Today we are happy to meet Alexandra Herget of TUTAKA. TUTAKA is the go-to source for sustainable hospitality that makes procurement easy through its marketplace of sustainable supplies, equipment and services. Learn from this self-described “ecoist” motivated to bring more positive change to an industry that is still in the early stages of transformation.
Thank you for speaking to us today! As a start, can you please tell us a bit more about you and your background? Have you always been passionate about sustainability and hospitality?
At least from high school onwards. Quite nerdly, I joined the environmental club in my school in Sweden. Part of my curriculum at university also included courses such as “Sustainable Development”, “Environmental Studies” and “Human Rights”. That I want to follow a career within the hospitality industry became clear to me, when I was looking for a job while finishing my Master’s Degree in Maastricht. I sat down and asked myself: “What do I want to do now? What am I passionate about?” The answers were: gastronomy, travelling, being a host, bringing people together, and designing memorable experiences. Thus, I moved to Berlin and worked in a hotel concept development company.
We recently discovered TUTAKA and love your approach to sustainability. Can you share with our readers a bit more about TUTAKA? How did you come up with the idea for it and what’s your purpose?
Thank you! We are also enthused about MAp and can’t wait to see how we join forces to bring more sustainability into our beloved industry.
TUTAKA makes sustainable procurement easy. How? By relieving buyers from the hotel, restaurant and event industry of the complex task of searching: On our digital marketplace, hundreds of audited products and services can be directly bought or enquired.
TUTAKA Island is our marketplace’s sister. As a consultancy, “the Island” supports hosts in the transformation towards more sustainability by taking an advisory role within the fields of strategy, communication and procurement. Overall, marketplace and agency alike, our mission is to make the hospitality industry more sustainable.
Can you explain to us how you define a product as “sustainable?” What criteria are you looking at? How do you go about sourcing products?
Either we get in touch with a producer that we think might fit, we meet them at an event or fair, or the supplier contacts us. Then, we elaborate firstly whether the product(s) is suitable for the hospitality industry from a functionality, design and price perspective and whether the supplier can deliver large quantities within an attractive lead time.
After this basic check, we take a close look. First on a company level via a questionnaire, which asks questions such as “Tell us about your company's mission and product features and the social challenges you are tackling” or “Are you already a sustainability superstar? Or are you rather at the beginning of your journey? What are you particularly proud of? Where do you still have room for improvement?” And then we move on with our TUTAKA product assessment, which evaluates the entire life cycle of the product in terms of positive and negative social and ecological impacts. To be precise, we look at the design, end of life scenario, logistics, production, materials, and usage of the product. Then, we sort the offer into our impact scoring, develop an overview on the sustainability performance and also state transparently what needs further improvement in terms of sustainability.
At MAp, we too believe that the future of hospitality needs to be sustainable. How important is sustainability in the hospitality industry? And where do you envision the future of hospitality going as it relates to this?
Sustainability should be all our rationale. There is no hospitality industry without a “sustainable” in front of it.
With sustainability becoming so important and trendy, there are, of course, some negative side effects to it. Talking about “greenwashing” – how do you define it and how do you feel about it?
Franziska, my Co-Founder, hosts a panel on HospitalityNet, where we tackled this question with other industry leaders. Have a look!
Greenwashing is amongst the biggest traps to fall into when communicating sustainability. A "let's save the world" claim and tacky towel policy stickers are superficial and unappealing. Greenwashers pretend that they have made efforts, however just for the sake of being perceived as green and thus trustable and a brand to stick with. Believing that solely a change from plastic straws to no straws is worth sending out messages across all channels and media, declaring a new ecoistic era, is too simple. So, what to do? As a first step, the sustainability activities of hospitality companies should be embedded in a wider sustainability agenda such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Secondly, sustainability should be driven by corporate culture and people, and not merely by checklists. Thirdly, and here I would like to quote Franziska: “Sustainability communication must leave behind the classic marketing practice of hiding products, services and people behind empty slogans and hoping they will resonate with current trends and lifestyle models. Sustainability communication should be about revealing, sharing and letting in.”
As many of our readers are hoteliers: can you share with us 3 easy tips on how they can become more sustainable?
Sure! First, sustainability is a journey. Take it step by step. Second, on-board your whole team and take them with you on this journey. Third, implement a long-term strategy with goals and measures. “Quick and dirty” does not work with sustainability.
As always, our final MAp meets question is related to our core business, as we’re specialised in crafting innovative hotel concepts and brands: what makes a hotel experience a truly outstanding one for you personally?
A hotel that is in true balance with the nature and “Umwelt”/ Environment surrounding it. A hotel that offers outstanding materialistic and non-materialistic experiences. One, where well-being is at the core. And one, where you can feel that all employees are being appreciated and participative. Oh, how I look forward to travelling again!
About Alexandra Herget:
Alexandra developed hospitality concepts before founding TUTAKA in the beginning of 2018 after being frustrated seeing the amount of things that are thrown away every day in a hotel. Studying Interactive Art Direction at HYPER ISLAND, Graphic Design at M.DH and getting a M. Sc. in Strategy & Innovation helped along the way. Her time at The Ritz Carlton, hospitality competence and the Hotelmarketing Gruppe as well. She is mad for unusual ideas, boldness, ecoistic people, typography and Scandinavian design.
ke time for prosecco ke it happenke it meaningfulke good coffeeke it matterke funny jokeske it kindke it simpleke it countSign up for the MAp newsletter for practical insights on hotel branding, marketing, and sustainability, plus fresh thinking from our projects and new tools from our sustainability platform. Let’s move #onwards together.
