by Raed Albasseet, group chief environment & sustainability officer, Red Sea Global
Raed Albasseet
The travel sector is one of the world’s biggest energy consumers, driven by a need to fuel hotels and resorts, experiences and mobility. Sustainable tourism is impossible to achieve without clean power.
Putting renewable energy at the heart of sustainability strategies is essential in any sector, but there can be a reluctance to invest due to the technical complexities involved and skepticism about the commercial value it can provide.
There are several learnings that an executive should consider when tasked with driving a green energy transformation. When these are applied, I firmly believe that where there’s a will, there’s a way to build a future driven by clean power.
Growth and renewables go hand in hand
Adopting clean energy can drive commercial growth. While it requires significant expenditure, high upfront costs pale in comparison to the financial and environmental rewards over the long term.
Illustrating this point is FedEx, which has committed to progressively replacing its trucks with electric vehicles, aiming to complete the transition by 2040, and investing in charging infrastructure. As well as demonstrating the company’s commitment to meeting environmental objectives, this makes business sense. Electric vehicles cut costs on fuel and are cheaper to maintain because they have fewer moving parts.
At Red Sea Global we are building the world’s largest destination – The Red Sea – run solely on clean power, drawing on energy from solar panels.
The infrastructure for our five solar farms for Phase One of the development is at 100% completion, with 760,000 photovoltaic panels in place; and our other destination, Amaala, is on track to be powered in the same way. With no connection to the national grid, we are also creating one of the world’s largest off-grid battery storage facilities, which will store 1,200 MWh of power.
We are making these decisions not just because we believe that the tourism sector should do better by the environment, but because sustainable travellers are actively demanding this.
Most international tourists (81%) say that green destinations are important to them, while half report they’re making more sustainable travel choices due to concerns about climate change, according to Booking.com. To attract visitors, destinations need to take these concerns on board and commit to clean energy.
This isn’t just the case in our sector, but in others, too. Accenture found that more than half of consumers (56%) are trying to uphold sustainable values in their purchasing decisions, and that budget pressures have had no impact on this.
Promisingly, across the world, more and more executives are recognising the importance of clean energy. In the US alone, private investment in renewables hit USD 10 billion in 2022, according to Deloitte.
A willingness to invest isn’t enough, however. Renewable energy projects can be technically complex, which can deter corporate executives. This is where partnerships can provide value.
Power-producing partnerships
By investing in renewable energy and partnering with like-minded organisations, companies can overcome technical hurdles and uncover new possibilities.
General Electric (GE) has been actively engaged in sustainability ventures and is recognised globally for its commitment to renewable energy innovation. However, it is through partnerships that it has really broken new ground. GE has worked with Boeing and NASA to successfully test high-power, high-voltage electric aircraft engine components for the first time – a development that could transform the aviation industry forever.
Central to our achievements in tourism has been our partnership with ACWA Power for The Red Sea, which covers designing, building and operating The Red Sea’s utilities infrastructure for 25 years, delivering 100% clean power, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The consortium is also working to provide potable water, wastewater treatment, solid waste management, district cooling, telecommunication and data services across the destination, spanning an area the size of a small country.
A commitment to renewable energy should be at the heart of any business strategy and its operations. While building infrastructure that uses green energy from the start is ideal, the next best thing is to start from where you are, and make steady, incremental changes.
For a destination spread across the sun-soaked dunes and coastline of Saudi Arabia, that means investing in solar power – but for other businesses, electric, wind or hydropower might be more suitable. The size of the investment doesn’t necessarily matter. It’s the ambition, creativity, and plan behind it, that count on the journey towards sustainability.
