Since the president of the Lanzarote Chamber of Commerce, José Valle, signed an agreement in November in New York with Alexandre Crueger, director of Industrial Clusters and Strategic Associations at the World Economic Forum (WEF), the tourism sustainability and zero emissions cluster 'Canary Islands Net Zero' was established, to which the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife joined this Tuesday.
The president of the Chamber, accompanied by a business representation from the Lanzarote Business Circle, and the mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, formalized the agreement for the participation of the City Council. The Tourism Sustainability Cluster is the first in the world specialized in this sector.
Public and private entities will collaborate with the initiatives of this cluster or conglomerate, from their different perspectives. The role of companies will be to lead the projects, while public entities will be responsible for facilitating and participating in their development.
Pioneering cluster in tourism sustainability
The Cluster, promoted by the businessmen of Lanzarote, belongs to a network of thirteen global groups for industrial decarbonization and is promoted by the World Economic Forum. In this case, the Canary Islands is the second to be formed in Spain (there is another in the Basque Country focused on industry) and the first to focus its attention on tourism.
José Manuel Bermúdez has stated during the meeting that this membership represents "a great opportunity for the city of Tenerife, which has been working for some time on projects such as the Action Plan for Climate and Sustainable Energy (PACES) and the Low Emission Zone (ZBE), in addition to several initiatives for improvement and sustainability in housing reforms."
For his part, José Valle assured that "this cluster will be a turning point for our market and for the entire tourism sector in the world because it will place us in the first line of reference and we will be able to set the guidelines and define the trends."
Luis Alvarado, climate advisor to the World Economic Forum, and Marcos Cohen, director at PwC Spain, are two key pieces in the sustainability commission from where this pioneering cluster is managed.
