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Tourism and hospitality in San Antonio recently broke pre-pandemic records and brought in an economic impact of $19 billion in 2022. Additionally, the San Antonio International Airport had a record-breaking year with 10.7 million passengers in 2023 and continues to break monthly records for 2024. San Antonio ranks as the 7th largest city in the nation and only continues to grow. San Antonio is also in continual competition on an international level to be selected as host city against other cities vying for convention revenue.
Increasingly, convention and meeting planners consider a city’s overall sustainability programs as part of their selection criteria for host destinations. They are now pushed to go the extra mile to ensure their efforts align with their organization’s sustainability agenda. According to a survey administered by Meeting Professionals International, 90% of respondents said it is important that events they plan and/or work on are sustainable.
In 2022, Visit San Antonio was completing a bid packet for a major international convention. That organization contacted the San Antonio Solid Waste Management Department to assist with addressing some of the selection committee’s requirements regarding environmental stewardship in San Antonio. There was one city program already in place since 2018 that checked every box in the request for qualifications bid document.
ReWorksSA, a division of the City of San Antonio’s Solid Waste Management Department was founded to meet San Antonio’s net zero carbon goals by 2050 and a key climate initiative. The program serves as a tool for San Antonio businesses to start or improve on their sustainability programs, ultimately with an opportunity to be recognized by the City of San Antonio with a ReWorksSA Certification as a sustainability champion. This designation can be a significant competitive advantage for San Antonio.
ReWorksSA has already certified several hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and local attractions. As the program continues to work with the local hospitality industry, it would provide a powerful statement to decision makers to be able to confirm that a majority of San Antonio’s hotels and myriad restaurants have successfully achieved the recognition for implementing sustainability best practices in their business model. The ReWorksSA team will also engage most of the airport concessionaires regarding certification as a future strategic initiative. As convention planners arrive and depart SAT on their site inspections, walking past concourse businesses displaying a gold, silver or bronze emblem as a certified green business would make an initial and then lasting impression of the Alamo City. The highest honor of certification is known as the Pinnacle Award.
With the help of ReWorksSA, corporate event planners would be able to identify to distinguish San Antonio as a city that prioritizes sustainability and emulates their own commitments of their organization, association, business or program. This is an opportunity for big business in San Antonio as the City often serves as the backdrop for large conventions, corporate events, sporting tournaments, and tourism. Additionally, San Antonio serves as a growing hub for industries like bioscience, manufacturing, military, aerospace, and cybersecurity, many of which include companies that have been ReWorksSA certified. Today’s top talent consider corporate culture as they evaluate employment opportunities.
The ReWorksSA program is scalable for businesses of all sizes across all industry segments. More information can be found at www.reworkssa.org.
