning series across all, all uh different uh industries. Um, I think Louise and the team are also doing some fantastic work on this topic in West Africa, and we at the World Bank are doing this learning series and to, to learn as well, right? And, and to, to understand how best to approach this in some of the context that we, we operate in, because the, the challenge shifts dramatically. In some countries, food waste might not be an issue at the, at the disposal part or at the. Uh, sales part, but more on the actual production side or the farm side, or the challenge might be on, on, on managing the plastic waste or others. So the dynamics of the industries in such, in such a way poses different challenges to policymakers to be able to effectively respond. Another excellent takeaway I had, um, I think is also comment by Sergio, is to have a common strategy. Because circular economy requires so many different actors and the tourism industry just has its web into all these different value chains and systems. It's important to understand where the sector is going and who needs to be involved in order to make the circular economy work, and more and more we're seeing when governments do design tourism strategies or other strategies, they're already starting to integrate the circular economy into those. So that's, I think that's a very effective tool in uh in making sure that the sector starts off in a good in a good place. Um, I wanna close with this. I wanna thank everyone again. The circular, the, the circular economy Learning series on private sector development is purely, it's, it's very much focused on the economic case of circular economy. Um, we've had sessions, um, the past 6 sessions have been focused on various horizontal and also vertical industries. Uh, the next session will be on textiles, uh, and then construction material, and then food products and, uh, and, and financing. So we're really excited for everyone to come join us in this. Series and uh we look forward to engaging with everyone on this topic on tourism and circular economy in the near uh future. Um, so thanks again to everyone uh and um I wish you a very pleasant uh new year and uh hope to be in touch uh again very soon. Thank you very much, uh, Etienne. Thank you to all the panelists and the participants. This has been a fantastic session, and we appreciate your, uh, participation. Uh, like I said, we will send out a recording and we look forward to engaging with you in the future on all the questions that we couldn't manage to get to today. So thank you all and have a great rest of your day or an evening. Bye-bye.

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