Corporate Responsibility
Report
Last updated October 2011
www.ihg.com/cr
Corporate Responsibility / CEO Message
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Our performance
CEO message
What is the role of hotels in 21 st century society?
As the world's largest hotel group 1 we understand that the role of hotels in society goes beyond selling
hotel rooms. We must act responsibly and build trust in our brands.
Building trust and being a responsible business are fundamental. Our size and scale give us a big
responsibility. The great news is that doing the right thing strengthens our reputation and reinforces trust in
our brands. It shows, for instance, that we're listening to our stakeholders. A growing number of our guests
want to make sustainable choices and lots of our corporate clients want proof of our green credentials.
We treat CR as a strategic business issue, and an integral part of our vision to become one of the world's
great companies by creating Great Hotels Guests Love. At the same time, we're working to make our
brands even stronger by becoming BrandHearted, putting our brands at the heart of everything we do in
order to offer a more consistent experience for our guests and owners.
Our approach to CR is based on innovation and collaboration. We develop groundbreaking technologies
and concepts, like our online sustainability tool, Green Engage and our online Innovation Hotel. And we
partner with some of the best organisations around in order to find new ways to tackle the challenges we
all face. These include Oxford and Harvard Universities, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design), the World Travel and Tourism Council and, most recently, CARE International, who are helping us
deliver our disaster relief programme.
IHG has strong foundations in place and is forging a reputation for taking an industry lead in CR. This year
we became the first hotel company to be endorsed by LEED for an existing hotel programme when we
received a coveted LEED endorsement for Green Engage. Green Engage is central to the environmental
element of our strategy and we continue to invest in it, having recently launched version 2.0 of the system
that helps our hotels manage energy costs.
We recently refreshed our Community Strategy to concentrate our efforts on the areas where IHG, as a
hotel company, can have the most positive impact in our local communities. Our community involvement
means a lot to me. I'm particularly keen to give more people better access to career opportunities in
hospitality, so I am very excited about the IHG Academy. The IHG Academy is a public/private partnership
that helps us create local economic opportunity in the communities around our hotel and corporate offices.
This year, the IHG Academy will be developing in Greater China, the UK, USA and Australia, and in other
countries in the very near future.
The nature of our business also allows us to make a real difference in local communities when disaster
strikes. We have a long history of pulling together to provide shelter in a storm in our hotels and recognise
that we have a real opportunity to use our size and scale for even more positive good. Under the IHG
Shelter in a Storm Programme, we are reinforcing the great work we already do by developing standard
operating procedures that will help us respond more effectively when natural and manmade disasters
occur. We are working with our new global charity partner CARE International on this important disaster
relief programme.
This report shows how we put our CR thinking into practice, providing a clear and transparent record of
what we've achieved and what we need to do better. We don't pretend to have all the answers and we
acknowledge there are areas we can improve. But we believe that striving to take an industry lead and
making CR a genuine part of our overall strategy to create brands and hotels that our guests and owners
trust and always prefer will enable us to play a leading role in 21st century society.
Richard Solomons
Chief Executive Officer
1
By number of rooms
Corporate Responsibility / About IHG / Approach / CR approach
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CR approach
1,000+ hotels
CEO Message
About IHG
Between May 2010 and December
2010 more than 1,000 of our hotels
signed up to our Green Engage
system, that's roughly 20% of our
estate.
Approach
CR approach
Governance approach
Responsible tourism
Policies
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Our performance
Key achievements
Launched version 2.0 of Green Engage, our system-wide approach to environmental management
Delivered version 2.0 of the Innovation Hotel, showcasing IHG's ideas in sustainable tourism
Announced CARE International as our strategic partner in providing disaster relief.
We have placed corporate
responsibility at the heart
of our strategic thinking,
embedded it in our
strategic priorities across
the business and set up
internal measurement and
performance objectives.
Gavin Flynn,
Senior Vice President
Strategy and Corporate
Development
Related content
Key innovation objectives
Refine our vision of what the green hotel of the future looks like
Enhance our CR communications, in particular giving regular updates to key stakeholders and
seeking their feedback
Keep track of relevant Government policy developments.
Corporate responsibility (CR) is central to the way we do business. Acting responsibly creates value for our
brands while helping our hotels to manage costs, drive revenue and be prepared for the future. It also
keeps us in tune with the thinking of our stakeholders, and supports our mission to champion and protect
IHG's trusted reputation. Doing the right thing reinforces trust in our brands, builds competitive advantage
and strengthens our corporate reputation.
With over 4,400 hotels worldwide and more than 1,200 in the pipeline, we have a tremendous opportunity
to help make tourism responsible, from the energy we use to the economic opportunities we create in the
communities where we operate. We work to achieve this by treating CR as a strategic business issue, and
an integral part of our Vision to become one the world's great companies through our core purpose, Great
Hotels Guests Love.
To measure our progress against our overall goal we focus on four areas, which we call our 'How we win'
priorities. Responsible business is one of those priorities.
Financial returns – to generate higher returns for owners and IHG through increased revenue share,
improved operating efficiency and growing margins.
Our people – to create hotels that are well run, with brands brought to life by people who are proud of
the job they do.
Guest experience – to operate a portfolio of brands that are attractive to owners and guests, and
stand for something unique in the eyes of the market and our guests.
Responsible business – to take an active stance on environment and community issues in order to
create value for IHG, owners and guests.
Our approach
Our strategy is based on innovation and collaboration. Making sure we have the right policies,
management and measurement systems in place to deliver against our strategy is the responsibility of our
CR Board Committee, which we set up in 2009. The Committee is chaired by Jennifer Laing, a NonExecutive Director. It met three times in 2010, focusing on the role of hotels in society, our community and
environmental strategies, our response to carbon regulation and a LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) endorsement for Green Engage.
Innovation
We develop innovative concepts and technologies, and we work closely with our partners to find creative
solutions to the challenges we face. Instead of purchasing carbon offsets, for example, we have chosen to
develop innovative technologies, such as Green Engage, and implement practical measures to make real
carbon and energy reductions across our hotel estate. Our efforts were recognised this year when we
received a LEED endorsement for Green Engage and were awarded the UK Carbon Trust Standard for
showing genuine carbon reductions and a commitment to ongoing reductions.
Collaboration
Our stakeholders play a key role in helping us identify and tackle our priorities. They include guests and
Innovation in action
Key issues
corporate clients, hotel owners and franchise holders, local communities, employees, shareholders,
suppliers, academic institutions, non-government organisations, governments and industry-specific
institutions. We engage with them through forums, meetings, individual interviews, surveys and our awardwinning online Innovation Hotel, where stakeholders propose ideas that contribute to the way we design,
build and operate more responsible hotels.
Creating value through CR
We focus our innovation and collaboration activities on the areas that make most sense to our business,
and where we believe we can make most difference in our communities, creating shared value. We believe
there is real competitive advantage in acting responsibly, which is playing a key role in our efforts to
manage costs and drive revenue more effectively.
Our CR strategy has two pillars:
Environment - reduce energy in our owned and managed estate by between 6% and 10% over three
years (2010-2012) via the use of Green Engage; and
Community - generate local economic opportunities, particularly through the IHG Academy, and
provide shelter in a storm through disaster relief.
Strategic Corporate Responsibility
Build the foundation
Innovation & Collaboration
Do no harm
Do positive good
Policies & governance
New products
Measure & manage
New services
Strategic Corporate Responsibility
Effective risk and cost management
Creation of new shared value
Sustainable performance
A strong foundation
Since setting up our CR function in 2008 we have worked to build and strengthen the foundations that
support our CR strategy and activities. These focus on policy, measurement, management, standards,
technical understanding and consumer insight and are monitored by our Corporate Responsibility
Committee.
We apply the systems we develop to monitor and measure progress across the Group, in our franchised
hotels as well as those we own or manage directly. One of our key initiatives is Green Engage, an online
sustainability tool which gives our hotels the means to measure, manage and monitor energy, water and
waste. This tool is available to all our hotels across the globe.
We have taken many steps forward but with 85% of our hotel estate operating under brand franchises the
pace of progress is inevitably constrained. For instance, as we are still in the process of rolling out systems
to our franchised hotels, we can't always provide data across our entire Group. For that reason, our
objectives in some areas are to continue rolling out systems until we are in a position to deliver specific
results for our business as a whole. We have been working closely with out owners association, the IAHI to
support the franchise roll-out.
We appreciate that we will only achieve our CR goals by getting our hotels on board. We are working
towards that by building a strong base with our partners, through compliance with our CR policies through
contracts and statements of intent, and by getting all of our hotels to work to the behavioural values set out
in the Group's Winning Ways.
With the groundwork in place we have been working on our CR priorities: defining the green hotel of the
future, bringing new products to the marketplace, finding cost efficiencies for ourselves and our partners,
and enhancing the value of our brands. We are already seeing how this will work with key initiatives such
as Green Engage and our Innovation Hotel. Crucially, these initiatives have inbuilt feedback mechanisms
that are helping us build a franchise community that is genuinely committed to our approach of growth
through innovation and collaboration.
Find out more about our initiatives in our Innovation in Action section.
In 2011, we are committed to building on our approach to innovation and collaboration, focusing on:
developing new products
implementing our revised community strategy
developing brand CR plans
strengthening our strategic partnerships
expanding uptake in Green Engage.
CR and new shared value creation
Charity
Create new
value
Compliance
Control
Priorities for action
We focus on activities that give us the opportunity to do the right thing and better manage our impacts
while providing value for IHG, our owners and guests. To help us identify and tackle these priorities we
engage with our stakeholders. Our current priorities are:
climate change
energy efficiency
carbon costs/opportunities
local economic impacts
availability of skilled staff
community support.
More details can be found in our Key issues section.
Find out how we have been tackling these challenges in the Innovation in action section.
In 2011 we will focus on:
refining our stakeholder engagement process
developing a corporate responsibility communications strategy that provides more opportunities to
interact with key stakeholders
enhance the usability of Green Engage across our hotels and franchised estates
being prepared for carbon regulation, for example, the CRC in the UK
implementing our revised community strategy
developing the commercial potential of our CR innovations, with our brand teams.
About this report
We want our CR communications to be cost-effective, sustainable and interactive. To that end we include
all of our CR information and reporting on this one site, which allows you to select and download the
sections of the site that interest you most. We do not publish a printed CR report.
Because we also want to make our reporting more dynamic we regularly update this site on a quarterly
basis. That means you can be sure you are reading up to date information about our CR activities. Read
more about our Reporting cycle.
PDF versions of our CR site from previous years can be found in the download section, at the top righthand corner of each webpage.
Corporate Responsibility / About IHG / Approach / Governance approach
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Approach
CR approach
Governance
approach
Business model
Our brands
Responsible tourism
Policies
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Our performance
Governance approach
Our approach to CR governance
Responsibility for delivering the strategic priorities of the responsible business section of our core purpose,
Great Hotels Guests Love, and determining the overall shape of our Corporate Responsibility strategy lies
with our CR Board Committee. This formalises our approach of making CR a fully integrated part of our
business, putting the needs of society and the environment at the heart of our business objectives and
broader risk management programme.
The Committee makes sure we have the right policies, management and measurement systems in place to
deliver against our strategy. It met three times in 2010, focusing on the role of hotels in society, our
community and environmental strategies, our response to carbon regulation and a LEED (Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design) endorsement for Green Engage. In 2010 the CR Committee was
subject to performance evaluation, in accordance with the process adopted for all the main Committees of
the Board.
The Committee reports to the Board and is chaired by Jennifer Laing, a Non-Executive Director. NonExecutive Directors, Ralph Kugler and Graham Allan are also members. To reflect the high priority we
place on CR, CEO Richard Solomons and Non-Executive Chairman David Webster regularly attend
meetings.
The CR Committee also responds to regulatory changes, which have made CR a critical component of
effective corporate governance. Under new rules directors are responsible for environmental, employee,
social and community matters, with public companies also required to include these issues in their annual
business reviews.
In 2010 we created a Carbon Strategy to manage the reputational and monetary risks associated with
complex regulatory requirements, such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), a new mandatory
carbon programme in the UK. During the year we worked with all our UK franchisees to implement the
scheme. For more information on this and our other environmental regulatory risks see Environmental
Legislation.
Operationally, George Turner, Executive Vice President, is the Executive Committee member responsible
for Corporate Responsibility. David Jerome, Senior Vice President for Corporate Responsibility, reports
directly to him and leads the global team from IHG's headquarters in the UK. The CR team forms part of
the Business Reputation and Responsibility function and supports its mission to champion and protect the
trusted reputation of IHG. Corporate Responsibility and transparency reinforces trust in our brands, builds
competitive advantage and strengthens our corporate reputation.
The Board of InterContinental Hotels Group is responsible to the shareholders for the strategic direction,
development, performance and control of the Group.
Code of Conduct
We believe that strong ethics and good business go hand in hand. We are committed to operating our
company with integrity and according to the highest ethical standards. In 2006 we revised our Code of
Ethics and Business Conduct and made it publicly available on our website.
The new Code consolidates and clarifies expected standards of behaviour and sets out the ethical values
of the Group. It states clearly that IHG's reputation is built on the trust and confidence of our stakeholders
and underpins our operations world-wide. We have a whistleblower line and communicate this through
internal communications and a dedicated website www.ihgethics.com.
The Code applies to all directors, officers and employees of IHG, and should be read together with the
company's core values. We also provide conflict of interest training to key employees to ensure our ethical
standards and the Group's overall best interests are maintained.
Corporate Responsibility / About IHG / Approach / Governance approach / Business model
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Approach
CR approach
Governance
approach
Business model
Our brands
Business model
Business overview and strategy
Our Vision is to become one of the world's great companies. Thanks to this strategy and the strength of
our brands we are already the largest hotel company in the world, with more guest rooms than any other
hotel operator. Between our seven brands we have close to 650,000 rooms in over 4,400 hotels in 100
countries and territories.
We directly employed an average of 7,858 people world-wide during 2010. When the whole IHG estate is
taken into account (including staff working in both managed and franchised hotels) approximately 335,000
people are employed globally across our brands.
Our operations and growth are grounded in our core purpose, which is to create 'Great Hotels Guests
Love'. Elements of our strategy, such as our business model of third-party ownership, help us to achieve
this and grow faster than our global competitors.
Responsible tourism
Policies
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Our performance
Our ownership model
Our business model is based on franchising and managing hotels, rather than owning them outright. As at
31 December 2010, 642,031 hotel rooms operating under IHG brands were managed or franchised, and
5,130 were owned or leased.
3,783 franchisees currently operate their hotels under one of our brands. Franchising gives them the
benefit of the IHG system. The largest such system in the industry it helps guests to book and stay with us,
and to maintain the relationship with us after they leave. It includes efficient reservations systems, a global
web presence, sales and marketing teams, training and development expertise and our loyalty rewards
schemes. We work closely with our owners association, the IAHI, as we develop and roll out key initiatives
across our estate. Hotel owners also benefit from our brand reputation, which is increasingly important to
our overall CR performance. Green Engage is currently voluntary for our franchise hotels, which will be
reviewed in 2011, but our CR policy forms part of our contracts with owners.
We have 639 hotels operating under management contracts. Under this arrangement we run the hotels on
a day-to-day basis with direct control over quality and service standards, but the building is owned by a
third party.
We own just 15 hotels ourselves – less than 1% of the estate. Most of these are in major cities such as
London, Hong Kong, New York and Paris.
Total number of Hotels in 2010 by Region
78% Americas 3,458
16% EMEA 694
6% Asia Australasia 140
6% Greater China 145
Total 4,437
Total number of Hotel rooms in 2010 by Region
69% Americas 439,375
19% EMEA 120,852
12% Asia Australasia 38,407
12% Greater China 48,527
Total 647,161
Since setting up our CR function in 2008 we have worked to build and strengthen the foundations that
support our CR strategy and activities. These focus on policy, measurement, management, standards,
technical understanding and consumer insight. We apply the systems we develop to monitor and measure
progress across the Group, in our franchised hotels as well as those we own or manage directly. We have
taken many steps forward but with 85% of our hotel estate operating under brand franchises the pace of
progress is inevitably constrained. For instance, as we are still in the process of rolling out systems to our
franchised hotels, we can't always provide data across our entire Group. For that reason, our objectives in
some areas are to continue rolling out systems until we are in a position to deliver specific results for our
business as a whole. We have been working closely with our owners association, the IAHI to support the
franchise roll-out.
Related content
Our CR approach
Corporate Responsibility / About IHG / Approach / Governance approach / Our brands
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Approach
CR approach
Governance
approach
Business model
Our brands
Responsible tourism
Policies
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Our performance
Our brands
Our brands include some of the best-known and most popular in the world. They range from prestigious
hotels in the world's major cities and resorts to reliable family-oriented hotels offering great service and
value. Our brand strengths are built on our corporate values of Winning Ways and Room to be Yourself.
Read how CR supports our core business purpose.
Related content
Our CR approach
Corporate Responsibility / About IHG / Approach / Responsible tourism
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Responsible tourism
Over 9%
CEO Message
About IHG
The tourist industry is estimated to
account for over 9% of global GDP
and employs over 8% of total
employment worldwide (Source:
World Travel and Tourism Council)
Approach
CR approach
Governance approach
Responsible tourism
Policies
The World is a book, and
those who do not travel
read only a page.
Innovation
Collaboration
Saint Augustine
Environment
Community
Our performance
Fast facts
Related content
Travel & Tourism is one of the world's largest industries, employing more than 235 million people
worldwide
Green Engage
Despite the global economic downturn, international tourist arrivals are predicted to increase from
903 million in 2007 to 1.6 billion by 2020 (Source: International Tourism Partnership)
Climate change and what we
are doing to reduce our
impacts
Each dollar or pound or real spent at an IHG hotel multiplies through the economy six to seven
times. (Source: Economic Impacts Study conducted by Oxford Economics on behalf of IHG)
Every dollar spent in an IHG hotel in the US means seven dollars spent in the US economy.
(Source: Economic Impacts Study conducted by Oxford Economics on behalf of IHG).
IHG and responsible tourism
Tourism plays a large role in the world economy and is an important source of wealth for many countries,
particularly developing countries where tourism may be the main source of economic prosperity.
We know from our own research that the economic impact of hospitality is far reaching. The supply chain of
our industry has a knock-on effect, creating business activity in nearly all other economic sectors. Hotel
guests spend money in the retail, recreation, transportation and restaurant sectors. And hotels provide a
forum for business meetings, trade shows and conventions which in turn generate economic growth.
With close to 650,000 rooms in over 4,400 hotels in 100 countries and territories, IHG has more guest
rooms than any other hotel company in the world. Guests make over 130 million stays in our hotels every
year so it's hardly surprising that our economic impact is significant. Our research shows that every dollar
spent in an IHG US hotel means a further seven dollars spent in the US economy.
At the same time the industry faces increasing pressure to balance its economic performance with its social
and environmental impacts. Acknowledging that this is the context in which we conduct our business, we
believe that travel and tourism should be operated responsibly and that the long-term benefits of taking this
approach far outweigh the costs. Hotels, as part of the global tourism industry, have a responsibility to
ensure that owners and hotel general managers understand and adopt responsible tourism practices and
that they educate their guests and suppliers in these principles.
It makes sense to put responsible tourism at the heart of our CR programme. It will play a major role in the
long-term viability of our business and of the travel and tourism sector. The responsible tourism industry is
expected to increase from 903 million in 2007 to 1.6 billion by 2020. We want to make sure we are in the
best possible position to capitalise on this.
We continue to make good progress on initiatives that address two of our industry's biggest challenges –
global climate change and the economic downturn, and how these impact on local communities. Our
initiatives are helping us to measure and manage our environmental impacts, and provide jobs and training
opportunities in the communities where we operate.
Climate change and innovation
By using resources such as energy and water wisely, minimising waste, conserving ecosystems and
biodiversity, and sourcing locally wherever possible our hotels are reducing the negative impacts that
contribute to climate change.
Find out more about climate change and what we are doing to reduce our impacts.
Local economic development
Responsible tourism is also about involving local people in tourism to generate greater wellbeing for their
communities. Our hotels support economic development by creating stable sources of income and
providing opportunities for both local employment and local businesses, notably as employees of and
suppliers to the hotel.
Find out more about our Community Strategy in the Community section.
Partnerships and collaboration
To remain at the forefront of developments in responsible tourism we put a lot of effort into strengthening
existing partnerships and developing new ones.
Community section
We are an active member of the International Tourism Partnership, established by
the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), to promote responsible tourism
through responsible leadership. The programme provides members with a noncompetitive platform to share knowledge and resources, develop policy and
actively implement programmes that have a positive impact on economic, social and environmental issues.
IHG's InterContinental Brand has created a pioneering partnership with the
National Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations (CSD) to help embed
responsible tourism principles throughout our key brands.
InterContinental Brand & National Geographic's Centre for Sustainable
Destinations - Bringing Responsible Tourism to life - case study
Our InterContinental Hotels & Resorts brand and guests share a common belief that the most
enriching and rewarding travel comes through authentic experiences. InterContinental is known for
actively sharing its local knowledge, helping guests discover the true essence of its destinations. In
connecting people with all that is special about a place, we recognise that we have a responsibility to
respect and protect the nature, heritage and communities that make it unique.
This is why InterContinental chose to partner with National Geographic's Center for Sustainable
Destinations. We have been working together since 2008, encouraging guests to develop a deeper
appreciation of our world and inspiring in them a passion for its preservation.
The National Geographic Society is one of the world's largest non profit scientific and educational
organisations. The Center for Sustainable Destinations (CSD) is dedicated to protecting the world's
distinctive places through its strategy of geotourism. This is tourism that sustains or enhances the
geographical character of a place - its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of
its residents. (Visit nationalgeographic.com/travel/sustainable for more details).
More and more InterContinental customers want to minimise their impact on the planet, and they
should be able to do this without compromising on the standards they expect when they stay with a
luxury hotel brand. Our guests see National Geographic as leaders in the field of geotourism and our
alignment with the organisation as relevant and meaningful.
To support the partnership, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts properties around the world regularly
take part in activities designed to make sure their location remains an appealing place to visit for
future generations. On 21st September 2010, the brand held its first Responsible Business Day, when
InterContinental hotels from around the world took part in activities ranging from cleaning woods and
parks to preserving historical monuments, so they can be enjoyed by guests in years to come. Some
of these activities can be found on intercontinental.com/responsible.
Corporate Responsibility / About IHG / Approach / Policies
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Policies
CEO Message
About IHG
Approach
CR approach
Governance approach
Responsible tourism
Policies
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Our performance
We have comprehensive Group-wide policies on key CR issues, including:
Environment
Human rights
Community
IHG Vendor Code of Conduct
The CR Committee is responsible for these policies. We regularly review our policies and implementation
procedures to ensure we continue to meet best practice in these areas. Our focus in the coming year will
be on refining policies and rolling them out across the entire Group.
Environment
We acknowledge our responsibility to respect the environment and manage our impacts for the benefit of
the communities in which we operate, and we are committed to measuring and managing those impacts
and finding innovative ways to reduce them. We will:
implement sound environmental practices in the design, development and operation of our hotels
encourage the development and integration of sustainable technologies
endeavour to reduce our use of energy and water, and re-use and recycle the resources consumed by
our business wherever practical
engage our customers, colleagues, hotel owners, suppliers and contractors in our efforts to protect the
environment
provide the training and resources required to meet our objectives
monitor, record and benchmark our environmental performance on a regular basis
make business decisions that take these commitments into account
communicate our policies, practices and programmes to all our stakeholders.
Find out more about our approach to the environment.
Human rights
We support and protect human rights wherever we can. As a responsible company with operations in
nearly 100 countries and territories, we believe that strong ethics and good business go hand in hand and
we are committed to complying with the laws and regulations of the countries and jurisdictions in which we
operate.
To demonstrate our commitment in this area we:
support the protection of human rights, particularly those of our employees, the parties we do business
with and the communities where we operate
respect our employees' rights to voluntary freedom of association, under the law
provide a safe and healthy working environment
do not support forced and compulsory labour or the exploitation of children
support the elimination of employment discrimination and promote diversity in the workplace
provide our employees with remuneration and tools for growing their careers, and take their wellbeing
into consideration
promote fair competition and do not support corruption
conduct our business with honesty and integrity in compliance with applicable laws
develop and implement company procedures and processes to ensure we comply with this policy.
Find out more about our approach to Human rights.
Supporting our communities policy
We are committed to active involvement in the local communities around our hotels and corporate offices.
Ultimately that means being a valued, responsible community partner by ensuring that our business
objectives enhance the quality of life in the community.
The aim of our charitable endeavours is to support global efforts that represent the business goals of IHG
and which make a positive different to the communities in which we operate. The activities we support
must be aligned with our corporate values.
Who we support
At a Corporate level, IHG focuses on:
The Environment – IHG understands its responsibility to respect the environment and manage its
impacts for the benefit of the communities in which it operates (e.g. energy, waste and water savings)
Local Economic Opportunity – IHG supports the development of sustainable opportunities in the
community, especially in terms of education and skills training to enhance employment opportunities in
the hospitality industry
Disaster Relief – IHG is committed to helping provide disaster relief when natural and man-made
disasters occur that affect our hotels and the local communities surrounding them
Community partnerships
In choosing which charities to support, primary consideration is given to requests that meet the following
criteria:
Exhibit a clear purpose and defined need in one of IHG's three areas of focus
Recognise innovative approaches in addressing the defined need
Demonstrate an efficient organisation and detail the organisation's ability to follow through on its
proposal
Explain clearly the benefits to IHG and our hotel communities
At local level, our approach is to encourage our local managers and employees to use this Policy as a
common sense guide in deciding what is right for their community, while ensuring that all decisions conform
to our Code of Ethics.
Our approach to charitable giving
Contributions are only made to organisations with verifiable charity status and those whose ethical
principles are consistent with our Code of Ethics.
IHG does not support organisations that discriminate on the basis of race, religion, creed, gender, age,
physical challenge or national origin. In addition, contributions generally are not provided to:
Individuals
Religious organisations
General operating support for hospitals and health care institutions
Capital campaigns
Endowment funds
Conferences, workshops or seminars not directly related to IHG's business interests
IHG generally does not commit to multi-year grants; only the first year of multi-year requests will be
assured, but subsequent years will be dependent upon annual evaluation for future support
IHG does not make political donations of any kind
Review structure and process
Corporate donations are governed by the Steering Group of the Corporate Responsibility Team (CRT)
The CRT draws on staff input to guide our 'Supporting our Communities' policy
The CRT recommends an annual budget for approval by the Executive Committee, sets policies,
guidelines, criteria and strategic direction, and approves all contributions with Executive Committee
oversight
IHG Vendor Code of Conduct
This IHG Vendor Code of Conduct sets out the requirements, principles and practices that IHG has
adopted to promote ethical conduct in the workplace, safe working conditions in the supply chain, treatment
of persons with respect and dignity, and environmentally responsible practices. These are the minimum
standards under which IHG Vendors are expected to operate, and IHG encourages Vendors to exceed the
requirements set out below.
Vendor declares herewith:
Compliance with Laws and Regulations
to comply with the laws of the applicable countries in which it operates as well as international laws
related to the conduct of business.
Labour and Human Rights
to support the protection of human rights, particularly those of its employees, the parties with whom it
conducts business and the communities where it operates;
to respect its employees' rights to voluntary freedom of association under the law;
to provide a safe and healthy working environment;
to not support forced and compulsory labour or the exploitation of children;
to support the elimination of employment discrimination and harassment, and promote diversity in the
workplace;
to provide employees with remuneration and tools for growing their careers, and take their wellbeing into
consideration.
Environmental Protection
to implement sound environmental practices in the design, development and operation of its business
and provide the training and resources required to implement such practices;
to encourage the development and integration of sustainable technologies and to endeavour to reduce
the use of energy and water, and re-use and recycle the resources consumed by its business wherever
practical;
to engage its customers, colleagues, partners, suppliers and contractors in its efforts to protect the
environment;
to monitor, record and benchmark environmental performance on a regular basis.
Business Integrity
to tolerate no form of and not to engage in any form of corruption or bribery, including any payment or
other form of benefit conferred on any government official for the purpose of influencing decision making
in violation of law;
to safeguard from disclosure IHG's confidential and proprietary information as well as its employee and
customer privacy and personal information;
to avoid business activity that would conflict or interfere with the provision of products and services to
IHG;
to accurately record and disclose information regarding business activities, structure, and financial
situation and performance in accordance with applicable laws, regulations and industry practices.
Supply Chain
to use reasonable efforts to ensure that Vendor's subcontractors and suppliers also operate in a manner
consistent with the IHG Vendor Code of Conduct.
Note that this document is not intended to create new or additional third party rights or obligations in favour
of third parties, including any rights of, or obligations to, employees of Vendor. It supplements, but does not
supersede, any rights maintained by IHG under any contract or agreement with any Vendor.
IHG reserves the right to reasonably update, alter or change the requirements of the IHG Vendor Code of
Conduct. In such event, IHG expects Vendor to accept such changes and act accordingly.
Corporate Responsibility / Innovation
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Innovation in action
Innovation Hotel
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Our performance
The tension between
tourism and
sustainability creates a
space for innovation.
Corporate Responsibility (CR) is at
the core of our business strategy. It
is about how we do business and
create value for the company as well
as for society.
Find out more
Read our CEO statement
With over 4,000 hotels
globally, we have a big
responsibility and a big
opportunity to make a
positive difference.
Richard Solomons
Chief Executive
Help us create a green hotel
Read more about our biggest innovation
achievements of the year, including:
Our Green Engage tool
Our Innovation Hotel
Our IHG Academy programmes
Our Oxford University partnership
Our Cornell Sustainability
Measurement study
Corporate Responsibility / Innovation / Innovation in action
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Innovation in action
In 2010 we set up an
IHG Academy with
Rosedale College, an
educational
establishment local to
our United Kingdom
Headquarters
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Innovation in action
Innovation Hotel
Collaboration
Environment
Related content
Community
Green Engage
Our performance
Book a greener hotel
Key achievements
Launched version 2.0 of Green Engage, our system-wide approach to environmental management
We became the first hotel company to receive a LEED endorsement for an existing hotel
programme, Green Engage
Rolled out Green Engage, our online management tool, helping hotels on their journey to be green,
to over 1,000 hotels
Donated $100,000 USD to the Oxford University department of plant sciences to better understand
how hotel design and development impacts the environment.
We acknowledge there is a tension between tourism and the environment but we believe this can be a
creative one, providing an opportunity to find innovative solutions to the environmental, social and
economic effects of our business. With over 4,400 hotels globally and a new hotel opening almost every
day, we have a big responsibility and a real opportunity to make a positive difference.
We respond to the social and environment challenges we face by developing innovative improvements to
the way we work. While we lead by example, at our global headquarters in England for instance which
incorporates sustainable design features, we also recognise that head office does not have all the answers.
For that reason we work closely with our partners to arrive at sensible and sustainable business-led
solutions.
We are making good progress with a number of innovative initiatives that show how this approach is
shaping our response to some of the major CR issues of the day.
Green Engage
We are always on the lookout for new and innovative approaches to building and running our hotels to
mitigate our impact on climate change and future proof our business against rising carbon and resource
costs. Central to our environmental strategy is defining what a green hotel is and how we will achieve
energy and carbon reductions.
Our online management system, Green Engage, is endorsed by LEED. It enables hotels to measure,
manage and report their key environmental impacts. It also helps them to identify the most appropriate
solutions to their local environmental risks by providing best practice advice that is specific to their type of
hotel and the climate they operate in.
See Green Engage in the Environment section
Book a greener hotel
Global offices
Our global headquarters in the UK and the USA are innovative examples of sustainable building design.
Denham HQ
We relocated our global IHG Headquarters (HQ) to a new site at Denham, just outside London, in
September 2008. The new HQ provided us with a blank canvas that enabled us to design our offices in
consultation with our employees and with sustainability in mind.
Our HQ reflects the modern, open and professional company we are, as well as the values we work to.
The building is sustainable in all ways, from the materials and suppliers we used for the refurbishment, to
the ongoing reduction of our carbon footprint and the creation of an environment that supports the
wellbeing of our employees and demonstrates environmental best practice.
Some of the key features are:
by the end of the project over 90% of waste was successfully reused or recycled, preventing almost 400
Energy section
Innovation Hotel
tonnes of waste from ending up in landfill
we helped reduce the project's carbon footprint by supporting local suppliers based within 25 miles of
Denham
energy- and water-saving measures include energy efficient lighting, solar panels in the car park, low
flow plumbing, reducing water consumption by 20%, and zone metering
all of our furniture contains recycled material and up to 95% of it can be recycled in turn
Atlanta office
In 2009 our US Office in Atlanta invested in making the office more energy efficient. Find out about some of
the building's key features in our Energy section.
Innovation Hotel
Our award-winning Innovation Hotel, originally launched in 2008, is an online showcase for sustainable
hotel design technology. We've recently launched version 2.0 which retains all the features of the original
site but now has a refreshed design, is more dynamic with enhanced interactivity.
IHG Academy programmes
We know that the global economic downturn is having an impact on the communities in which we operate.
We also know that in order to grow as a business we need to develop our own talent pool. Our IHG
Academy is an innovative approach to supporting local communities while also supplying our hotels with a
sustainable talent base. In 2010 we expanded the programme to parts of Europe, Australia and the USA,
and will continue to expand in 2011.
Oxford University Conservation Project
IHG has joined forces with the University of Oxford to accelerate vital and innovative research into
conservation. We have pledged up to US$1million over a five-year period to help Oxford increase its
research capability into how climate change is impacting on biodiversity. This will inform our future hotel
design and operations.
Cornell Sustainability Measurement Study
As part of our collaborative effort to determine common industry metrics for environmental, social and
governance (ESG) disclosure, we began working with the Cornell University Center for Hospitality
Research along with several other industry peers to develop and test a framework for energy, water and
carbon emissions. The results are an initial study providing references and guidelines that all hotels can
use to consistently measure and communicate the environmental impacts of hotel stays to our guests and
corporate clients.
Corporate Responsibility / Innovation / Innovation Hotel
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Innovation Hotel
2,300
CEO Message
About IHG
Roughly 2,300 people a month visit
the Innovation Hotel.
Innovation
Innovation in action
I have great respect for a
highly-reputable, ecofriendly company like IHG.
I wish your Green Engage
program all the success.
Innovation Hotel
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Innovation hotel online
guest, 2010
Our performance
Key achievements
Launched version 2.0 of the Innovation Hotel, an online showcase for sustainable hotel design
technology.
Consumer research confirms that most of our customers want to make choices that are better for the
environment and for communities. This makes us even more determined to find innovative ways to act
responsibly throughout our brands and services.
The Innovation Hotel is an online example of what future hotels might look like if they used green
technologies. We created it so that our guests can tell us what they like and share their ideas with us. It
also provides us with a place to set out our latest thinking. We use the site to consider these ideas as we
evolve the way we design, build and operate more responsible hotels. It also feeds into the ongoing
development of our Green Engage programme. Giving online guests and members of the public a chance
to contribute ideas to the site has brought about a step-change in our relationship with these important
stakeholders.
We are working to make the Innovation Hotel more interactive and later in the year we will regularly publish
our visitors' top ideas and latest comments. We will look to test more ideas through Green Engage and use
feedback from visitors to inform current and new product and service development.
Innovation Hotel has won a number of awards since it was launched in 2008:
2009 CSR Innovation Award from Hotel Magazine
Worldwide Hospitality Awards for best initiative in sustainable development 2009
Hotel Report Awards 'Innovator Award in CSR' - 2008
Corporate Responsibility / Collaboration
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Approach
Our partners and stakeholders
Key issues
Environment
Community
Our performance
We are more than the
sum of our parts.
The IHG model is based on
partnership, so collaboration with key
stakeholders is a natural corporate
behaviour within the Group.
Find out more
What do our business partners
think?
The creation of new models of
partnership to tackle complex
socio-economic and
environmental problems
represents one of the most
important, and at the same time
challenging, trends in corporate
responsibility.
Jane Nelson,
Senior Fellow and Director,
Corporate Social Responsibility
Initiative, Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard University
Corporate Responsibility / Collaboration / Approach
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Approach
CARE International
fight poverty and
injustice in over 70
countries and help
more than 57 million
people each year to find
routes out of poverty.
Ninety pence in every
pound goes towards
their poverty fighting
programmes. (Source:
CARE International)
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Approach
Our partners and stakeholders
Key issues
Environment
Community
Our performance
Key achievements
Expanded the IHG Academy concept, a public/private partnership that helps us create local
economic opportunities
Announced CARE International as our strategic business partner in providing disaster relief
Established a new partnership with Business in the Community
Worked with Harvard University for the third year running to review our CR reporting
Developed the IHG Shelter in a Fund Programme, a strategic partnership with CARE International,
that assists IHG hotels to react swiftly and effectively to natural or man-made disasters.
Key collaboration objectives
Refine and integrate CR strategies for brands as appropriate
Refine our stakeholder engagement process via an integrated stakeholder engagement and
communications plan
Improve the ways we communicate with stakeholders
To further promote the completion of the Corporate Responsibility survey by General Managers of
our hotels.
Our business model is based on partnership, so working closely with key stakeholders comes naturally to
us.
Our stakeholders play a key role in helping us identify and tackle our priorities. They provide us with
opportunities to learn about emerging issues, challenges and opportunities and work with us to develop
new solutions to some of our biggest challenges. Their input helps us shape our strategy and decide which
CR activities and investments to prioritise.
Our stakeholders are groups or individuals who are interested in or are affected by our operations. They
include guests and corporate clients, hotel owners and franchise holders, local communities, employees,
shareholders, suppliers, academic institutions, non-government organisations, governments and industryspecific institutions. We engage with them through forums, meetings, individual interviews, surveys and our
award-winning online Innovation Hotel, where stakeholders propose ideas that contribute to the way we
design, build and operate more responsible hotels.
We conducted a mapping exercise to identify our key internal and external stakeholders, the CR issues
that are most important to them, and the potential impact of these on our business and on local
communities.
Key stakeholder groups
Guests & corporate clients
Owners & franchise holders
Local communities
Employees
Shareholders
Suppliers
Academic institutions
NGOs
Governments
Institutional stakeholders
Stakeholder engagement process
We have a formal process for engaging with our key stakeholders through meetings, one-to-one interviews
and surveys. Their feedback influences the development of our CR strategy.
Related content
Key priorities in our Key
issues section
Our stakeholders
Our stakeholders tell us they are concerned about a range of issues from climate change and biodiversity
to green cost savings and carbon regulation. We used their feedback to assess the issues that have most
impact on our stakeholders and IHG, identifying the following areas as critical to our business:
climate change
energy efficiency
carbon costs/opportunities
local economic impacts
availability of skilled staff
community support
For more information on our key priorities, please see our Key issues section.
Stakeholders also give us invaluable feedback on our current CR programme and communications. As a
direct result of what they told us, we are improving our CR communications and targeting them to address
our different stakeholder groups in a way that suits them. Our recently revised community strategy was also
informed by stakeholder feedback as was the development of Green Engage version 2.0.
We will continue to refine the way we engage with our stakeholders. This year we have made a
commitment to look at ways of further formalising our stakeholder engagement process and seeking more
opportunities to share learning on CR through, for example, round-table events and Green days at our
corporate offices.
Corporate Responsibility / Collaboration / Our partners and stakeholders
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Our partners and stakeholders
Green Engage reduces our
carbon footprint, gets
people in the company
involved in green issues
and helps them to
understand the benefits of
green management. We
would like to introduce
Green Engage to more of
our hotels in the near
future.
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Approach
Our partners and
stakeholders
CEO Glenn Squires,
Pacrim Hospitality
Key issues
Environment
Community
Our performance
Through our long-term business partnerships and stakeholder engagement we gain a better understanding
of our business context and get to consult widely on sustainability issues.
Guests and corporate clients
Our core purpose is to create Great Hotels Guests Love. Feedback from the guests who stay in our hotels
is therefore central to our CR strategy. Our investment in consumer insight research confirms that CR is
important to the majority of our customers. As we update our report every quarter, stakeholders can check
on our progress throughout the year.
By visiting our virtual Innovation Hotel, stakeholders also get a chance to take part in creating their ideal
hotel by sharing ideas on how to make a hotel greener.
A growing number of our corporate clients are setting themselves sustainability targets and look for our help
to achieve them. We provide corporate clients with details of our own carbon footprint when they choose to
do business with us. At the same time we have set ourselves a strategic objective of making every guest's
stay at one of our hotels more carbon efficient.
The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) represents more than 4,000 corporate travel managers.
The NBTA is the authoritative voice of the business travel community and collectively manages and directs
more than $200 billion of expenditure within the business travel industry. NBTA is dedicated to putting CR
policies into everyday practices to promote sustainable social, environmental and economic benefits and to
encourage and educate members on CR. In 2009 the association recognised our commitment to supporting
societal needs and reducing our environmental impact in its first annual CSR awards. In 2010 this
recognition was followed up by an award from NBTA Australasia.
Measuring the 'love' in Great Hotels Guests Love – case study
HeartBeat, our new online survey system, makes it easier and quicker for hotel managers and owners
to get and compile guest feedback. It also captures more detail than previous systems, ensuring that
hotels keep their fingers firmly on the pulse of what guests feel when they stay with us.
Crucially, the system is simple for guests to use. Available in several languages, the survey takes just
10 minutes to complete but gives guests the chance to provide more and better quality information.
For instance, they can give specific feedback on what they think of the service, cleanliness and
overall condition of the hotel. The system also enables us to capture and report on the individual
comments that guests make.
This level of detail and a new 10-point scale allows us to differentiate between a satisfied guest and
one who loved their stay – a crucial element in our vision to become one of the world's great
companies.
As a connected online tool, HeartBeat is more responsive and turns reports around more quickly than
traditional paper surveys. It's saving hotels an average of 10 hours a week in counting, distributing
and shipping surveys – and making it better for the environment, too.
Most of our hotels are signed up to HeartBeat and tell us they like the way it works. At the same time,
the system is useful for corporate analysts who can filter and analyse guest data in order to spot
trends, making sure our hotels stay one step ahead.
Owners and franchise holders (The IAHI)
We own, lease and manage 654 hotels worldwide and have direct control over their CR activities. Although
we do not own our franchise hotels we work closely with hotel owners through our owners' association, the
IAHI, to shape and implement our CR strategy.
The IAHI is very supportive of our environmental management tool, Green Engage. During 2010 even more
franchised hotels adopted Green Engage and members were actively involved in the design and testing of
version 2.0. Our target for 2011 is to continue to sign up new owned and managed hotels until we have
100% taking part, and to make significant progress on the number of franchised hotels taking part.
Our monthly community involvement survey gives general managers the chance to report on community
and environmental activities in their individual hotels. Read more about how we support our communities.
The CSR Initiative at
Harvard's Kennedy School
is working with IHG and
other companies to
evaluate new multistakeholder models in the
areas of expanding
economic opportunity,
building human capital and
improving governance and
accountability in
developing countries.
Jane Nelson,
Senior Fellow and Director,
Corporate Social
Responsibility Initiative,
Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard
University
Green Engage – an owner's perspective – case study
Canadian hotel group Pacrim Hospitality signed up seven of its hotels to Green Engage in June 2009.
Despite some initial concerns that monthly measuring and reporting might be an unwelcome burden,
the hotel was soon noticing the benefits.
Roger Rowsell, Green Engage co-ordinator at Pacrim, said: "Implementing Green Engage has been a
huge advantage in this economic downturn. Our revenues are down and Green Engage provides real
opportunities to reduce energy consumption and therefore our costs. At a conservative estimate we
believe we could save CND $130-150 per hotel room per year."
Now that all seven hotels have got to grips with measuring their water, waste, electricity and gas
consumption they are beginning to explore Green Manage, the area of the system that offers best
practice 'green' improvements throughout the entire hotel lifecycle. Although the seven hotels are
starting to see some minor paybacks now, the real gains are expected to come in 18-20 months
when changes suggested by Green Engage have been put into action.
Pacrim's CEO Glenn Squires sums up the benefits for his hotels: "Environmental issues really
resonate with our customers and they are expecting us to be advocates and only engage in projects
that are good for the environment. They want to see commitment beyond towels on the rack. Green
Engage does exactly that. It reduces our carbon footprint, gets people in the company involved in
green issues and helps them to understand the benefits of green management. We would like to
introduce Green Engage to more of our hotels in the near future."
Local communities
In many cases the lack of a skilled workforce is a barrier for developing nations to tap into the economic
benefits that travel and tourism have to offer. In China we launched the IHG Academy, a public/private
partnership that provides hospitality job training in our local communities and which we are now extending
across parts of Europe, the USA and Australia. Read more about this and review our student interview
case study in the Community section of this report.
Employees
We recognise the importance of communicating information about our business and its performance to
employees. Because CR issues are central to our company values they are a prominent feature of global
management conferences, informal briefings, in-house publications and our intranets.
In January 2011 we held a Green Day at our Atlanta Offices to raise awareness of IHG's approach to CR.
During the coming year we will work with colleagues to ensure that we are following sound principles for
Green Meetings and Green Training materials. We will also set up a dedicated section on CR in our
Leaders Lounge, a virtual community of IHG leaders that provides time-effective tools, tips and articles that
reinforce our strategy and help managers improve their leadership. This online tool allows users to connect
with and share best practices with peers and senior IHG leaders around the globe.
Raising employee awareness of CR - case study
In January 2011, 600 of our employees took part in a Green Day at our Atlanta Offices to raise
awareness of IHG's approach to CR. During the day we gave a demonstration of version 2.0 of Green
Engage and let employees know the range of things we're doing to be sustainable. These include
recycling and improving our green facilities; using native vegetation for hotel landscaping; using
carpets and wallpaper made from partially recycled materials; changing to energy efficient printing;
and the Rainforest coffee alliance.
We also discussed the measures our employees can take to be more sustainable at home, such as
using public transit or carpooling; recycling; green landscaping; being more energy efficient and
conducting energy efficiency audits; using green cleaning products; and freecycling. To help people
get started, we gave out information on local organisations that support these activities. We promoted
the event by handing out CFL bulbs and low flow sink aerators and kept the theme going with the
refreshments on offer and a range of sustainable raffle prizes.
Shareholders
We report formally to shareholders twice a year and release quarterly results. In
addition, regular meetings are held with major institutional shareholders to discuss
the progress of our business, performance, plans and objectives.
IHG is included in the FTSE4Good Index. As well as assessing whether we
continue to meet globally recognised standards on CR, such indexes facilitate our
engagement with the wider investment community on CR issues.
Our Annual General Meeting also provides an opportunity to meet private shareholders. Our shareholders
can read about our approach to CR in the dedicated CR sections of our Annual Review and Annual Report.
Suppliers
Feedback from suppliers helps us to better understand how we perform against our peers and gain a
clearer picture of our risks.
Wherever possible we encourage our hotels to source goods and services locally. In addition to IHG
supporting local suppliers, we also need to promote responsible business practices by those same
suppliers. One area we are working on with suppliers is procurement - find out more in our Supply Chain
section.
Academic Institutions
We want to be leaders in CR within the hotel and tourism industry. That is why we aim to work with the
best, most forward-looking academic thinkers on the subject.
Harvard University John F Kennedy School of Government
We joined Harvard's CSR Initiative at the JFK School
of Government in 2008. The Initiative works with IHG
and other companies to assess new ways of opening
up economic opportunities in developing economies. Its
Visiting Practitioners' programme brings IHG managers
and non-profit partners together with students from different disciplines to share lessons on building crosssector partnerships for the public good.
For the last 3 years we have also worked closely with the student-led CR Council on campus, which is
continuing to provide us with invaluable feedback on our CR communications.
University of Oxford
We sponsor Oxford University's Plant Diversity Research Project to help us
understand better how hotel design and development impacts the environment.
Find out more about our work with Oxford University
National Geographic
Our InterContinental brand has been working with the National Geographic Center
for Sustainable Destinations to develop a responsible tourism strategy for
ourselves and our guests. The result is InterContinental's Five Principles of
Geotourism, which are based on the code of good practice devised by the National
Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations.
Find out more about our work with National Geographic
NGOs
United States Green Building Council and LEED
In January 2011, IHG became the first hotel company to receive LEED certification for
an existing hotel programme:
David Jerome, Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at IHG, is a member
of the United States Green Building Council's Hospitality Advisory Working Group.
Our sustainability tool, Green Engage has recently been awarded The US Green
Building Council's prestigious Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) endorsement, for
showing genuine carbon reductions and a commitment to ongoing reductions. LEED is the global
benchmark for sustainable buildings.
Global Compact
In 2010 we became a member of the United Nations Global Compact and are
committed to aligning our operations, culture and strategies with ten universally
accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anticorruption. We will report on our progress against the ten principles within the next
year.
Care International
We have recently partnered with Care International, one of the world's three
biggest aid agencies to develop a rapid, cohesive response strategy, including
operating guidelines to help hotels make the best use of their resources in times
of a crisis.
BITC
We joined the Business in the Community forum in 2009. We have committed to
improve the way we manage our resources, human and environmental, in
collaboration with other members. Our membership of BiTC will help to inform our
revised community strategy.
Industry Specific Stakeholders
We work with a number of stakeholders on specific industry issues.
World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)
We are members of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), which promotes
the tourism sector, highlighting its large economic impact as well as promoting the
protection of the natural, social and cultural environment.
International Tourism Partnership
We are an active member of the International Tourism Partnership (ITP),
established by the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) to promote
responsible tourism through responsible leadership. The programme provides
members with a non-competitive platform to share knowledge and resources,
develop policy and actively implement programmes and initiatives that have a positive impact on economic,
social and environmental issues.
Meetings Professionals International Partnership
IHG is working with the Meetings Professionals International MPI Foundation on a
Green Meetings project to further the advancement of thought leadership studies,
research, and the development of standards and business content in the area of
corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Corporate Responsibility / Collaboration / Key issues
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Approach
Our partners and stakeholders
Key issues
Assessing stakeholder issues
We engage with our stakeholders to gain insight on key CR issues and how they are relevant to IHG. We
analysed the issues our stakeholders said mattered to them and together with our own understanding of
our business, we conducted a materiality assessment to prioritise the areas identified as having the highest
impact for our stakeholders and the business. The issues identified as most significant, or material, form the
focus of our CR strategy and approach. We continue to use stakeholder feedback to develop our CR
strategy and stakeholder engagement programme. See our materiality, or key issues matrix, below.
Click the top right-hand box to explore our high priority issues.
Key issues
Environment
Community
Our performance
Customer relations
Ethical consumerism
Employee wellbeing and
employee relations
CR governance
Regulatory compliance
Hotel security
Carbon costs/opportunities
Hotels open – even to
controversial guests/events –
absent public safety concerns
Innovation/value creation
Local economic impacts
Disaster response
Availability of skilled staff
Guest health & safety
Climate change
Energy efficiency
Community support
Transportation
Stakeholder relations
Conservation
Water use
Business ethics (bribery &
corruption)
Equal opportunities & diversity
Suppliers’ impacts
Sex tourism/Prostitution/Adult
entertainment
Waste management
Customer privacy
Biodiversity
Business partner
environmental and human
rights impacts
Employee health & safety
Air emissions (non-GHG)
Natural resource use
Summary of key issues
Our identified priorities remain reducing our impact on the environment and supporting our communities
Climate change
Climate change is presenting us with some significant challenges as we attempt to balance business
growth with responsible business demands, such as the availability and rising cost of resources. Read
more about how we are tackling climate change.
Carbon costs/opportunities
As a global brand operating in over 100 countries, IHG is exposed to the ever-increasing raft of legal
measures designed to encourage cuts in carbon emissions by both enforcing monetary penalties and
incentives on carbon emitters. Read more about our approach to carbon.
Business partner economic
impacts
Energy efficiency
Energy usage in hotels accounts for the largest proportion of our carbon footprint and is the second largest
cost to our hotels after people. New laws that put a price on carbon together with uncertainty over supplier
will increase energy prices. Find out how we’re improving energy efficiency in our hotels, offices and
contact centres.
Local economic impacts
The local economic benefits of our hotels, via direct and indirect employment, taxes paid and local
purchasing, are also an important element of our Corporate Responsibility, especially given the current
economic down turn. Find out how we’re making a positive contribution to the communities in which we
operate.
Availability of skilled staff
We have a rapid expansion programme in place and are opening a hotel a day. Whilst a workforce may be
available in these places a lack of knowledge and skills gap will impact on a community’s ability to attract
tourism. Read more about how we are setting up Academies to fill these skill shortages.
View our key collaboration targets
Community support
We operate in over 100 countries so we have a big responsibility and opportunity to act responsibly in the
diverse communities within which we operate.
Corporate Responsibility / Environment
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Approach
Green Engage
Climate and carbon
Energy
Water
Waste
Biodiversity
Community
Our performance
Innovating to reduce our
impact where it matters in our hotels.
In our owned and managed estate,
we seek to achieve an energy
savings of 6% to 10% over the next
three years (2010-2012) on a per
available room night basis.
59kg
IHG's carbon footprint is 59KG per room night
sold
Environmental Legislation
Find out more
about how carbon
reduction is
impacting IHG
Find out more
Learn about our LEED endorsed sustainability
tool
Find out more
Corporate Responsibility / Environment / Approach
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Approach
$500,000
CEO Message
About IHG
The average IHG hotel spends in
excess of US$500,000 on energy
usage each year.
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
1,000+
Approach
Environmental legislation
The number of staff who have
completed green training
Green Engage
Climate and carbon
Energy
Water
Waste
Biodiversity
Community
Our performance
Read IHG's Environmental Policy
Key achievements
Related content
Launched version 2.0 of Green Engage, our system-wide approach to environmental management.
Became the first hotel company to receive LEED endorsement for an existing hotel programme,
Green Engage
1,100 hotels set up on Green Engage
A community of over 2,000 individual users, at our hotels, are now registered on Green Engage
IHG was awarded the UK Carbon Trust standard for showing genuine carbon reductions and a
commitment to ongoing reductions
Nearly 1,000 employees took part in sustainability training
Key environment objectives
Expand the Green Engage system into franchised hotels in all three regions
Achieve energy savings of 6% to 10% in our owned and managed hotels over the next three years
(2010-2012) on a per available room night basis
New product development.
Climate change is already having a major impact on the travel and hospitality industry. As the largest hotel
chain in the world we know that the potential climate change costs to our business are huge. We want to
continue to grow responsibly and that means rising to the challenge of reducing our energy, carbon and
resource impacts. We are committed to doing this by seeking new ways to reduce and manage emissions
across our hotel estate rather than through purchasing carbon offsets. This provides an opportunity to work
closely with our partners to develop innovative technology and identify and implement practical, costefficient measures that are both sustainable and responsible.
Our overall approach is based on our environmental policy. Building on this, in 2009 we launched Green
Engage, our ground-breaking online sustainability tool which defines our vision of a sustainable hotel. As
thinking evolves in this area, so too does our vision of what a green hotel looks like and we constantly
seek the input of internal and external stakeholders in order to find new and better ways to design, build
and run hotels.
We have more than 4,437 hotels in our buildings portfolio. This puts us in a strong position to advance the
development of new 'green building' technologies and processes and to use our critical mass to bring them
to market. We have recommended that our Green Engage hotels look to create these opportunities for local
suppliers.
Green Engage
Green Engage enables us to measure, manage and report on the environmental and other CR impacts of
our hotels across the entire Group. It provides recommendations for both new and existing hotels in four
different climatic regions. These recommendations cover design, operations, and technologies aimed at
reducing energy, water and waste, cutting carbon emissions, improving guest health and comfort, reducing
operating and maintenance costs, and raising guest and staff awareness of sustainability issues.
In 2010 we became the first hotel company to receive LEED endorsement for an existing programme,
Green Engage.
LEED endorsement for Green Engage – case study
In January 2011, our in-house sustainability system Green Engage was awarded a LEED (Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design) endorsement by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and
verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). We are the first hotel company to receive
this award for an existing hotels programme.
The endorsement cements our place as an industry leader in sustainability. LEED is the top
programme for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. Our partnership with the
Green Engage
Book a greener hotel
Environmental legislation
USGBC is a first step on a streamlined path to LEED certification for a large group of hotels based on
a preapproved prototype and process.
It enables our hotels to speed up their own LEED certification by using Green Engage. In addition, it
will be of real value to owners because it provides a stamp of approval recognized by industry and
corporate clients.
Competitive advantage
We also believe there is a real competitive advantage in reducing our impacts and providing 'green' choices
for our guests and corporate clients. We are dedicated to enhancing the quality of our guests' stay, while
having a positive impact on local communities and the global environment. We are now offering guests the
opportunity to book a 'greener hotel'.
We have incentives in place for our staff to achieve our green targets. Key Performance Objectives (KPOs)
are in place throughout the business for the roll out of Green Engage.
Employee education
Corporate responsibility is part of the way we do business at IHG and effective staff training is essential to
achieving our sustainability objectives. We can only achieve the sustainability measures if we educate our
staff to use them properly. We encourage all of our hotels to put training in place to help their employees
use the hotel's sustainability initiatives recommended in Green Engage and understand the purpose and
goals of 'green' hotel management strategies.
We support our hotels by offering training. Our classroom based training, Green Aware, is focused on
introducing colleagues to IHG's approach to Corporate Responsibility and to some of our key tools such as
Green Engage, the Innovation Hotel and the CR report. In 2010, 368 employees took part in our green
training across AMER and EMEA through workshops and virtual instruction. In total, over 1,000 participants
have gone through green training at IHG.
We will continue to update our training as we develop our tools so it remains current.
As well as generic green training we are also working on a range of training options to support Green
Engage. These include e-guides embedded in the system itself, which walk users through a range of
scenarios. We will update e-guides as we enhance the tool and learn more about the way hotels and
corporate staff interact with the product.
If you are an IHG employee interested in attending Green Aware training, please contact the CR Team.
In January 2011 we held a Green Day at our Atlanta offices.
This follows on from previous green events at our global headquarters in Denham where employees told us
they would like us to focus on reducing waste. They indicated they would be in favour of a cycle-to-work
scheme and discussions are now underway to begin implementing this. Feedback from previous events
also led us to display information about our carbon footprint and the Innovation Hotel more prominently on
our website.
Feedback from our staff questionnaire tells us that there is good awareness of CR at IHG with nearly 90%
of staff aware of our online report. Building on this we have extended the way we use our corporate
intranet site 'Merlin' to ensure all staff have access to our CR policies. We have also included educational
material in our meetings area to help colleagues run their meetings in a more sustainable way.
Guest education
Encouraging our guests to behave responsibly plays a crucial role in implementing our sustainability
measures. We achieve this by making recommendations to our hotels through Green Engage, such as:
using signage, literature and helpful front-of-house staff to draw attention to the green efforts of the
hotel and encourage guests to participate
promoting local sustainability shops, activities and alternative means of transport so that guests'
environmentally conscious choices permeate into the surrounding economy
providing guests with feedback on their energy and resource usage in a friendly, informative manner
Green Engage also helps us learn how different hotels around the world engage with guests on
environmental issues in order to share learning across the Group. One of the initiatives helping to bring
responsible tourism principles to life for our guests is our partnership with National Geographic.
Corporate Responsibility / Environment / Approach / Environmental legislation
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Approach
Environmental
legislation
Green Engage
Climate and carbon
Energy
Water
Waste
Biodiversity
Community
Our performance
Environmental legislation
Our response to environmental legislation is clear and simple - at the very minimum we comply with legal
requirements wherever we operate. Over and above that, our systems and programmes make sure we stay
one step ahead of regulatory demands. Green Engage, our online environmental system, plays a key role
in helping hotel owners manage current regulatory performance and prepare for anticipated regulations.
This level of preparation is vital. As a global brand operating in more than 100 countries and territories we
are exposed to an increasing raft of legal environmental measures, particularly on carbon emissions. The
European Union currently operates the largest emissions trading scheme in the world and the US and
several other countries are also in the process of developing schemes that will place greenhouse gas
emission caps on companies.
These will increasingly have a direct impact, not just on major carbon emitters, but on other sectors such
as the hotel industry. If we do not proactively engage all employees to reduce emissions - in both our
owned and franchised hotels - we risk public censure as well as financial penalty.
This year we were able to use Green Engage to comply with the UK's Carbon Reduction Commitment
Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC), a mandatory carbon emissions reporting and pricing scheme. The
scheme requires us to monitor energy use and purchase carbon allowances on behalf of our UK hotels,
and is designed to encourage a reduction in energy consumption and carbon emissions. There are
significant implications for franchise-based businesses such as ours. We are actively working to support all
our franchisees within the scope of the CRC and have already registered on behalf of our hotels.
In Australia we continue to report carbon emissions for NABERS (National Australian Built Environment
Rating System), a comprehensive energy and water ratings scheme. We can only imagine these reports
increasing which is why it is important we have a comprehensive and proactive approach. We are also
actively investigating ways our hotels can access government funding in support of sustainable technology.
In the United States, Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal agency charged
with protecting human health and the environment, and the Obama administration continue to review major
climate and energy laws and regulations. Among the many key issues being debated is EPA's recent
decision to delay requirements for businesses to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. EPA's actions now
push back by three years federal efforts to identify who is contributing how much to the nation's inventory of
greenhouse gas emissions.
Many states are moving forward to address carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. Eight northeastern
states have joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative's cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide. The
state of Washington is creating its own greenhouse gas inventory. California has done the same, and also
is starting a cap-and-trade program.
Other countries, notably China, are actively addressing their energy and resource needs and demands. In
March 2011, China announced a new five-year energy plan which will focus on tackling environmental
problems from carbon emissions to water pollution. The plan for 2011-2015 contains separate targets for
energy intensity (16% reduction by 2015) and CO 2 emissions per unit GDP (17% reduction by 2015).
These and other complex regulatory matters are overseen by our Global Carbon Strategy Team. We review
our carbon strategy regularly with our CR Committee and discuss it with our owners' association, the IAHI,
to make sure our franchise partners support our aims.
As new legislation emerges, we will need to continue taking steps to make our hotels more energy and
cost efficient and to ensure we are meeting legislative requirements. One example is including national
regulatory demands into Green Engage to make sure hotels are fully prepared for incoming regulation. At
the same time there are a variety of funding opportunities available to help our hotels implement
sustainable technologies. We are working to integrate these opportunities into the guidance we give through
Green Engage.
But we don't just respond to and anticipate legislation. Our collaborative approach to CR means we work
with government bodies to help refine any proposed regulation and make it fit for our industry.
We are not aware of any significant fines for non-compliance with environmental laws and regulations.
In September 2010 we
registered all our UK
hotels for the Carbon
Reduction
Commitment Energy
Efficiency Scheme, the
UK government's
mandatory carbon
emissions reporting
and pricing scheme.
Corporate Responsibility / Environment / Green Engage
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Green Engage
Green Engage, fantastic
programme. We started
measuring - what we do,
how we do, where to
improve and looking at the
steps to reduce our
numbers in consumption of
energy…we managed to
save 10% year on year on
our energy consumption
which helped to reduce
expenses and produce
better profits.
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Approach
Green Engage
Book a greener hotel
Mathieu van Alphen,
General Manager
InterContinental Budapest
Climate and carbon
Energy
Water
Waste
Biodiversity
Key achievements
Launched version 2.0 of Green Engage
Community
Set up 1,100 hotels to use Green Engage by the end of 2010
Our performance
Became the first hotel company to gain LEED endorsement for an existing hotels programme,
Green Engage.
Key objectives
Continue to roll out Green Engage to 100% of our owned and managed hotels and extend this into
the franchised estate in all three regions
Encourage our hotels to achieve Green Engage Level 1 certification that is high on return and low
on investment
Seek energy savings of 6% to 10% in our owned and managed estate over the next three years
(2010 -2012) on a per available room night basis.
Green Engage Fast Facts
Green Engage can help our hotels make 15-25% in energy savings. That equates to approximately
$90,000 for an average hotel.
Green Engage is our new Group-wide online sustainability management
system
David Jerome, our Senior Vice President for CR, explains how the system
works and how it is playing a key role in helping IHG achieve its CR goals.
What is Green Engage?
Green Engage is our comprehensive online sustainability system. It tells our hotels what they can do to be
a 'green' hotel and gives them the means to conserve resources and save money – by measuring,
managing and reporting on their hotel energy, water and waste consumption, as well as benchmarking and
the ability to create action plans to track progress. We believe this offers a huge advantage to owners for
whom energy is the second largest cost in their hotels. It also puts us in a strong position to respond to
rising energy prices and any future carbon taxes IHG and our hotels may face.
Green Engage proves the value of our commitment to innovation and collaboration. We look for better
ways to manage our carbon footprint than merely offsetting emissions and we engage with our partners to
create a 'green' culture where owners actively explore solutions that enhance their business.
Green Engage was recently endorsed by LEED making us the first hotel company to have an existing hotel
programme endorsement.
How does Green Engage work?
Hotels input their site data into Green Engage. The system automatically generates reports and an energy
benchmark so that hotels can compare their performance to other hotels. Green Engage then provides
'green solutions', advising both new-build and existing hotels on the specific actions they need to take to
reduce their impacts, depending on their climatic location. Finally, the system produces reports which allow
IHG to review an individual hotel's progress.
Green Engage offers 3 certification levels hotels can achieve:
Level 1 Certification includes action Items that are relatively simple to implement with good
cost benefits and return of investment.
Level 2 Certification is more challenging to achieve. The Level 2 action items will require
some capital investment from the hotels. Completing Level 2 Certification enables hotels to pursue
LEED certification.
Level 3 Certification is best practice. Hotels that achieve Level 3 are demonstrating a leading
and innovative approach to being sustainable.
Green Engage provides owners with advice on every aspect of the hotel lifecycle from picking a suitable
site, to selecting the correct lighting for the hotel through to choosing responsible cleaning materials and
providing staff training on sustainability. The return on investment, carbon reduction and potential impact on
our guests is calculated for each action item suggested.
Green Engage key action groups
OPERATIONS & MANAGEMENT
Hotel and hospitality operations can be very resource intensive. Improving a hotel's operational
systems and practices is an immediate and public way of showing commitment to the environment
and sustainability.
SITE
A hotel's location affects commuting options, local ecosystems, building energy efficiency and much
more. Proper site selection should be taken into consideration at the start of a project as it will affect
many subsequent decisions.
WATER
All water that passes through a building and site presents responsibilities and opportunities. From an
economic and environmental perspective it is best to keep man-made changes to the natural water
cycle to a minimum.
PRODUCTS & MATERIALS
Materials selected for sustainable buildings need to combine the appropriate performance, durability
and environmental properties. The use of materials can affect everything from natural resources to the
comfort and health of our guests and/or employees.
WASTE
Both construction and demolition contribute significantly to landfill sites and incinerators. Proper
management can avoid unnecessary waste, reducing disposal fees and transportation costs.
BUILDING ENVELOPE
The 'building envelope' is the interface between a hotel's indoor and outdoor environments. Careful
design helps to efficiently maintain desirable indoor conditions – for example, making the most of
daylight, natural ventilation and passive heating.
MECHANICAL
Guest comfort, operating costs and many environmental impacts are dependent on a hotel's
mechanical systems. These are best designed to work in harmony with other building systems and
components.
ENERGY
Efficient electrical systems in a hotel reduce both operating costs and environmental impact. Improved
lighting design not only makes savings, it also contributes to guests' enjoyment and comfort.
What kind of benefits is Green Engage bringing?
Green Engage is already driving change across our business. Trials of the system show potential energy
savings of up to 25%. If all the hotels in our 4,400-strong portfolio adopted the system the estimated total
savings for hotel owners could be over $300million. So far 1,100 hotels have signed up to the system.
We believe Green Engage gives us a significant competitive edge. It makes our hotels cost-effective and
ultimately allows us to improve the value of service we offer our guests, who tell us they would prefer to
stay in a green hotel. We also know that our Green Engage hotels are beginning to drive new business
through their sustainability commitments. Thanks to Green Engage, IHG won a corporate contract worth
3,000 room nights – £300K a year over the next 7 years.
How does Green Engage integrate with existing green building certifications?
Green Engage was developed to integrate with existing global sustainability metrics, such as LEED,
BREEAM and Green Globe. Like these other systems, it is a point-based metric which establishes both a
minimum level of sustainability and outlines opportunities to exceed this minimum. It will be applied to both
new-build and existing hotels.
What next for Green Engage?
The original pilot went live in 2009 and was quickly extended to our entire owned and managed estate and
then opened up to any other hotels who wanted to participate. We had a good uptake and hope to
maintain this momentum. In 2011 we developed version 2.0 of Green Engage, having taken on board user
feedback on how we could make the system easier to use. Green Engage is an evolving tool and the
dedicated Green Engage Council and Working Group will continue to recommend enhancements to the
system. We appreciate that some of our hotels have limited resources for this sort of activity. To help them
we will be making the system more intuitive by prioritising green hotel recommendations by climatic region,
providing legislative tracking, and identifying Government funding opportunities.
It is early days and we recognise that we are still learning how we can make the most of the technologies
and techniques we have introduced to achieve our CR goals. Throughout this site there are examples of
how Green Engage is already bringing 'early wins' for IHG and for individual hotels. We plan to report
further during the course of the year on how more and more hotels are using Green Engage to achieve
real benefits. We aim to start quantifying these benefits on a Group-wide basis within the next two years.
We will continue to roll out Green Engage to 100% of our owned and managed hotels and expand this
further into the franchised estate in all three regions.
Interview with Scott Larsen, General Manager at Holiday Inn Select
San Antonio Airport (SATAP)
A herb garden on the roof of the Holiday Inn at San Antonio Airport is watered by wastewater from
the air conditioning system.
1.
Why did SATAP sign up to Green Engage?
The hotel had already set out on its ‘green journey’ and partnering with IHG on Green Engage
just made sense. Prior to the development of Green Engage, our environmental programme
covered water consumption reduction, recycling and energy saving; by signing up for Green
Engage we have expanded our programme significantly.
2. How have you been using the system?
We first started using the system mainly for reporting purposes, but as the site continued to
develop, it has become a learning tool and action planning system.
3.
What are some of the big initiatives you've undertaken as a result of using
Green Engage?
Our water-saving programme started with low flow toilets: with Green Engage it expanded into
finding additional ways to water our landscape without using City water. We capture air
conditioning (AC) condensate, pool backwash and chilling tower blow-down water to water our
landscape. We also researched roof-top gardens and implemented a roof-top herb garden
watered by AC condensate.
4.
How are you encouraging guests to behave in a more sustainable way?
We have a recycling bin in each guest room, and a letter on the desk detailing our programmes
and success in each category: water, recycling and energy. We also encourage guests with
information such as "did you know, on average, 3 USA Today newspapers = 1 lb... please help
us recycle". We also have associated material about our towel re-use programme, and a nifty
little sign on the dual-flush toilet – to push the right button.
5.
What are some of the benefits you've found from using Green Engage?
Our statistics from 2008 clearly indicate the business impact of
effective resource management. Our water-saving programme
reduced consumption from 202 gallons per occupied room to
120, saving over 7 million gallons of water. Our recycling
programme is a full single stream programme starting from
every guestroom. We recycled 83.5 tonnes of material. The
hotel retrofitted all lighting ballasts to accommodate CFL light
bulbs instead of incandescent light bulbs – saving 553,000
kWh in a year.
From a staff standpoint, I have had many employees tell me
that they never recycled at home until the hotel started doing it,
and they feel good about doing it.
6.
What are some of the challenges you've experienced in terms of creating a
more sustainable hotel?
We started our journey through the ‘school of hard knocks’. We picked one thing – recycling
newspapers – and started a programme. The biggest challenge has been finding vendors willing
to support the programmes – we were in the vanguard of some of these ideas in our market.
7.
How could Green Engage be improved?
Developing the central training programme/work so hotels can benchmark themselves against
similar properties and share best practice.
8.
How could IHG and the CR team help support you more in your general
sustainability efforts?
I think IHG has done a great job of telling hotels about Green Engage, but there needs to be
more done to expand the initiatives at the property level.
9.
What are your plans for Green Engage?
We continue to expand our programmes as we learn more. We are currently piloting a food
composting programme with other hotels and restaurants in the area. We have started planting
some of our landscape with food-bearing plots that can be utilised in the hotel kitchen or by the
staff. Spring will include the expansion of our roof-top garden. We are planning on handing out
seed packets at the front desk with seeds from the herb garden as a parting gift to departing
guests. Another spring programme – ‘What's the buzz at the Holiday Inn?’ is a beehive to help
our garden. If we’re lucky, our gift shop will sell Holiday Inn Honey.
Corporate Responsibility / Environment / Green Engage / Book a greener hotel
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Approach
Green Engage
Book a greener hotel
Book a greener hotel
Consumer research confirms that people are more interested in sustainability issues than ever before – and this applies to hotels too. So we’ve made it
easier for guests to make the right choices.
In 2009 we launched Green Engage to help our hotels to measure, manage and report their environmental impacts. Please see the list below to discover
the hotels that have started their Green Engage journey.
Argentina
Buenos Aires
InterContinental Buenos Aires
Aruba
Climate and carbon
Energy
Aruba
Water
Australia
Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort Aruba
Waste
Biodiversity
Alice Springs
Crowne Plaza Hotel Alice Springs
Community
Brisbane
Holiday Inn Brisbane
Our performance
Cairns
Holiday Inn Cairns
Canberra
Crowne Plaza Hotel Canberra
Darwin
Crowne Plaza Hotel Darwin
Holiday Inn Esplanade Darwin
Holiday Inn Darwin
Holiday Inn Gagudju Crocodile
Staybridge Suites Gagudju Lodge Cooinda
Crowne Plaza Hotel Hunter Valley
Jabiru
Lovedale
Melbourne
Newcastle
Crowne Plaza Hotel Melbourne
Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport
Holiday Inn On Flinders Melbourne
InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto
Crowne Plaza Hotel Newcastle
Parramatta
Crowne Plaza Hotel Parramatta – Sydney
Perth
Terrigal
Crowne Plaza Hotel Perth
Holiday Inn City Centre Perth
InterContinental Perth Burswood
Crowne Plaza Hotel Surfers Paradise
Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise
Crowne Plaza Hotel Coogee Beach – Sydney
Crowne Plaza Hotel Darling Harbour – Sydney
Crowne Plaza Hotel Norwest
Holiday Inn Darling Harbour
Holiday Inn Old Sydney
Holiday Inn Potts Point – Sydney
Holiday Inn Sydney Airport
InterContinental Sydney
Crowne Plaza Hotel Terrigal
Torquay
Crowne Plaza Hotel Torquay
Townsville
Holiday Inn Townsville
Surfers Paradise
Sydney
Austria
Vienna
InterContinental Vienna
Azerbaijan
Baku
Holiday Inn Baku Airport
Bahrain
Manama
Crowne Plaza Hotel Manama
InterContinental Bahrain
Brazil
Rio de Janeiro
InterContinental Rio
Salvador
Holiday Inn Salvador Bahia
São Paulo
Staybridge Suites Sao Paulo
Holiday Inn Parque Anhembi
InterContinental Sao Paulo
Cambodia
Phnom Penh
InterContinental Phnom Penh
Canada
Alberta
British Columbia
New Brunswick
Edson
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Edson
Grande Prairie
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Grande Prairie
Hinton
Red Deer
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Hinton
Holiday Inn Hinton
Holiday Inn Express Red Deer
Rocky Mountain House
Holiday Inn Express Rocky Mountain House
Kamloops
Holiday Inn Express Kamloops
Osoyoos
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Osoyoos
Vancouver
Holiday Inn Express Vancouver
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Vancouver Downtown
Crowne Plaza Hotel Fredericton – Lord Beaverbrook
Fredericton
Moncton
Nova Scotia
Ontario
Quebec
Enfield
Crowne Plaza Hotel Moncton Downtown
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Moncton, New Brunswick
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Halifax Airport
Halifax
Holiday Inn Express Halifax Bedford
Stellarton
Holiday Inn Express Stellarton – New Glasgow
Truro
Holiday Inn Truro
Cambridge
Holiday Inn Cambridge – Hespeler Galt
Guelph
Holiday Inn Guelph Hotel & Conference Centre
Richmond Hill
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Toronto – Markham
Thornhill
Staybridge Suites Toronto – Markham
Toronto
Holiday Inn Toronto International Airport
Holiday Inn Toronto – Yorkdale
InterContinental Toronto Centre
InterContinental Toronto Yorkville
Holiday Inn Plaza la Chaudiere Gatineau
Gatineau
Montreal
Holiday Inn Select Montreal Centre Ville Downtown
InterContinental Montreal
Chile
Santiago
Crowne Plaza Hotel Santiago
China
Beijing
Changsha
Crowne Plaza Hotel Beijing
Crowne Plaza Hotel Beijing Park View Wuzhou
Crowne Plaza Hotel Beijing Sun Palace
Crowne Plaza Hotel Beijing Zhongguancun
Crowne Plaza Hotel International Airport Beijing
Holiday Inn Express Beijing Guangshun
Holiday Inn Express Beijing Minzuyuan
Holiday Inn Express Beijing Wangjing
Holiday Inn Express Beijing Temple of Heaven
Holiday Inn Express Shangdi Beijing
Holiday Inn Beijing Deshengmen
Holiday Inn Beijing Moon River
Holiday Inn Central Plaza Beijing
Holiday Inn Chang An West Beijing
Holiday Inn Downtown Beijing
Holiday Inn Lido Beijing
Holiday Inn Temple of Heaven Beijing
InterContinental Beijing Beichen
InterContinental Beijing Financial Street
Crowne Plaza Hotel City Centre Changsha
Changshu
Crowne Plaza Hotel Changshu
Changzhou
Holiday Inn Changzhou Wujin
Chengdu
Dandong
Crowne Plaza Hotel Chengdu
Holiday Inn Express Chengdu Gulou
Holiday Inn Chengdu West Century City
Holiday Inn Chengdu East Century City
InterContinental Century City Chengdu
Holiday Inn North Chongqing
InterContinental Chongqing
Holiday Inn Express Dalian City Centre
InterContinental Dalian
Crowne Plaza Hotel Dandong
Erdos City
Holiday Inn Erdos City
Foshan
Crowne Plaza Hotal Foshan
InterContinental Foshan
Holiday Inn Daya Bay
Chongqing
Dalian
Guangdong
Guangzhou
Hainan Island
Hangzhou
Harbin
Hefei
Crowne Plaza Hotel Guangzhou Science City
Holiday Inn City Centre Guangzhou
Holiday Inn Shifu Guangzhou
Crowne Plaza Hotel Sanya
Crowne Plaza Hotel Hangzhou Grand Canal
Holiday Inn Express Hangzhou Grand Canal
Holiday Inn Hangzhou
Holiday Inn Hangzhou Thousand Island Lake
Holiday Inn Xiaoshan Hangzhou
InterContinental Hangzhou (under construction)
Holiday Inn Harbin City Centre
Huizhou
Holiday Inn Express South Hefei
Holiday Inn Downtown Hefei
Holiday Inn Hefei
InterContinental Huizhou Resort
Jinan
Crowne Plaza Hotel Jinan
Jiujiang
Holiday Inn Lushan
Jiuzhaigou
InterContinental Resort Jiuzhai Paradise
Lijiang
Crowne Plaza Hotel Lijiang Ancient Town
Maanshan
Crowne Plaza Hotel Maanshan
Nanchang
Holiday Inn Nanchang Riverside (under construction)
Nanjing
Crowne Plaza Hotel & Suites Nanjing
Holiday Inn Nanjing Aqua City
Crowne Plaza Hotel City Center Ningbo
Ningbo
Qingdao
Qinhuangdao
Sanya
Crowne Plaza Hotel Qingdao
Holiday Inn Qingdao Parkview
InterContinental Qingdao
Holiday Inn Sea View Qinhuangdao
Sichuan
Holiday Inn Resort Yalong Bay Sanya
Holiday Inn Resort Sanya Bay
Crowne Plaza Hotel Century Park Shanghai
Crowne Plaza Hotel Shanghai Fudan
Crowne Plaza Hotel Lake Malaren Shanghai
Crowne Plaza Hotel Shanghai Pudong
Crowne Plaza Hotel Shanghai
Holiday Inn Express Meilong Shanghai
Holiday Inn Express Putuo Shanghai
Holiday Inn Express Shanghai Jinqiao
Holiday Inn Express Wujiaochang Shanghai
Holiday Inn Express Zhabei Shanghai
Holiday Inn Shanghai Pudong
Holiday Inn Shanghai Downtown
Holiday Inn Shanghai Pudong Nanpu
Holiday Inn Shanghai Vista
InterContinental Shanghai Expo
InterContinental Shanghai Pudong
InterContinental Shanghai Puxi
Crowne Plaza Hotel Shenyang Parkview
Holiday Inn Shenyang City Centre
InterContinental Shenyang
Crowne Plaza Hotel & Suites Landmark Shenzhen
Crowne Plaza Hotel Shenzhen
Holiday Inn Express Luohu Shenzhen
Holiday Inn Shenzhen Donghua
InterContinental Shenzhen
Holiday Inn Jiuzhai Jarpo
Suifenhe
Holiday Inn Suifenhe
Suzhou
Wuhu
Crowne Plaza Hotel Suzhou
Holiday Inn Jasmine Suzhou
Holiday Inn Youlian Suzhou
Holiday Inn Express Airport Industrial Park Tianjin
Holiday Inn Express Tianjin Binhai
Holiday Inn Binhai Tianjin
Holiday Inn Tianjin Riverside
Holiday Inn Tian An Wuhan City Centre
Holiday Inn Wuhan Riverside
Crowne Plaza Hotel Wuhu
Xiamen
Crowne Plaza Hotel Paragon Xiamen
Xian
Holiday Inn Xian Greenland Century City
Yantai
Crowne Plaza Hotel Yantai Sea View
Zhanjiang
Crowne Plaza Hotel Zhanjiang
Zhengzhou
Zhongshan
Crowne Plaza Hotel Zhengzhou
Holiday Inn Express Zhengzhou
Holiday Inn Zhengzhou
Crowne Plaza Hotel Zhongshan Xiaolan
Zhuhai
Holiday Inn Zhuhai
Shanghai
Shenyang
Shenzhen
Tianjin
Wuhan
Colombia
Medellin
Costa Rica
InterContinental Medellin
San Jose
InterContinental Real Hotel & Club Tower Costa Rica
Czech Republic
Prague
InterContinental Prague
Dominican Republic
Santo Domingo
InterContinental V Centenario Santo Domingo
Egypt
Cairo
Hurghada
Marsa Alam
Holiday Inn Cairo Citystars
InterContinental Cairo Semiramis
InterContinental Citystars Cairo
Staybridge Suites Cairo Citystars
InterContinental Abu Soma
Safaga
Crowne Plaza Sahara Sands Port Ghalib Resort
InterContinental The Palace Port Ghalib Resort
Crowne Plaza Sahara Oasis Port Ghalib Resort
Holiday Inn Resort Safaga Palace
Taba
InterContinental Taba Heights
Fiji
Natadola
InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa
Suva
Holiday Inn Suva
Finland
Helsinki
Crowne Plaza Hotel Helsinki
Holiday Inn Helsinki West Ruoholahti
France
Cannes
InterContinental Cannes (Carlton Cannes)
Clichy
Holiday Inn Paris – Porte de Clichy
Paris
Holiday Inn Garden Court Paris St Quentin en Yvelines
InterContinental Paris – Le Grand
Holiday Inn Toulouse Airport
Toulouse
French Polynesia
Bora Bora
Moorea
InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa
InterContinental Le Moana Bora Bora
InterContinental Resort and Spa Moorea
Papeete
InterContinental Resort Tahiti
Germany
Bautzen
Holiday Inn Bautzen
Berchtesgaden
InterContinental Berechtesgaden Resort
Berlin
InterContinental Berlin
Cologne
InterContinental Cologne
Dusseldorf
InterContinental Dusseldorf
Essen
Holiday Inn Express Essen
Frankfurt
InterContinental Frankfurt
Hamburg
InterContinental Hamburg
Wiesbaden
Crowne Plaza Hotel Wiesbaden
Ghana
Accra
Holiday Inn Accra Airport
Greece
Athens
InterContinental Athenaeum Athens
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Crowne Plaza Hotel Hong Kong Causeway Bay
Holiday Inn Express Causeway Bay Hong Kong
Holiday Inn Hong Kong Golden Mile
InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong
InterContinental Hong Kong
Hungary
Budapest
InterContinental Budapest
India
Goa
Gurgaon
Holiday Inn Resort Goa
InterContinental The Lalit Goa Resort
Crowne Plaza Hotel Gurgaon
Jaipur
Holiday Inn Jaipur
Manali
Holiday Inn Manali
Mumbai
Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport
InterContinental Marine Drive Mumbai
InterContinental The Lalit Mumbai
Crowne Plaza Hotel Delhi
InterContinental Nehru Place
Holiday Inn Gem Park Ooty
New Delhi
Ooty
Indonesia
Bali
Bandung
Holiday Inn Resort Baruna Bali
InterContinental Bali Resort
Holiday Inn Bandung
Batam
Holiday Inn Batam
Jakarta
Crowne Plaza Hotel Jakarta
InteContinental Jakarta Midplaza
Ireland
Dublin
Crowne Plaza Hotel Dublin – Blanchardstown
Israel
Tel Aviv
InterContinental David Tel Aviv
Italy
Rome
InterContinental De La Ville Roma
Japan
Chiba
Crowne Plaza Ana Narita
Fukuoka
Hiroshima
Crowne Plaza Ana Fukuoka
Ana Hotel Sapporo
Crowne Plaza Ana Hiroshima
Hokkaido
Crowne Plaza Ana Chitose
Ishikawa
Crowne Plaza Ana Kanazawa
Okinawa
Crowne Plaza Ana Okinawa Harborview
InterConitnental Ishigaki Resort
InterContinental Manza Beach Resort
Crowne Plaza Ana Osaka
Osaka
Tokyo
Toyama
InterContinental The Strings Tokyo
InterContinental Tokyo
Crowne Plaza Ana Toyama
Yokohama
InterConitnental Yokohama Grand
Jordan
Amman
Aqaba
Crowne Plaza Hotel Amman
Holiday Inn Amman
InterContinental Amman (Jordan)
InterContinental Aqaba (Resort Aqaba)
Dead Sea
Holiday Inn Resort Dead Sea
Petra
Crowne Plaza Resort Petra
Kazakhstan
Almaty
Kenya
Holiday Inn Almaty
Nairobi
InterContinental Nairobi
Korea, Republic of
Seoul
InterContinental Coex Seoul
InterContinental Grand Seoul
Kuwait
Kuwait
Crowne Plaza Hotel Kuwait City
Holiday Inn Kuwait
Holiday Inn Kuwait – Downtown
Lebanon
Beirut
Mzaar
Crowne Plaza Hotel Beirut
Holiday Inn Beirut – Dunes
InterContinental Le Vendome Beirut
InterContinental Phoenicia Beirut
InterContinental Mzaar (Mountain Resort & Spa)
Macau
Macau
Holiday Inn Macau
Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur
Melaka
Crowne Plaza Hotel Kuala Lumpur
Holiday Inn Kuala Lumpur Glenmarie
Holiday Inn Melaka
Penang
Holiday Inn Resort Penang
Malta
Malta
InterContinental Malta
Mexico
Metepec
Holiday Inn Toluca
Nepal
Kathmandu
Crowne Plaza Hotel Kathmandu – Soaltee
Netherlands
Amsterdam
Crowne Plaza Hotel Amsterdam City Centre
InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam
New Zealand
Auckland
Christchurch
Queenstown
Wellington
Crowne Plaza Hotel Auckland
Holiday Inn Auckland Airport
Crowne Plaza Hotel Christchurch
Holiday Inn City Centre Christchurch
Holiday Inn On Avon Christchurch
Crowne Plaza Hotel Queenstown
Holiday Inn Wellington
InterContinental Wellington
Nicaragua
Managua
Crowne Plaza Hotel Managua
Oman
Muscat
Salalah
Crowne Plaza Hotel Muscat
Holiday Inn Muscat–Al Madinah
InterContinental Al Bustan Palace Muscat
InterContinental Muscat
Crowne Plaza Resort Salalah
Sohar
Crowne Plaza Hotel Sohar
Pakistan
Lahore
Holiday Inn Lahore
Palestinian Territory, Occupied
Bethlehem
InterContinental Bethlehem (Jacir Palace)
Jericho
InterContinental Jericho
Papua New Guinea
Port Moresby
Crowne Plaza Hotel Port Moresby
Holiday Inn Port Moresby
Philippines
Clark Field
Holiday Inn Clark
Manila
InterContinental Manila
Holiday Inn Galleria Manila
Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila
Quezon City
Poland
Warsaw
InterContinental Warsaw
Puerto Rico
Isle Verde
InterContinental San Juan Resort & Casino
Qatar
Doha
InterContinental Doha
Romania
Bucharest
InterContinental Bucharest
Russian Federation
Moscow
Samara
Holiday Inn Moscow Sokolniki
Holiday Inn Moscow Vinogradovo
Holiday Inn Samara
Saudi Arabia
Abha
InterContinental Abha
Al Ahsa
InterContinental Al Ahsa
Al Jubail
InterContinental Al Jubail
Al Khobar
Crowne Plaza Hotel Al Khobar
Holiday Inn Al Khobar
Holiday Inn Resort Half Moon Bay
InterContinental Al Khobar
Holiday Inn Hafr Al Batin
Hafr Al Baten
Jeddah
Makkah
Crowne Plaza Hotel Jeddah
Holiday Inn Jeddah – Al Salam
InterContinental Jeddah
InterContinental Madinah – Dar Al Iman
InterContinental Dar Al Hijra Madinah
InterContinental Dar Al Tawhid Makkah
Najran
Holiday Inn Najran
Riyadh
Taif
Holiday Inn Riyadh Minhal
Holiday Inn Riyadh Izdihar
Holiday Inn Riyadh Olaya
InterContinental Riyadh
InterContinental Taif
Yanbu
Holiday Inn Yanbu
Madinah
Singapore
Singapore
Crowne Plaza Hotel Changi Airport
Holiday Inn Atrium Singapore
Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre
InterContinental Singapore
Slovakia
Bratislava
Crowne Plaza Hotel Bratislava
South Africa
Sandton
Holiday Inn Express Sandton – Woodmead
InterContinental Johannesburg Sandton Towers
Spain
Madrid
Valencia
Holiday Inn Express Madrid – San Sebastian de los Reyes
Holiday Inn Express Madrid – Tres Cantos
Holiday Inn Madrid
InterContinental Madrid
Holiday Inn Valencia
Zaragoza
Holiday Inn Express Zaragoza
Taiwan
Taichung
Holiday Inn Express Taichung Park
Taipei
Holiday Inn East Taipei
Taoyuan
Holiday Inn Express Taoyuan
Thailand
Bangkok
Cha Am
Holiday Inn Bangkok
Holiday Inn Silom Bangkok
InterContinental Bangkok
Holiday Inn Resort Regent Beach Cha Am
Chiang Mai
Holiday Inn Chiangmai
Hua Hin
InterContinental Hua Hin Resort
Pattaya
Holiday Inn Pattaya
Phi Phi Island
Holiday Inn Phi Phi Island
Phuket
Holiday Inn Resort Phuket
Ukraine
Kiev
InterContinental Kiev
United Arab Emirates
Abu Dhabi
Al Ain
Dubai
Crowne Plaza Hotel Abu Dhabi
Crowne Plaza Hotel Abu Dhabi – Yas Island
Holiday Inn Abu Dhabi
InterContinental Abu Dhabi
Staybridge Suites Abu Dhabi – Yas Island
InterContinental Al Ain Resort
Crowne Plaza Hotel Dubai
Crowne Plaza Hotel Dubai – Festival City
Holiday Inn Downtown Dubai
Holiday Inn Dubai – Al Barsha
InterContinental Dubai Festival City
InterContinental Residence Suites Dubai Festival City
United Kingdom
Belfast
Holiday Inn Belfast
Birmingham
Bristol
Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre
Holiday Inn Birmingham M6 Jct 7
Holiday Inn Bristol Airport
Cambridge
Crowne Plaza Hotel Cambridge
Cardiff
Holiday Inn Express Cardiff Airport
Derby
Holiday Inn Express Derby Pride Park
Liverpool
Staybridge Suites Liverpool
London
Crowne Plaza Hotel London – The City
Crowne Plaza Hotel London – Shoreditch
Holiday Inn Express London – Park Royal
Holiday Inn Express London City
Holiday Inn Express London Royal Docks/Docklands
Holiday Inn Express London – Earl's Court
Holiday Inn Express London – Limehouse
InterContinental London Park Lane
Holiday Inn Express London – Hammersmith
Staybridge Suites Newcastle
Newcastle Upon
Tyne
Norwich
Holiday Inn Express Norwich
Poole
Holiday Inn Express Poole
Salisbury
Holiday Inn Salisbury – Stonehenge
Stansted
Holiday Inn Express London – Stansted Airport
Swindon
Holiday Inn Express Swindon – West M4, Jct 16
Walsall
Holiday Inn Express Walsall M6, Jct 10
United States
Alabama
Birmingham
Candlewood Suites Birmingham
Fultondale
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Fultondale
Huntsville
Orange Beach
Candlewood Suites Huntsville
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Huntsville – University Drive
Holiday Inn Mobile Downtown Historic District
Holiday Inn Mobile Bellingrath Gardens
Holiday Inn Express Orange Beach – On The Beach
Glendale
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Phoenix – Glendale
Paradise Valley
InterContinental Montelucia Resort & Spa
Phoenix
Tempe
Crowne Plaza Hotel Phoenix
Candlewood Suites Phoenix
Candlewood Suites Phoenix / Tempe
Fayetteville
Staybridge Suites Fayetteville
Rogers
Staybridge Suites Rogers Bentonville
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Rogers Bentonville
Holiday Inn West Memphis I–55
Mobile
Arizona
Arkansas
West Memphis
California
Anaheim
Chatsworth
Holiday Inn Anaheim Resort Area
Staybridge Suites Anaheim Resort Area
Staybridge Suites Chatsworth
Fortuna
Holiday Inn Express Fortuna (Ferndale Area)
Garden Grove
Candlewood Suites North Orange County
Goleta
Holiday Inn Santa Barbara – Goleta
Irvine
La Mirada
Crowne Plaza Hotel Irvine – Orange County Airport
Candlewood Suites Orange County Irvine/Spectrum
Holiday Inn Select La Mirada
Lake Forest
Candlewood Suites Orange County Irvine East
Los Angeles
Milpitas
Crowne Plaza Hotel Los Angeles International Airport
InterContinental Los Angeles Century City
Crown Plaza Hotel San Jose – Silicon Valley
Redondo Beach
Crowne Plaza Hotel Redondo Beach and Marina
San Bruno
Staybridge Suites San Francisco Airport
San Diego
San Jose
Crowne Plaza Hotel San Diego – Mission Valley
Staybridge Suites San Diego – Sorrento Mesa
Holiday Inn San Diego – On The Bay
Holiday Inn San Diego – Rancho Bernardo
Staybridge Suites San Diego Rancho Bernardo Area
Hotel Indigo San Diego – Gaslamp Quarter
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites San Francisco Fishermans Wharf
Holiday Inn San Francisco Civic Center
Holiday Inn San Francisco Fishermans Wharf
InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco
InterContinental San Francisco
Staybridge Suites San Jose
Santa Ana
Candlewood Suites OC Airport Irvine West
Santa Clara
Candlewood Suites Silicon Valley / San Jose
Santa Monica
Holiday Inn Santa Monica Beach – At The Pier
Sunnyvale
Staybridge Suites Sunnyvale
Torrance
Centennial
Holiday Inn Torrance
Staybridge Suites Torrance / Redondo Beach
Candlewood Suites Denver Tech Center
San Francisco
Colorado
Glendale
Staybridge Suites Denver Cherry Creek
Golden
Candlewood Suites Denver Lakewood
Lakewood
Holiday Inn Denver Lakewood
Lone Tree
Staybridge Suites Denver South – Park Meadows
Connecticut
Meriden
Candlewood Suites Hartford – Meriden
Delaware
Newark
Staybridge Suites Wilmington Newark
District of Columbia
Washington
InterContinental The Willard Washington D.C.
Florida
Altamonte Springs
Candlewood Suites Orlando
Bonita Springs
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Bonita Springs
Clearwater
Candlewood Suites Clearwater
Cocoa Beach
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Cocoa Beach
Coral Gables
Holiday Inn Coral Gables – University of Miami
Gainesville
Holiday Inn Express Gainesville
Holiday Inn Gainesville – University Center
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Hialeah / Miami Lakes
Hialeah
Jacksonville
Key Largo
Crowne Plaza Hotel Jacksonville Riverfront
Candlewood Suites Jacksonville
Holiday Inn Express Jacksonville Beach
Holiday Inn Key Largo
Kissimmee
Holiday Inn Main Gate East
Lake Placid
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Lake Placid
Melbourne
Crowne Plaza Hotel Melbourne Oceanfront
Miami
Plantation
Candlewood Suites Miami Airport West
Holiday Inn Miami International Airport
Holiday Inn Port of Miami – Downtown
InterContinental Miami
InterContinental West Miami
Holiday Inn Express Lake Buena Vista
Staybridge Suites Orlando
Holiday Inn Orlando International Airport
Staybridge Suites Lake Buena Vista
Staybridge Suites Ft. Lauderdale Plantation
Sunrise
Crowne Plaza Hotel Sawgrass Mills Sunrise
Tallahassee
Staybridge Suites Tallahassee Green Lodge I–10 East
Tampa
West Palm Beach
Crowne Plaza Hotel Tampa Westshore
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Tampa Near Busch Gardens USF
Crowne Plaza Hotel West Palm Beach
Alpharetta
Staybridge Suites Alpharetta – North Point
Athens
Hotel Indigo Athens – University Area
Atlanta
Orlando
Georgia
Statesboro
Crowne Plaza Hotel Atlanta Airport
Crowne Plaza Hotel Atlanta Perimeter Northwest
InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta
Hotel Indigo Atlanta Midtown
Staybridge Suites Atlanta Perimeter Center West
Staybridge Suites Atlanta Perimeter Center East
Holiday Inn Express Atlanta Airport College Park
Holiday Inn Atlanta Airport South
Candlewood Suites Atlanta
Holiday Inn Gwinnett Center
Holiday Inn Statesboro – University Area
Stone Mountain
Holiday Inn Express Atlanta – Stone Mountain
Tifton
Holiday Inn Tifton I–75 (Exit 62)
Bolingbrook
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Bolingbrook
Chicago
Elk Grove Village
Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza (Riverview)
InterContinental Chicago
Hotel Indigo Chicago Downtown Gold Coast
Holiday Inn Chicago Elk Grove
Glen Ellyn
Crowne Plaza Hotel Glen Ellyn – Lombard
Glenview
Staybridge Suites Glenview
Hoffman Estates
Candlewood Suites Chicago Hoffman Estates
Libertyville
Candlewood Suites Chicago Libertyville
Lincolnshire
Staybridge Suites Lincolnshire
Oakbrook Terrace
Staybridge Suites Chicago – Oakbrook Terrace
Rosemont
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Chicago O'Hare / Rosemont
Schaumburg
Schiller Park
Candlewood Suites Chicago Schaumburg
Staybridge Suites Schaumburg
Candlewood Suites Chicago O'Hare
South Jacksonville
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Jacksonville
Vernon Hills
Hotel Indigo Chicago – Vernon Hills
Warrenville
Candlewood Suites Chicago Naperville
Waukegan
Candlewood Suites Chicago Waukegan
Wheeling
Candlewood Suites Chicago Wheeling
Columbus
Holiday Inn Columbus
Frankfort
Holiday Inn Express Frankfort
Indianapolis
College Park
Duluth
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Lafayette
Candlewood Suites Indianapolis Airport
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Downtown Convention Center Area
Staybridge Suites Indianapolis Fishers
Holiday Inn Lafayette City Center
Davenport
Staybridge Suites Davenport
West Des Moines
McPherson
Candlewood Suites Des Moines
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites West Des Moines – Jordan Creek
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites McPherson
Overland Park
Candlewood Suites Kansas City – Overland Park
Topeka
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Topeka
Wichita
Candlewood Suites Wichita Northeast
Candlewood Suites Wichita Airport
Candlewood Suites Bowling Green
Bowling Green
Lexington
Paducah
Crowne Plaza Hotel Lexington – The Campbell House
Holiday Inn Lexington North
Candlewood Suites Louisville East
Staybridge Suites Louisville East
Candlewood Suites Paducah
Somerset
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Somerset Central
Baton Rouge
Crowne Plaza Hotel Executive Center Baton Rouge
Holiday Inn Baton Rouge College Drive I–10
Staybridge Suites Lafayette Airport
Louisville
Louisiana
Lafayette
New Orleans
Crowne Plaza Hotel New Orleans French Quarter
Holiday Inn French Quarter – Chateau Lemoyne
Holiday Inn New Orleans French Quarter
InterContinental New Orleans
Maryland
Massachusetts
Scott
Staybridge Suites New Orleans French Quarter Downtown
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Scott – Lafayette West
Baltimore
InterContinental Harbor Court Baltimore
Cambridge
Holiday Inn Express Cambridge
Chestertown
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Chestertown
Columbia
Staybridge Suites Columbia Hotel Baltimore
Easton
Holiday Inn Express Easton
Gaithersburg
Holiday Inn Gaithersburg
Linthicum
Candlewood Suites Baltimore – Linthicum
Andover
Staybridge Suites Boston – Andover
Boston
Holiday Inn Boston at Beacon Hill
InterContinental Boston
Candlewood Suites Boston – Braintree
Braintree
Burlington
Michigan
Natick
Candlewood Suites Boston – Burlington
Staybridge Suites Boston – Burlington
Crowne Plaza Hotel Boston Natick
Somerville
Holiday Inn Boston – Somerville
Adrian
Holiday Inn Express Adrian
Alpena
Holiday Inn Alpena
Ann Arbor
Candlewood Suites Detroit – Ann Arbor
Auburn Hills
Detroit
Crowne Plaza Hotel Auburn Hills
Candlewood Suites Detroit – Auburn Hills
Staybridge Suites Detroit – Auburn Hills
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Detroit Downtown
Farmington Hills
Candlewood Suites Detroit – Farmington Hills
Grand Rapids
Holiday Inn Grand Rapids Downtown
Marshall
Holiday Inn Express Marshall
Southfield
Candlewood Suites Detroit – Southfield
Troy
Candlewood Suites Detroit – Troy
Warren
Candlewood Suites Detroit – Warren
Duluth
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Duluth Downtown Waterfront
Minneapolis
Holiday Inn Minneapolis Metrodome
Richfield
Candlewood Suites Minneapolis – Richfield
Lucedale
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Lucedale
New Albany
Holiday Inn Express New Albany
Clayton
Crowne Plaza Hotel St. Louis – Clayton
Earth City
Candlewood Suites St. Louis
Grandview
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Kansas City – Grandview
Kansas City
Sedalia
Holiday Inn Express Kansas City – Liberty (Hwy 152)
Holiday Inn Kansas City Airport
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Sedalia
St. Louis
Staybridge Suites St. Louis
Beatrice
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Beatrice
Lincoln
Holiday Inn Lincoln Downtown
Omaha
Candlewood Suites Omaha
Nevada
Las Vegas
Candlewood Suites Las Vegas
New Hampshire
Keene
Holiday Inn Express Keene
Tilton
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Tilton
Cranbury
Staybridge Suites Cranbury – South Brunswick
Eatontown
Staybridge Suites Eatontown – Tinton Falls
Jersey City
Candlewood Suites Jersey City
Morris Plains
Candlewood Suites Parsippany – Morris Plains
Mount Laurel
Candlewood Suites Philadelphia – Mount Laurel
Newton
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Newton Sparta
Parsippany
Staybridge Suites Parsippany
Princeton
Staybridge Suites Princeton South Brunswick
Rahway
Hotel Indigo Rahway – Newark
Saddle Brook
Holiday Inn Saddle Brook
Somerset
Albuquerque
Staybridge Suites Somerset
Candlewood Suites Somerset
Candlewood Suites Albuquerque
Farmington
Holiday Inn Express Farmington (Bloomfield)
Las Cruces
Staybridge Suites Las Cruces
Albany
Astoria
Crowne Plaza Hotel Albany – City Center
Holiday Inn Express Albany – Western Avenue University
Holiday Inn Albany New York Airport – Wolf Road
Holiday Inn Long Island City – Manhattan View
Lake George
Holiday Inn Resort Lake George – Turf
Nanuet
Candlewood Suites Nanuet – Rockland County
New York
Crowne Plaza Hotel Times Square Manhattan
InterContinental New York Barclay
Staybridge Suites Times Square – New York City
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Niagara Falls
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Niagara Falls
Riverhead
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites East End
Rochester
White Plains
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Rochester – Marketplace
Staybridge Suites Rochester University
Crowne Plaza Hotel White Plains – Downtown
Asheville
Holiday Inn Asheville – Biltmore East
Charlotte
Fayetteville
Crowne Plaza Hotel Charlotte
Candlewood Suites Charlotte – University
Candlewood Suites Charlotte – Coliseum
Staybridge Suites Charlotte – Arrowood
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Fayetteville – Ft. Bragg
Greensboro
Candlewood Suites Greensboro
Raleigh
Candlewood Suites Raleigh – Cary
Washington
Holiday Inn Express Washington – Carolina Avenue
Ashland
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Ashland
Blue Ash
Dayton
Crowne Plaza Hotel Cincinnati Blue Ash
Candlewood Suites Cincinnati Blue Ash
Crowne Plaza Hotel Cleveland City Center
InterContinental Cleveland
InterContinental Suites Hotel Cleveland
Candlewood Suites Polaris
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites CMH Airport – Columbus
Holiday Inn Columbus Downtown – Capitol Square
Crowne Plaza Hotel Dayton
Cleveland
Columbus
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Elyria
Holiday Inn Cleveland Elyria Lorain
Gahanna
Candlewood Suites Columbus Airport
North Olmsted
Candlewood Suites Cleveland – North Olmsted
Wapakoneta
Holiday Inn Express Wapakoneta
Bartlesville
Candlewood Suites Bartlesville East
Oklahoma City
Tulsa
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Oklahoma City – Airport – Meriidian Avenue
Candlewood Suites Oklahoma City
Crowne Plaza Hotel Tulsa
Woodward
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Woodward Hwy 270
Central Point
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Medford – Central Point
Eugene
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Eugene
Portland
Staybridge Suites Portland Airport
Exton
Holiday Inn Express Exton – Lionville
Grantville
Holiday Inn Harrisburg (Hershey Area) I–81
Harrisburg
Horsham
Candlewood Suites Harrisburg
Holiday Inn Harrisburg East (Airport Area)
Candlewood Suites Philadelphia – Willow Grove
Malvern
Staybridge Suites Malvern
Philadelphia
Hilton Head
Crowne Plaza Philadelphia Downtown
Holiday Inn Philadephia Historic District
Candlewood Suites Pittsburgh Airport
Holiday Inn Pittsburgh at University Center (Oakland)
Holiday Inn Express Charleston US Hwy 17 & I–526
Holiday Inn Charleston – Mills House
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Columbia – Downtown
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Columbia – Fort Jackson
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Columbia North
Crowne Plaza Resort Hilton Head Island
Pittsburgh
South Carolina
Charleston
Columbia
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Myrtle Beach
Staybridge Suites Myrtle Beach – Fantasy Harbour
Spartanburg
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Spartanburg – Westgate Mall
Brookings
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Brookings
Rapid City
Holiday Inn Rapid City – Rushmore Plaza
Sioux Falls
Holiday Inn Sioux Falls – City Center
Brentwood
Candlewood Suites Nashville – Brentwood
Chattanooga
Staybridge Suites Chattanooga Downtown – Convention Center
Cookeville
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Cookeville
Knoxville
Candlewood Suites Knoxville
Memphis
Holiday Inn Select Memphis East
Murfreesboro
Holiday Inn Express Murfreesboro Central
Nashville
Addison
Holiday Inn Nashville – Vanderbilt Downtown
Holiday Inn Opryland Airport
InterContinental Dallas
Arlington
Candlewood Suites Dallas – Arlington
Austin
Beaumont
Crowne Plaza Hotel Austin
Candlewood Suites Austin – Arboretum Northwest
Candlewood Suites Austin – Round Rock
Candlewood Suites Austin – South
InterContinental Stephen F. Austin
Staybridge Suites Austin Airport
Staybridge Suites Austin Arboretum
Candlewood Suites Beaumont
Boerne
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Six Flags West – Boerne
Dallas
Crowne Plaza Suites Dallas Park Central
Candlewood Suites Dallas Park Central
El Paso
Candlewood Suites Dallas By The Galleria
Staybridge Suites Dallas Near The Galleria
Holiday Inn El Paso
Fort Worth
Candlewood Suites Dallas / Ft. Worth / Fossil Creek
Galveston
Livingston
Candlewood Suites Galveston
Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort Galveston Beach
Crowne Plaza Hotel Houston I–10 West
Candlewood Suites Houston Park Row
Candlewood Suites Houston Clear Lake
Candlewood Suites Houston By The Galleria
Candlewood Suites Houston Town and Country
Candlewood Suites Houston Westchase
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Houston (Medical Center)
Holiday Inn Houston Northwest Willowbrook
InterContinental Houston Near The Galleria
Staybridge Suites Houston Willowbrook
Staybridge Suites Houston West / Energy Corridor
Staybridge Suites Houston Galleria Area
Candlewood Suites Dallas – Las Colinas
Staybridge Suites Dallas – Las Colinas Area
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Livingston
Marshall
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Marshall
McAllen
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites McAllen
Plano
Candlewood Suites Dallas – Plano
San Antonio
Tyler
Crowne Plaza Hotel San Antonio Airport
Candlewood Suites San Antonio
Holiday Inn Express San Antonio Airport
Holiday Inn San Antonio International Airport
Holiday Inn San Antonio Northwest – Seaworld Area
Holiday Inn San Antonio Riverwalk
Staybridge Suites San Antonio Airport
Staybridge Suites San Antonio Sunset Station
Staybridge Suites San Antonio NW Colonnade
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Tyler South
Houston
Irving
Waco
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Waco Northwest
Weatherford
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Weatherford
Utah
Salt Lake City
Virginia
Alexandria
Blacksburg
Candlewood Suites Salt Lake City Airport
Candlewood Suites Salt Lake City Fort Union
Crowne Plaza Hotel Old Town Alexandria
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Alexandria – Historic District
Crowne Plaza Hotel Washington National Airport
Holiday Inn National Airport / Crystal City
Holiday Inn University Blacksburg
Dulles
Holiday Inn Washington – Dulles International Airport
Hampton
Candlewood Suites Hampton
Herndon
McLean
Holiday Inn Express Reston Herndon – Dulles Airport
Staybridge Suites Herndon – Dulles
Crowne Plaza Hotel Tysons Corner – McLean
Roanoke
Holiday Inn Roanoke – Valley View
Burlington
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Burlington
Chehalis
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Chehalis – Centralia
Marysville
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Marysville
Sumner
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Sumner
Vancouver
Staybridge Suites Vancouver – Portland Metro
Yakima
Holiday Inn Express Yakima
Fond Du Lac
Holiday Inn Fond Du Lac
Franklin
Staybridge Suites Milwaukee Airport South
Madison
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Madison West
Milwaukee
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Milwaukee Airport
Oak Creek
Candlewood Suites Milwaukee Airport – Oak Creek
Oshkosh
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Oshkosh
Wauwatosa
Crowne Plaza Hotel Milwaukee West
Rock Springs
Holiday Inn Rock Springs
Arlington
Washington
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Uzbekistan
Tashkent
InterContinental Tashkent
Venezuela
Caracas
InterContinental Tamanaco Caracas
Ciudad Guayana
InterContinental Guayana
Maracaibo
Crowne Plaza Hotel Maruma Hotel & Casino
Valencia
InterContinental Tacarigua Valencia
Vietnam
Hanoi
InterContinental Hanoi Westlake
Yemen
Mukalla
Holiday Inn Mukalla
Zambia
Lusaka
InterContinental Lusaka
Corporate Responsibility / Environment / Climate and carbon
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Climate and carbon
59kg
CEO Message
About IHG
The average IHG hotel's carbon
footprint is 59kg, roughly equivalent
to the average US home on a per
room night basis.
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Approach
Green Engage
Climate and carbon
Our carbon footprint
Carbon FAQs
Energy
Water
Waste
Biodiversity
Community
Key achievements
Completed the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) questionnaire for the second year running and
improved our ranking
Awarded the Carbon Trust Standard in the UK for showing genuine carbon reductions and a
commitment to ongoing reductions.
Our performance
Along with the economic downturn, climate change is one of our biggest business challenges. Working to
balance business growth with the expectations of a responsible business means we need to take a range
of considerations and pressures into account:
customers, governments and regulators increasingly demand the highest environmental standards,
specifically in water efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions
regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and other resources is rising, including new carbon schemes
such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment in the UK, and stricter building codes to encourage
sustainable construction
increasing water and energy prices are driving up operational costs
the environmental impact of the supply chain is coming under closer scrutiny
changing sea levels and climate patterns are affecting the availability of raw materials for construction,
how and where hotels are built, and how guests travel
guests are under increasing pressure to reduce air travel.
Innovation not offsetting
As a global organisation with operations in many markets we believe our biggest contribution towards
cutting greenhouse gas emissions will come from changing our own behaviour. While many businesses
choose to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions through the purchase of voluntary carbon offsets we
disagree with the principle that a company can pay others to cut carbon on its behalf. Consequently, we're
working to deliver real emission cuts through our Green Engage programme. Our approach is to innovate
new and better ways to design, build and run our hotels.
Using Green Engage we track and report on carbon and other emissions across the business. We took part
in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) this year and expect Green Engage to provide more accurate
Group-wide data on our carbon footprint to all interested parties in 2011.
By using resources such as energy and water wisely, minimising waste and conserving ecosystems and
biodiversity, and sourcing locally whenever possible we can reduce our contribution towards climate
change. To manage our progress we have a global carbon strategy team. So far the team has focused on:
ensuring we have legal clarity on regulation
developing a financial model for business planning on carbon
creating internal and external awareness and knowledge of regulatory requirements
developing a shared calendar outlining key CRC milestones from 2009 through to 2013
working with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to better understand its approach to the Carbon
Reduction Commitment and where we might act jointly
forging governmental relationships to ensure our business model reflects a changing legislative
framework.
In order to make real progress with these issues, we are setting targets against all our major activities. In
short, we aim to make a night with IHG more carbon efficient.
Corporate Responsibility / Environment / Climate and carbon / Our carbon footprint
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Our carbon footprint
One of our key business objectives is to minimise our impact on the climate and to future proof ourselves
against rising energy and carbon costs. We see this as an opportunity to innovate and implement practical
measures to reduce emissions. To achieve that, we focus on responsible design, construction and
operational activities.
First we have to measure our footprint. We commissioned carbon footprint specialists Best Foot Forward to
undertake an emissions measurement exercise that we believe is more comprehensive than any other
study undertaken in the hotel industry to date. Extrapolating data from a representative sample of 26 of our
hotels during 2006-2007 gave us an idea of the carbon footprint throughout our complete hotel portfolio:
Approach
our total estimated carbon footprint is approximately 9 million metric tonnes
Green Engage
roughly 4.6 million tonnes comes from energy usage while 4.4 million tonnes are indirect emissions from
consumption of other resources, including materials and waste
Climate and carbon
Our carbon footprint
Carbon FAQs
Energy
Water
Waste
Biodiversity
at 59kg per night, our average hotel room footprint is roughly equal to the average US home
in our best performing hotels our carbon footprint is significantly lower than staying at home and a range
of our mid-scale hotels have lower carbon emissions than staying at home.
The study also demonstrated that the environmental aspects of hotel activities such as heating, ventilating
and air conditioning systems can be managed to lower our carbon footprint. In addition, we discovered we
have opportunities to reduce carbon emissions in all our hotels.
Average IHG hotel carbon footprint by percentage
(direct and indirect emissions)
Community
Our performance
To address our carbon challenges, we will continue to use Green Engage to implement and share best
practice in areas that really make a difference, particularly in hotel design, operations and purchasing.
In 2011 we will apply a carbon calculator through Green Engage to track and report on our carbon use
across the Group. This will give us a more accurate picture of the progress we are making to reduce our
carbon footprint.
9 million
IHG's carbon footprint is
approximately 9 million metric
tonnes, equivalent to filling 4,777
Empire State buildings. (Source:
www.icbe.com)
Corporate Responsibility / Environment / Climate and carbon / Carbon FAQs
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Carbon FAQs
Green Engage Key Action Group Areas
Is IHG exposed to regulatory risks associated with climate change?
Collaboration
Yes. Regulation includes carbon pricing and reporting schemes such as the Carbon Reduction
Commitment in the UK.
Environment
Is IHG exposed to the physical risks associated with climate change?
Approach
Green Engage
Climate and carbon
Our carbon footprint
Carbon FAQs
Energy
Water
Waste
Yes. As yet there is no real clarity on how they will impact on the sector but we believe that rising sea
levels and a changing global climate will affect, amongst other things, the availability of raw materials,
the locations where hotels can be sited, and customers' travelling patterns.
Does IHG consider climate change as a commercial opportunity?
Yes, we have a clear objective of making a night with IHG as energy efficient as possible. By
addressing the physical and regulatory risks associated with climate change – through technology,
partnerships and operational improvements – we can operate more responsibly and efficiently.
What is IHG’s carbon footprint?
In 2006-2007 we calculated our carbon dioxide emissions to be approximately 9 million metric tonnes.
Approximately 4.6 million tonnes are emissions from energy usage whilst 4.4 million tonnes are
indirect emissions from consumption of other resources.
Biodiversity
Community
Our performance
How was the carbon footprint calculated?
IHG commissioned Best Foot Forward to undertake a robust carbon footprint of a representative
sample of 26 of our hotels to give an estimate of carbon emissions throughout our hotel portfolio.
How does IHG hope to engage all hotels, including franchisees to
decrease their Greenhouse Gas emissions?
To help us achieve a significant reduction in our impacts on climate change, we launched Green
Engage in 2009. This system is designed to assist our general managers across the entire hotel
portfolio of 4,437 hotels to manage energy, water and waste consumption more effectively.
Does IHG have an ambition/target to minimise the group’s carbon
footprint?
Energy efficiency is highly correlated to carbon reduction. In our owned and managed estate, we seek
to achieve an energy savings of 6% to 10% over the next three years (2010-2012) on a per available
room night basis.
How is the company progressing against its carbon reduction target?
Early trial models of Green Engage show that we could achieve energy savings of as much as 1525% per hotel. We expect to be able to report more fully on hotel progress in the coming year.
Corporate Responsibility / Environment / Energy
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Energy
15-25%
CEO Message
About IHG
Energy is the second largest cost in
our hotels, after people. Green
Engage can help run a 15-25% more
energy-efficient hotel – that's an
average saving of approximately
USD $90,000 per year.
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Approach
Green Engage
Related content
Climate and carbon
Energy
Environmental policy
Water
Green Engage
Waste
Biodiversity
Community
Our performance
Key achievements
1,100 hotels were set up on Green Engage and version 2.0 of the tool was developed to enhance
usability
Introduced energy-efficient lighting systems on our new Holiday Inn signage, saving the brand an
estimated $4.4 million annually and an estimated 52 per cent reduction in kilowatt hours.
Key energy objectives
In our owned and managed estate, we're working to make energy savings of 6% to 10% over the
next three years (2010-2012) on a per available room night basis
We will continue to roll out Green Engage to 100% of our owned and managed hotels, including
new hotels, and expand into our franchised estate in all three regions.
Energy usage in hotels makes up most of our carbon footprint and is the second largest cost to our hotels
after people. While the economic downturn inevitably had an impact on our business, at the same time it
provided an impetus to improve energy efficiency throughout IHG.
Green Engage gives us a more accurate picture of energy use across the Group but we still have some
way to go. For a start, we are still learning how the energy saving technologies and techniques we
recommend to our hotels can be best used to achieve greater energy efficiency. We also need to take into
account the impact of growth on our energy reduction objectives. We will achieve this by starting to use a
metric that is closer to the way the hotel business actually measures itself on a per available room night
basis. Over the course of the year we also plan to report on the ways in which more and more hotels are
using Green Engage to achieve real benefits. Our aim is to start quantifying these benefits on a Groupwide basis within the next three years.
The figures below are based on a representative sample of hotels across our regions. They show that on a
per available room night, our hotels reduced energy use by approximately 9.3% from 2007 to 2009. From
this we estimate that in 2009 our hotels' global use was approximately 18.2 billion Kilowatt hours (kWh),
equivalent to a total energy bill of approximately US$1.9 billion a year (at 2009 US prices). We are
currently working with our hotels and suppliers to improve the quality of data and automate tracking. This
will give us a more robust picture of our energy and carbon footprint, enabling us to more effectively report
and track data and therefore reduce our carbon footprint. We will be updating our figures when they
become available.
Energy use in kWh for 2007–2009
kWh per room night available % change
2007
2008
2009
kWh
59.63
55.64
54.08
Our hotels
Green Engage gives our hotels recommendations on a range of the most appropriate energy-saving
techniques and technologies depending on location, climate zone and whether or not the hotel is new. This
allows hotels to benchmark against similar hotels in the same climate zone, helping them to identify which
strategies could produce most savings.
Electricity consumption is one of the most costly aspects of hotel management from both a financial and
environmental standpoint. With careful design, we know it is possible to reduce consumption without
diminishing the well-being of guests and staff. This includes using measures such as efficient lighting
design, energy-saving products, on-site power generation and effective energy controls and management.
We are also looking at installing more master switches in guest rooms. With potential savings of up to 20%
in energy use, the system recognises when a room is occupied or unoccupied, and saves energy during
the time guests are not in their rooms.
Holiday Inn leads with LEDs
The Holiday Inn brand is currently undergoing a $1 billion global re-launch. More than 9,300 new signs in
3,200 locations have been installed. The signage incorporates energy-efficient, long-life GE Tetra® LED
lighting systems saving Holiday Inn an estimated $4.4 million annually over previous neon and fluorescent
lighting ($3 million annual maintenance savings and $1.4 million energy savings). In addition the new signs
contain no lead, mercury or glass.
Holiday Inn expects to cut energy usage by more than half and achieve an estimated 52 per cent reduction
in kilowatt hours. That represents an estimated reduction of 8,700 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide annually
or the equivalent of planting more than 2,300 acres of trees per year.
Our offices
We are also putting considerable efforts into making our offices around the world more energy efficient.
Our Global IHG Headquarters at Denham, United Kingdom was designed with sustainability in mind. Our
goal was to enhance the well-being of our employees and set a positive example for our hotels. Some of
the features of the building include energy-saving measures such as energy efficient lighting, and solar
panels in the car park.
Energy efficient measures introduced to our US headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia include LEDs and
occupancy sensors to replace existing lighting, and installing energy efficient appliances and low energy
CRT monitors. These resulted in an Energy Star rating of 78. Other improvements include green cleaning
and mixed recycling programmes, environmental and energy saving retrofits to building systems, and
promoting alternative ways of commuting to work.
Our data and contact centres
IHG manages several data centres, 12 contact centres and all of the IT systems that enable guests to
book hotel rooms in any of our 4,437 branded hotels.
Since 2008 our Enterprise Technology team have been simplifying access to all of IHG's global distribution
systems, online booking platforms, reporting applications and other management tools. At the same time,
we are making important changes in our data and contact centres by getting our supply chain to purchase
energy-efficient equipment, and implementing Internet-based voice and data networks across the
enterprise. Our goal is to reduce the number of IT servers by 80%.
Corporate Responsibility / Environment / Water
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Water
Laundry programmes
remain one of the most
efficient ways to save
water.
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
20%
Approach
Green Engage
1.1 billion people do not have access
to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion
people lack adequate sanitation.
(Source: World Water Council)
Climate and carbon
Energy
Water
Waste
Biodiversity
Community
Our performance
Key achievements
Continued to roll out Green Engage, helping more of our hotels make significant reductions in the
amount of water they use.
Water is becoming a serious issue for our industry. Many parts of the world are already experiencing
freshwater stress and climate change is expected to exacerbate these problems. Population growth is also
a factor: according to the United Nations, approximately 60% of the world's population will be living in
water-stressed countries by 2025.
The situation has been likened to oil in terms of global supply pressures and will have similar impacts on
business in terms of rising costs. Water availability and the impacts of usage on local communities and
ecosystems will increasingly determine where our hotel developments are located and how they are run.
Water consumption
Green Engage is helping our hotels measure their water. We believe an average hotel in temperate zones
could conserve between 10% and 20% of its water usage. Taken across our entire hotel estate this would
mean significant reductions in our impacts and costs. At the same time, improving water performance can
also help reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. That's why we are putting so much emphasis
on rolling out Green Engage to our hotels.
Alongside measuring our water usage we need to implement systems that help us manage it. Water is
therefore one of our eight key action group areas in Green Engage, which offers our hotels advice on a
range of topics including water efficient fixtures and appliances, water collection, treatment and re-use, and
irrigation.
We will be updating our figures when they come available.
Water conservation and efficiency
Green Engage provides our hotels with a comprehensive guide to water-saving technologies and
processes. Typically, 85% of the water used in a hotel is from showers, toilets, taps and kitchens. Low flow
fixtures, such as taps and showerheads, are a huge step forward in water conservation efforts. One of our
Holiday Inn hotels in Flinders, Australia, recouped its AUD $22,000 (USD $19,500) investment in low flow
technology after 18 months and cut water usage by 50%.
The water-saving programme at the Holiday Inn at San Antonio International Airport, USA has reduced
consumption from 202 gallons per occupied room to 120, saving more than 7 million gallons of water
annually. Read more about the hotel's green journey.
Related content
Environmental policy
Green Engage
Corporate Responsibility / Environment / Waste
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Waste
124
CEO Message
About IHG
Worldwide, 124 million tonnes of
construction debris is buried in
landfills every year. Waste reduction
programmes offer many opportunities
for carbon reduction and habitat
protection.
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Approach
Green Engage
Climate and carbon
Energy
Water
Waste
Biodiversity
Community
Our performance
Key achievements
Established requirement for hotels to monitor the way they deal with waste through Green Engage
CR team input on UK waste management selection panels.
Fast facts
In 2010, 256.80 tons of recycled waste was consumed at InterContinental Boston saving the
equivalent of 1,170 trees or removing 102 cars from the roads each year.
Waste disposal creates a number of environmental problems. These include the depletion of habitats by
landfills, toxins leaching into water supplies and greenhouse gas emissions from decomposition.
Understanding our waste streams better will help us find more efficient ways to reduce waste and manage
its disposal.
We appreciate that many of our hotels find it difficult to measure their waste. For that reason we are unable
to provide a Group-wide figure for the amount of waste we produce. We are working to address this
through Green Engage. We are also advising hotels on ways of working with suppliers to measure waste
reduction. We will be providing data on waste when it becomes available.
Managing waste
Through Green Engage we encourage our hotels to create a waste management plan that sets out how
they are going to handle, store and dispose of waste, both on- and off-site. This applies to both the
construction of a hotel and its day-to-day running.
Our approach to waste management is based on the 3Rs: reduce, re-use and recycle. Waste reduction has
the most economic and environmental benefits (e.g. reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions) followed by
re-use, recycling/composting and energy recovery.
Reducing waste at the InterContinental Boston
Fabienne Eliacin, Co-Chair of the hotel's Recycling Committee, with Tim Kirwin, General Manager of InterContinental
Boston, receiving her 2009 Employee of the Year award
Introducing a waste management programme at the InterContinental Boston led to an impressive
18% reduction in the amount of waste the hotel sent to landfill in 2009. This came about when the
hotel started using internal systems such as Green Engage and external experts to measure its waste
and find ways to reduce it.
Fabienne Eliacin, Co-Chair of the hotel’s Recycling Committee, the IC Boston’s said: "We recycled
30% of our waste over the past year, saving 81 metric tons of carbon or the equivalent of removing
65 cars from the road annually. In addition we recycled almost 100 lamps, 160 pounds of batteries
and 530 gallons of vegetable oil."
The hotel’s comprehensive waste management plan includes:
Paper, cardboard, bottles, cans, batteries and light bulbs are
recycled from guest rooms, lobby areas, kitchen and back room
offices. Recycling bins are available for meetings and are on all
guest floor service landings. Individual recycling bins will soon be
trialled in all guest rooms.
Semi-used guest toiletries, unclaimed lost and found items and
damaged linen are collected and donated to ‘Help Now’, a nonprofit organisation that passes the items onto orphanages and
hospitals in Cameroon.
For meetings and events, the hotel uses cloth napkins and
provides water pitchers instead of bottled water unless otherwise
requested by guests.
The hotel also works with suppliers to reduce packaging. Fruit,
vegetables and fish are now supplied in reusable plastic containers
(totes) instead of paper and cardboard boxes. The hotel also holds
an annual supplier green day, where information on how to reduce
the supply chain footprint is shared
Keen to find new ways to encourage fellow employees and guests to recycle even more IC Boston
has a Recycling Committee which meets once a month. The hotel aims to increase recycling rates by
15% this year but acknowledges this may prove challenging due to lower guest occupancy rates as a
result of the difficult economic climate.
Food waste
The hospitality industry consumes a large volume of food and beverage products through in-house
restaurants, catering and guest room services. Through careful menu planning we can reduce food waste
and make use of seasonally available ingredients. We can also reduce food wastage by offering options in
bulk dispensers rather than individual packages. We suggest that our hotels set up or make use of food
donation programmes where possible.
Our suppliers
We encourage our hotels to introduce waste reduction in their procurement processes and contracts with
suppliers. Procurement plays a large part in reducing construction waste, for example. Setting procurement
criteria for sub-contractors ensures that our hotels only use companies that follow good practice in waste
reduction. In 2011 the selection panel for our UK waste contracts had input from our global Corporate
Responsibility team. Find out more on how we are working with our supply chain.
Corporate Responsibility / Environment / Biodiversity
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Biodiversity
In 2010 we donated
$100,000 to Oxford
University to help fund
its innovative
conservation efforts.
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Approach
Green Engage
Climate and carbon
Energy
Water
Waste
Biodiversity
Community
Our performance
Key achievements
Continued our unique partnership with Oxford University to better understand how hotel design
and development impacts the environment
Donated US$100,000 to Oxford University through our PCR programme.
We believe that keeping the disturbance of animals, plants and their natural habitats to a minimum is a key
element of responsible tourism. Failing to address biodiversity risks can also undermine a company's
reputation and have a negative impact on its financial performance.
As part of Green Engage we have developed a set of recommendations intended to preserve and protect
on-site local flora and fauna and the wider regional ecosystems on which our operations impact. We
suggest hotels:
choose a building site that has already been disturbed and/or is not home to sensitive species whenever
possible. We consider this to be the first step towards reducing the negative impact of increased human
activity in an area
undertake an environmental impact assessment to identify the impacts of planned building works
plan the building footprint, driveway and parking of our hotels to maximise open space and preserve
local ecosystems
follow an erosion and sedimentation control programme during construction to keep the silt and
pollutants introduced into the watershed to a minimum
ensure that green space serves as a wildlife corridor
design structures so that vegetation makes a significant contribution to reduced heat island impact and
storm-water control
select native vegetation wherever possible as these species adapt to the geography, hydrology and
climate of the region, require little or no irrigation, minimal maintenance and no fertilisers, pesticides or
herbicides
use trained tour guides, signage and other means of visitor education to limit damage to protected areas
where disturbance is unavoidable, develop a strategy to ensure that a site is restored to its original
habitat after construction.
Our commitment to develop and run our hotels in a way that protects and preserves wildlife and natural
habitats is reflected in our five-year collaboration to help Oxford University map biodiversity, in particular
identifying areas that are either suitable or unsuitable for development.
Supporting Oxford University's conservation efforts
With the world estimated to lose about one plant species every half an hour there is a pressing need
for good scientific research to find the best ways to protect biodiversity.
In May 2009 IHG joined forces with the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford to
accelerate vital and innovative research into conservation. We have pledged up to US$1 million over
a five-year period to help Oxford increase its research capability in the mapping of biodiversity and to
help inform our future hotel design and operations. To date we have donated $100,000.
Working with communities and scientists, the university's research will pinpoint and publicise areas of
the planet – small in some cases – that have the greatest concentration of rare and threatened plants.
Current web developments are revolutionising the way this work can be carried out. Oxford is at the
forefront, and a central objective of our funding is the development of improved online 'hot spot' maps
to identify areas that are either suitable or unsuitable for development.
Over the past decade Oxford botanists working in the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes have already
uncovered more than 100 plant species new to science. Work is also going on to evaluate
concentrations of rare forest species in Ghana, as well as to document biodiversity in Trinidad &
Tobago and in Brazil.
Our Priority Club Rewards (PCR) scheme is partly funding the donation by getting members to switch
from paper to online statements. Over 330,000 members have made the switch and IHG has already
donated $100,000 to the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford University. With more than 52
million PCR members worldwide, this simple change will have a huge financial and environmental
benefit. PCR members are also able to track the progress of the research project and speak to
scientists directly on this site.
Professor Jane Langdale, Head of Oxford University's Department of Plant Sciences, said:
"Recognising and conserving plant biodiversity is crucial if we are to save fragile ecosystems and
pave the way for sustainable economic development. IHG's generous support will enable us to
significantly expand our efforts to gather detailed information about plant biodiversity hot spots around
the world and to make this information available to those working nearby to conserve plant species".
Corporate Responsibility / Community
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Approach
Local economic opportunity
Our people
Human rights
Supply chain
Accessibility
Our performance
Managing our
community impacts is
central to IHG's strategy.
IHG Academy
Our people
Read more about our unique public/private
partnership.
With hotels in more than 100
countries and territories, we look to
create sustainable local economic
opportunities.
Find out more
IHG is the biggest hotel group in
the industry, providing staff with
lots of career opportunities.
Already I think that the skills
that I have gained through
working with IHG have given me
a better platform from which to
launch a successful career.
Mike Li,
IHG Academy Graduate
Disaster recovery
Find out about our
partnership with
CARE in providing
disaster relief.
Corporate Responsibility / Community / Approach
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Approach
The International
Rescue Committee
(IRC), our IHG
Academy in the US,
works in over 40
countries and in 22 US
cities, restoring safety,
dignity and hope to
millions of uprooted
people. (Source: IRC)
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Approach
Local economic opportunity
Our people
Human rights
Supply chain
Accessibility
Our performance
Key achievements
Expanded the IHG Academy to the UK and USA, to provide education, skills training and
employment opportunities to help drive economic growth in the communities around our hotels and
corporate offices
Created a global disaster relief programme including a strategic partnership with CARE
Established a new partnership with Business in the Community
Completed our annual Corporate Responsibility survey by General Managers of our hotels, to
better understand how they are making a positive difference in the community in which they
operate.
Key community objectives
Continue to expand the IHG Academy around the world
Work with the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) to support
sustainability goals for the 2012 London Olympics
To prepare our hotels and corporate offices to provide an effective response to support local
communities when disaster strikes.
With hotels and offices in more than 100 countries and territories, we take our commitment to operating
responsibly in local communities very seriously. For us that means being a responsible and active member
of the communities where we operate and looking for opportunities to make a positive difference.
We revised our global Community Strategy in 2010. Our new strategy is based on the following premise:
transforming lives and our hotels by engaging our colleagues and our communities. To achieve this we
concentrate on doing fewer things well, making our size and scale work for us, and living our values.
We focus on three areas that are most aligned with the role of hotels in society and where we can have a
significant impact:
Improving the environmental sustainability of our activities
Creating local economic opportunity through education, skills training and employment opportunities in
our hotels and corporate offices
Providing effective disaster relief to support local communities when disasters strike.
Our support takes the form of financial contributions, in-kind donations and the volunteer activities of more
than 335,000 colleagues around the world.
Creating local economic opportunity
Our size and global market presence means we have a great opportunity to improve the lives of local
people. As such, our Community Strategy outlines how we seek to create local economic opportunity
through education, training and creation of employment opportunities.
During the year we worked with Harvard University, and with Business in the Community (BiTC) who
facilitated the establishment of partnerships through which we deliver the IHG Academy, an innovative
public/private partnership that helps us create local education and employment opportunities and drive
economic growth. This is a truly sustainable business proposition. The IHG Academy helps to ensure the
future of our hotels in areas where skilled employees can be hard to find and gives people the skills and
access to careers that they would not have otherwise had. It provides our existing employees with a
chance to participate and make a difference, and ensures we provide high quality quest experiences
throughout the world.
Focusing on creating local economic opportunity puts us at the leading edge in our sector, giving us a
competitive advantage and resonating with key external stakeholders, such as corporate clients.
In 2011, we have expanded the IHG Academy programme to the UK and the USA, and will continue the
global roll out of this innovative model into 2012.
We also work with other companies and government bodies to identify and address workforce issues such
Rosedale College, our
IHG Academy in the
UK, is an ethnically
diverse secondary
school of
approximately 600
students, aged 11-18,
located just outside of
London.
as working conditions, skills shortages and infrastructure development in the countries where we have a
substantial presence, particularly in developing countries. To ensure we act responsibly and to the highest
ethics we have put in place policies for Human Rights and Supporting our Communities.
Disaster relief
Hotels are places to celebrate, provide opportunities for employment and have an economic impact on local
communities. When disaster strikes, they can also help to provide shelter in a storm.
While our hotels have a long history of taking action to help local communities in times of need, we needed
to formalise the way we respond in a disaster to ensure a more consistent approach. We partnered with
CARE International, one of the world's three biggest aid agencies to develop a rapid, cohesive response
strategy, including operating guidelines to help hotels make the best use of their resources in times of
disaster. We are also putting in place simple and effective donation channels to leverage our global scale
and employee and guest base.
Grassroots activities
Over and above our corporate efforts, IHG hotels are involved with their communities in their own right
through cash grants, in-kind donations and volunteering programmes. We track this grassroots level activity
as part of an annual survey of our hotels. We use this survey to gather and share best practice throughout
the Group, communicate more effectively with our guests and make better-informed decisions about
community support and investment
Corporate Responsibility / Community / Local economic opportunity
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Local economic opportunity
5,000
CEO Message
About IHG
Number of students trained each
year via the IHG Academy
programmes.
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Approach
Local economic
opportunity
Charitable donations
Our people
Human rights
Supply chain
Accessibility
Our performance
Key achievements
Expanded the IHG Academy to create local education and employment opportunities in the
communities within which we operate
Conducted a study with Oxford Economics to understand the economic impacts the hospitality
industry has on society, a first in the industry.
Fast facts
IHG is directly responsible for nearly 90,000 jobs in the US hotel industry, based on 2010 figures.
(Source: Economic Impacts Study conducted by Oxford Economics on behalf of IHG)
The hotel sector is one of the largest creators of employment opportunities, second only to the food
and beverage industry.
Our size and global market presence mean that we have a significant impact on the economies of the
communities where we operate. We believe these to be as important as our environmental impacts.
IHG Economic Impact study
In 2010 IHG commissioned Oxford Economics to look into the economic impacts of the hospitality
industry and IHG in particular. We already know that the impacts of our hotels go far beyond providing
rooms and jobs.
The lodging sector has a long economic reach, extending far beyond its direct contributions to taxes,
employment, income, and GDP. Its supply chain purchases reverberate through a broad range of
sectors, generating indirect impacts. Further, induced impacts are generated as the employee incomes
earned both directly and indirectly as a result of lodging business are spent by households.
In terms of employment, the hotel sector actually ranks second among all the industries. Employment
impacts are largest in the food and beverage industry. Together, the hotel industry supported 2.6
million jobs in those two industries
To explore this further our study focused in on three key markets, the US, Brazil and the UK.
US
InterContinental Hotels Group is directly responsible for $8.4 billion in hotel industry sales in the
United States
When including the catalytic impacts of IHG hotel guest spending, IHG is the economic hub for $58
billion in US business sales
InterContinental Hotels Group is directly responsible for nearly 90,000 jobs in the US hotel industry
Including supply chain impacts (indirect) and the economic activity generated by employee incomes
(induced), IHG supports over 179,000 jobs in the US economy
When including the catalytic impacts of IHG hotel guest spending, IHG is the economic hub for over
469,000 US jobs.
UK
InterContinental Hotels Group is directly responsible for £889 million in hotel industry sales in the
United Kingdom
When including the catalytic impacts of IHG hotel guest spending, IHG is the economic hub for £5.0
billion in UK business sales
InterContinental Hotels Group is directly responsible for nearly 20,000 jobs in the UK hotel industry
Including supply chain impacts (indirect) and the economic activity generated by employee incomes
(induced), IHG supports over 46,100 jobs in the UK economy
At its peak in 2008, the
lodging sector directly
employed over 2
million persons in the
US. Each of the last two
recessions incurred
losses in hotel jobs,
with a nearly 6% drop
in 2009. However, the
sector has begun
adding jobs again in
recent months.
When including the catalytic impacts of IHG hotel guest spending, IHG is the economic hub for over
112,000 UK jobs.
Brazil
InterContinental Hotels Group is directly responsible for R$130 million in hotel industry sales in
Brazil
Including supply chain impacts (indirect) and the economic activity generated by employee incomes
(induced), IHG drives R$306 million in business sales
When including the catalytic impacts of IHG hotel guest spending, IHG is the economic hub for
R$877 million in Brazilian business sales
InterContinental Hotels Group is directly responsible for over 3,600 jobs in the Brazilian hotel
industry
Including supply chain impacts (indirect) and the economic activity generated by employee incomes
(induced), IHG supports almost 6,700 jobs in the Brazilian economy
When including the catalytic impacts of IHG hotel guest spending, IHG is the economic hub for over
17,100 Brazilian jobs.
Throughout the world IHG hotels provide opportunities for economic development, new business, muchneeded jobs and technology transfer. Travel and tourism as an industry is particularly important to the
economies of developing countries, employing more than 220 million people worldwide and generating
more than 9% of global GDP. (Source: World Travel and Tourism Council).
However, the tourism industry has faced a number of significant challenges in recent years due to the
economic crisis. This resulted in a fall in revenue generated from international tourism, a drop that was felt
not only by our business but also by our business partners and the local communities in which we operate.
While these challenges remain risks to our business, we believe the tourism industry is showing signs of
recovery with revenue increasing.
We're able to support communities affected by economic instability in two ways. Firstly, our economic
success allows us to continue to invest in long-term environmental and community initiatives, which help
develop local infrastructure. Secondly, our business model is based on franchising our brands for use by
third-party hotel owners. Through them we partner with small to medium-sized enterprises, which are often
local to the hotel location. With them, we are committed to employing local people and supporting their
career development, sourcing products and services locally, and encouraging tourists to use local services
and experience local culture.
IHG Academy in China: Case study
In many cases the lack of a skilled workforce prevents developing nations from tapping into the
economic benefits that travel and tourism has to offer. For instance, we are the largest international
hotel operator in China but have found it difficult to attract and retain talented employees in the region.
That's why we launched the IHG Academy, a public/private partnership that provides hospitality job
training in our local communities. First launched in Shanghai in June 2006, we now have 23 partners
located in 10 cities throughout China, training more than 4,800 students each year. We have
established new partnerships in the UK, the USA and Russia with plans to expand the IHG Academy
worldwide.
Each IHG Academy in China offers a range of certificates and diplomas that combine theoretical
sessions, lectures by IHG executives and internships at IHG's hotels. Our Academies train more than
4,800 students per year, giving students the opportunity to graduate from the programme and go on
to become permanent employees after their internship.
The value of our approach was recognised in a Harvard University study conducted in 2008. Looking
at the IHG Academy and other hospitality-related partnerships, the study said our strategy to develop
human capital was one of four strategic approaches companies should adopt in order to expand
economic opportunity. A well-implemented programme in this area will lead to improvements in the
health, education, experience and skills of individuals which will ripple out to businesses and the
entire community.
This year we will continue to sign more selected partner schools in China to meet our target of 30
Academies. A monitoring system to track students' placement, progress and career path in our hotels
is currently being established.
At the same time we want to build on the success of our 3+2 pilot programme, set up in Chongqing in
2007 specifically to tackle industry retention rates. According to the Chinese Education and Tourism
Bureau, issues such as long working hours mean that 50% of hotel management students don't work
in the hotel industry once they have graduated. Under our scheme, 24 students attended lessons two
days a week and spent the rest of the week doing hands-on training in a hotel. While many hotel
management courses in other parts of the world are run this way, it was an industry first for China.
All 24 students completed the course in 2009 and all are still working in the industry; 14 of them doing
full time jobs with IHG. According to the Dean of Chongqing University: "There has never been such a
high percentage of students who want to carry on working at the hotel after their internship. IHG has
achieved something unique here." We plan to work with more partner schools to expand this
programme throughout 2011.
IHG Academy graduate interview
Angel Wu, Management Trainee, Blue Italian Seafood and Grill Restaurant at the Crowne Plaza
Shenzhen
Name:
Angel Wu
Course name and location:
Major in Tourism Management, Provided by Jinan University Shenzhen Tourism College partners with
IHG in the IHG Academy in Shenzhen.
Year:
2004-2008
Position at IHG:
Management Trainee, Blue Italian Seafood and Grill Restaurant @ Crowne Plaza Shenzhen
What did you like about the course?
The course gave me the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities across eight different
hotel departments. It is rare for students in China to be exposed to this level of practical industry
experience.
I also enjoyed learning from lecturers who have direct experience of the hospitality industry.
What did you find challenging about the course?
Dealing with the range of differing hotel affairs for each individual department from a manager's point
of view was initially difficult, as was building co-operation across departments to ensure the hotel runs
more efficiently. Another big challenge I found as a manager was how to balance customer
satisfaction against making a profit.
How do you think the course has improved your skills?
I think my leadership skills have developed, as has my understanding of what it takes to be a good
manager.
As I gained an insight into all departments during my training I can now add value by looking at how
to improve collaboration between departments so that the hotel runs more efficiently.
Finally, the course has improved my communication skills with both customers and staff, helping me
to identify ways to drive customer satisfaction and to motivate staff.
What did you hope to achieve by taking the course?
I hoped to gain practical work experience and the necessary skills to become a good manager.
What are your hopes for your career?
I'd like to become a hotel manager and travel around the world experiencing the different cultures in
which IHG operates.
If you hadn't taken the course what do you think you would be doing now?
I would probably have become a waiter or I'd be working in an office.
Why do you like working at IHG?
IHG provides fantastic practical training which I can use in both my professional and personal life. IHG
also supports staff to develop their own skills and interests and encourages them to have a good
work/life balance.
IHG Academy launched in the UK: Case study
The launch of our first IHG Academy in the UK is the next step in our strategy to build on the success
we've had in China by expanding the programme to the UK.
Rosedale College and Mellow Lane School are near our global headquarters in Denham. The
Academy provides hospitality training for students aged between 14 – 18 years and creates a pipeline
of skilled talent for our hotels.
Our IHG Academy is a great example of the way we use our hotels' resources to provide real
opportunities to local people and develop home-grown talent to join our teams. By offering students
work placements at nearby IHG hotels it also gives them a chance to find out what working in a hotel
is really like.
Giving students and teachers the benefit of our day-to-day operational know-how is one of the great
advantages of the IHG Academy for Nick Campbell, General Manager at the Crowne Plaza,
Heathrow. At the same time he values the way it gives our employees the opportunity to get involved
and make a difference by volunteering their time and expertise. Read the full interview…
Rosedale College Principal Joanne Harper is equally enthusiastic. As well as believing that the IHG
Academy helps students decide whether hospitality is the career for them she appreciates the highlevel investment from both partners, which makes students feel really valued. Read the full
interview…
Our next IHG Academy in the UK is due to open in East London near the Olympics site later in the
year. Ultimately, the more IHG Academy programmes we launch worldwide, the more talented
individuals with a real passion for the hospitality industry we'll be helping to develop. This, in turn, will
help us achieve our core purpose of Great Hotels Guests Love.
Interview with Nick Campbell, General Manager, Crowne Plaza, London Heathrow
As a hotel, what involvement do you have in the IHG Academy programme?
Quite a lot! The hotel offers work placement positions to students and hotel staff and managers
participate in open days to give an understanding of what opportunities are available to students when
they leave full time education, both through formal presentations and on a one-to-one basis. The
hotel also acts as a sounding board for teachers to sense check what life in the industry is like today
and to help them keep up to date with industry developments. As well as this, the hotel gives the
Academy advice on what will work in operations and equally what to avoid.
What benefits and value do you feel the students get from taking part in the IHG
Academy programme?
They gain a good basic understanding of what working in a hotel is really like and this in turn helps
them decide whether the industry is truly for them.
What benefits and value does the hotel get from taking part in the IHG Academy
programme?
There are three key benefits. It's a talent pool for future local recruitment; it enables members of the
team to get involved in areas outside their usual remit; and it's giving something back to our local
community.
What do you like about the IHG Academy programme?
It's given structure to something the hotel was already doing on a more ad hoc basis and opened up
a much wider range of support for the students.
What are your hopes for the future of the IHG Academy programme?
That it continues to be rolled out in many other areas, both in the UK and internationally, and that IHG
gets the recognition that it deserves for driving this very worthwhile initiative.
Interview with Joanne Harper, Principal, Rosedale College
What do you like about the IHG Academy programme?
I particularly like the fact that both organisations have invested heavily in staff time – and at a high
level – in this initiative. The students have also influenced the direction of the project, which is exactly
how it should be done.
What benefits does the IHG Academy bring to Rosedale College?
The IHG Academy enables our learners to experience a real working situation so that their
achievements in their courses of study can be at a higher level and they can be realistic about what
the future potentially holds for them.
What benefits and value do you feel the students get from taking part in the
programme?
The students not only get an amazing work-related experience but also feel very special that we are
all taking such a close interest in their development; this is very important in terms of raising self
esteem and aspirations.
Does the IHG Academy give the students more exposure to the hospitality
industry and work place. If so, how?
Yes, most definitely. The students have completed work experience and taken part in induction
activities and visited hotels to complement their studies. We've also had IHG staff coming to the
college to talk to students about careers in hospitality.
How has the IHG Academy partnership inspired the students?
It has improved their understanding of what they can achieve. Our college staff aim to inspire and
raise aspirations but having IHG complementing this has had a big impact on students on the course.
What impact do you feel the programme will bring to the future careers of the
students?
Students who graduate from the IHG Academy have a much better chance of securing future work in
the hospitality industry as they have real life work experience.
What are your hopes for the future of the IHG Academy programme?
I would like Rosedale College and the IHG Academy to be known as the place to come to for
hospitality courses and training, both locally and nationally.
Corporate Responsibility / Community / Local economic opportunity / Charitable donations
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
Charitable donations
Key achievements
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Donated a total of $1.66m to community and charities, including employee donations and
consumer donations generated by IHG programmes, such as the redemption of Priority Club
Rewards points by PCR members.
Environment
Community
Approach
Local economic
opportunity
Charitable donations
Our people
Human rights
Supply chain
Accessibility
Our performance
Supporting local communities
We are committed to active involvement in the local communities around our hotels and corporate offices.
Ultimately that means being a valued, responsible community partner by ensuring that our business
objectives enhance the quality of life in the community.
The aim of our charitable endeavours is to support global efforts that represent the business goals of IHG
and which make a positive different to the communities in which we operate. The activities we support
must be aligned with our corporate values.
As part of our revised Community Strategy, we want our donations to have an even bigger impact. To that
end we have introduced criteria that will help us target our donations effectively and align them with our
corporate objectives. We encourage our local managers and employees to use them as a commonsense
guide in deciding what is right for their community.
We support charities which:
operate or have needs in one of our areas of focus; environmental sustainability, creating local
economic opportunity or providing disaster relief
are open to innovative approaches to tackling the need
are operationally efficient and can demonstrate their ability to follow through on a proposal
explain clearly the benefits to IHG and our hotel communities.
We only support organisations which have verifiable charity status and whose ethical principles are
consistent with our Code of Ethics. We do not support political or religious organisations, nor in general do
we support individuals or provide operating support for hospitals and healthcare institutions. We will not
support organisations that discriminate on the basis of race, religion, creed, gender, age, physical
challenge or national origin.
Our full eligibility criteria and grant application form will be available soon.
Corporate Responsibility / Community / Our people
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Approach
93% of our people say
they are proud to work
for the company.
(Source: 2010 October
IHG Employee Survey
(Owned, managed
hotels, corporate and
reservation staff)
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Approach
Local economic opportunity
Our people
Employee profile
Manage risk and safe hotels
Diversity and equality
Human rights
Supply chain
Key achievements
Improved engagement score in our employee survey - up 3 percentage points to 73%. (Source:
2010 October IHG Employee Survey (Owned, managed hotels, corporate and reservation staff)
Accessibility
Our performance
As a responsible employer the relationships we have with our employees and the way we manage and
take care of them are extremely important to us.
One of our key challenges as a company is to attract, retain and inspire people to deliver our core purpose,
Great Hotels Guests Love. We achieve this by clearly articulating our values and the behaviours we expect
from our employees - our Winning Ways - and by creating an environment where our people can be
themselves and are encouraged to perform at the highest level - we call this Room to be Yourself.
Together these form 'the deal' between IHG and everyone who works for us.
Unless otherwise stated, information in this section applies to people directly employed by IHG and those
who work in managed hotels or as part of our joint Venture with All Nippon Airways (ANA) in Japan - in total
approximately 110,000 people. While our franchised operations are not required, by nature of their contract,
to engage employees in the deal, we work hard to ensure that our franchised hotels offer good working
conditions through contracts and terms and conditions.
What we ask: Winning Ways
Winning Ways is a set of behaviours that defines how IHG interacts with guests, colleagues and hotel
owners. It was developed in 2006 and integrated into the business in 2007. IHG's people have embraced
these behaviours with enthusiasm and creativity worldwide.
What we offer: Room to be yourself
While Winning Ways define what is expected from all employees at IHG, we have also developed
standards that characterise what employees can expect from IHG. Research shows that our employees
want the opportunity to make a difference, to be themselves and to be recognised as unique and talented
individuals. We used this knowledge to develop the employer side of 'the deal'. Room to be Yourself
consists of four promises covering our commitment to our employees and the working environment they can
expect from us.
Our promises are:
Room to have a great start
You will be treated with respect and we will make sure you have everything you need to have a great
start.
Room to be involved
You will have the opportunity to work with great teams, know what is going on and make a real
difference in your workplace.
Room to grow
You will be supported and given opportunities to develop yourself and pursue a rewarding career.
Room for you
You will be rewarded and recognised for your contributions and we will value the significance of your life
beyond work.
Room to have a great start
In spite of the continuing economic recession and its impact on revenues, we continue to open hotels and
expect to recruit 160,000 people over the next three years. We are meeting this challenge in a number of
ways.
Our online recruitment system attracts and matches candidates to job vacancies. Over 240,000 CVs were
posted to the site during the past year and over 6,000 people were appointed as a result of online
applications.
In China we have set up a number of initiatives to recruit talented individuals to support the number of
hotels we anticipate opening over the next few years. These include a range of fast-track programmes to
bring in professionals from human resources and finance backgrounds. We also developed the IHG
Academies to equip students with the skills required by the hotel industry. Click here to find out more about
the IHG Academy.
All our corporate and hotel staff take part in an induction programme. Our Denham head office provides a
two-day induction programme for new staff; in 2010 we will include our approach to CR in the programme.
Room to be involved
We place great importance on communicating with our employees, making sure we keep them informed
about what is happening in our business and how we're performing. Communication channels include
global management conferences, team meetings, informal briefings, in-house publications and intranets.
Improvements to our corporate intranet site 'Merlin' mean employees can now access information about
people, policies and news across all hotels, corporate offices and reservations centres at any time.
Employee feedback is vital if we are to meet expectations and deliver our commitments. Our twice-yearly
survey measures employee opinion and attitudes and is sent to employees in owned and managed hotels,
corporate offices and reservations centres. We have not reported the survey data on our joint venture
partners.
Since the first survey in 2007 we have continued to achieve very high response rates with more than
95,000 employees participating in the November 2010 survey.
2010 response rates
%
2009 response rates
%
Americas hotels
92
90
EMEA hotels
91
89
Asia Pacific hotels
93
93
Corporate offices
91
89
Reservations centres
86
91
Division/region
(Source: Annual Business Review 2010)
During 2010, IHG's Engagement Index improved by 3 percentage points to 73%. The survey also
highlights that 93% of our people are proud to work for IHG, while retention and advocacy have both
improved during the year. (Source: Annual Business Review 2010)
Room to grow
Developing talent at all levels of our business is crucial to meeting the demands of our growth and
delivering Great Hotels Guests Love.
In 2009 we conducted our annual review of 1,300 corporate managers and hotel general managers to
identify the management skills we'll need for the future. This process enables us to move talented
individuals into positions where they can enhance their skills and help us meet our key objectives.
We continued to promote the growth and development of employees in our owned and managed hotels,
and in our corporate and reservations offices, making training programmes available to all of our people.
We introduced an online learning management system to help employees find and book the training and
development they require. And we launched a number of online programmes to help people learn flexibly
and develop their skills in the workplace rather than attend courses in classrooms.
To support the relaunch of our Holiday Inn brand we continued to deliver 'Stay Real'. This comprehensive
training programme ensures that all employees working in a Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express hotel have
the skills they need to deliver the levels of service our guests expect.
During the year, IHG continued to place importance on the growth and development of its people in the
owned and managed hotels, and within its corporate and reservations offices, and ensured training
programmes were available to all of its employees. The Group's internal survey indicates that 87% of
employees agree that IHG delivers training to assist with their current roles, which is a 2 percentage point
improvement on 2009. (Source: Annual Business Review 2010)
We want to inspire our managers to be great leaders. To that end we have several management
development programmes in place, including an assessment of individual potential and capability, clarity
about expectations, and business-related education. During 2009, 49 senior managers attended the latest
stage of our senior leadership programme, focusing on the role leaders play in driving performance and
results through people.
Our Leaders Lounge is an innovative and cost-effective way of developing and communicating with our
senior managers online. Through this virtual community our Chief Executive and the Executive Committee
keep managers informed about key issues and challenges for the business. The site also includes input
from external business thinkers. The Leaders Lounge was recognised for its pioneering way of training
people when we received the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development's 2009 Award for Excellence
Through Technology.
We continued our succession planning process for senior leadership roles in 2009. We also restructured the
senior corporate team to make us more efficient and better positioned for the economic recovery. As a
result 18% of senior executive roles were eliminated. In order to ensure that the changes don't affect the
management of our key functions and operations, and that we continue to provide development for high
potential leaders, we combined a number of senior roles. In the APAC region we decided to create two
independent business units focused on Greater China and Asia Australasia, resulting in one member of the
Executive Committee leaving IHG.
Room for you
The benefits we offer employees vary according to region but wherever our people work we aim to offer
them compensation and benefits programmes that are competitive in their local market and which
recognise and reward their achievements. We also contribute to both mandatory and company-sponsored
retirement plans. In our employee survey the majority of people who work for us said they believe they are
fairly paid for the work they do.
We manage performance by helping people to align their objectives to our core purpose, and by
encouraging managers to acknowledge employee achievements or contributions as part of our Winning
Ways culture.
We provide a range of benefits to help employees achieve a better work/life balance. Healthcare is
provided to some staff groups and, in our Americas region, we have programmes in place to help
employees maintain a healthy lifestyle and reduce the cost of health insurance claims. In some regions
employee assistance programmes offer a confidential counselling service to help employees deal with
financial and legal matters, relationship problems and stress.
Corporate Responsibility / Community / Our people / Employee profile
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Employee profile
We directly employed an average of 7,858 people worldwide during 2010 whose costs are borne by the
Group. In total, approximately 335,000 people work for IHG and its brands across the globe.
7,858
Regional breakdown of staff
IHG directly employed an average of
7,858 people worldwide during 2010.
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
IHG, as the world's
largest hotel group,
offers a diverse range
of opportunities,
employing staff across
a broad spectrum of
skills and education
levels. Occupations
span the spectrum of
hourly workers to
upper management. As
a global company, IHG
offers its workers
extensive training,
allowing them to
develop careers in
different fields and
geographies.
57% (3458 hotels) Americas
Community
23% (694 hotels) EMEA
Approach
Local economic opportunity
20% (285 hotels) Asia Pacific
Our people
Employee profile
Manage risk and safe hotels
Gender profile
Diversity and equality
Human rights
60% Male
Supply chain
Accessibility
40% Female
Our performance
Source: Respondents from 2010 October IHG Employee Survey (Owned, managed hotels, corporate and
reservation staff.
Managerial diversity
Male
Female
Manager
46%
33%
Non-manager
54%
67%
Source: Respondents from 2010 October IHG Employee Survey (Owned, managed hotels, corporate and
reservation staff).
Length of service
41% Under 3 years
41% 3 to 9 years
18% 10+ years
Source: Respondents from 2010 October IHG Employee Survey (Owned, managed hotels, corporate and
reservation staff).
Age distribution
17% Under 25
65% 26 to 44
18% Over 45
Source: Respondents from 2010 October IHG Employee Survey (Owned, managed hotels, corporate and
reservation staff).
Our employee survey captures demographic information across all our owned and managed hotels and
corporate teams but we do not obtain information on ethnic background. As we give all employees 'Room
to be yourself', we do not use information to adapt initiatives based on ethnicity.
Unfortunately, economic conditions in 2009 meant that we had to make a limited number of redundancies
IHG strives to allow
employees "Room to be
Yourself" by creating
an environment where
employees can grow
and develop and make
a difference.
The company is very
involved in promoting a
comfortable work
atmosphere and being
yourself. They also
encourage employee
recognition in individual
hotels and also on a
corporate level, so you are
compelled to work harder.
IHG employee
among corporate staff. This will help to ensure the business operates efficiently during the downturn.
As the changes were largely structural we did not seek voluntary redundancies and explored all
opportunities to mitigate job losses. We offered outplacement services to everyone affected, providing
ongoing support to individuals and access to external job opportunities.
In addition to the redundancy programme, we introduced a pay freeze for all grades during 2009 except in
areas of the world where inflation rates would make this difficult to sustain.
Corporate Responsibility / Community / Our people / Manage risk and safe hotels
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
Manage risk and safe hotels
Key achievements
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Introduced revised set of Global Brand Safety Standards
Recognised for our commitment to safety and training excellence by the Chartered Institute of
Environmental Health who awarded IHG its first ever coveted Corporate Membership.
Environment
Community
Approach
Local economic opportunity
Our people
Employee profile
Manage risk and safe
hotels
Diversity and equality
Making sure our hotels are safe for our guests, colleagues, owners, shareholders, partners and
communities is of the utmost importance to us. We take a proactive, hands-on approach to managing risks,
including safety and security. This not only enables us to comply with the relevant legislation, it also helps
to protect and enhance our reputation in the eyes of our stakeholders.
Managing risk
Our risk management objectives are aligned to IHG's core purpose, 'Great Hotels Guest Love'. In particular
we aim to:
maintain and promote our trusted reputation by championing a responsible approach to business
Human rights
Supply chain
support our brand reputation and the resilience of the IHG system by making sure all hotels and
corporate locations work to the highest standards of risk management
Accessibility
ensure the safety and security of guests, employees and other third parties.
Our performance
We support hotel owners, staff and corporate functions to manage risk effectively by giving them a
systematic approach and framework to follow and by providing the right tools to do the job.
Our Risk Management team created a suite of electronic toolkits and training materials, which can be
accessed by all corporate employees, owned, managed and franchised hotels. The site includes risk
management policies and procedures, checklists, templates, posters, videos, e-learning and access to face
to face training, which underpins our risk management framework. It is one of the most visited pages on
Merlin, our intranet site.
The team supports our employees and hotels with its expertise and by helping to oversee the
implementation of our risk management framework. The specialist services they offer include safety and
security risk assessments, threat and vulnerability assessments, crisis management, business continuity
planning. The team also develops and operates the Group's risk financing programme.
Our investment in risk training plays a vital role in embedding our risk capability throughout our business.
It's this commitment to safety and training excellence that was recognised in 2010 by the Chartered
Institute of Environmental Health who awarded IHG its first ever Corporate Membership.
Manage risk and safe hotels framework
Our strategic framework for hotel safety and security identifies groups of risks and sets out what we do to
mitigate against them. The Manage Risk cog shows the management activities that we apply to all risk
areas. The framework is designed to use risk assessment as a basis for making sure we take the right
actions and make our mitigation strategies part of our day to day business.
This approach applies to all risks affecting the Group. Because we recognise the particular importance of
hotel safety and security to our guests, staff and other stakeholders we have also identified specific risk
groups, which are shown in the Safe Hotel cog. These cover the key aspects of hotel safety and security
and have been embedded into all of our hotels. In 2010 we launched a new set of Global Brand Safety
Standards to ensure we achieve the Safe Hotel part of our framework throughout our estate. The measures
we take to monitor compliance with the standards include quality inspections in all IHG hotels.
Corporate Responsibility / Community / Our people / Diversity and equality
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Approach
Local economic opportunity
Our people
Employee profile
Manage risk and safe hotels
Diversity and
equality
Human rights
Supply chain
Accessibility
Our performance
Diversity and equality
The geographic and socio-economic diversity of our guests is reflected in our workforce, owners and
business partners. We are proud of our rich cultural diversity across the globe and within our local hotel
communities. It allows us to strengthen our understanding of and respond to the needs of our guests, and
is reflected in our Winning Ways.
We are committed to diversity and inclusion across all aspects of our business. This includes hotel
ownership, strategic sourcing relationships, recruitment, community relations, franchising and marketing. To
achieve it we work to create working environments and establish business relationships where every group
fits, feels accepted, has value and contributes.
Overseeing diversity in the Americas region is the responsibility of our Office of Corporate Responsibility
and Public Affairs, based in Atlanta, USA. The team is led by a senior diversity executive with operating
committee responsibilities.
We recruit and promote individuals solely on their suitability for the job without discriminating on grounds
of race, colour, ethnic or national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, marital status or
disability unrelated to the role. In some countries these principles may be modified by national legal
requirements.
In the Americas region, we developed a supplier diversity programme in partnership with IHG's Global
Strategic Resourcing. This supports our commitment to provide suppliers equal access to purchasing
opportunities and economic stimulus in local communities in a way that reflects both our diverse
customer base and the diverse community. We also believe that a diverse supplier base drives
innovation.
We introduced supplier diversity goals to increase the amount that we spend with certified minorityowned businesses from 2009 to 2012 – doubling our spend over a three-year period. Under this
arrangement we accept business certified by the following organisations:
National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC)
WBENC
National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
Veteran & Service-Disabled Veteran Owned
SBA Certified Small Businesses.
In the UK, we are accredited to the UK Government's 'Positive about Disabled People' symbol. We also
have a Disability Advisory Committee to promote IHG's 'disability confident' culture and to try to find
ways of working that will attract disabled job applicants. At the end of 2008 we won a Springboard
Award for Excellence in the 'Diversity in Employment' category for recruiting people with disabilities.
We work with organisations across the globe to make thoughtful considerations on behalf of our guests
with disabilities. Where existing employees become disabled, we aim to provide continuing employment
wherever practicable in the same or an alternative position.
In the US our partnerships with organisations such as the American Association of People with
Disabilities and National Business & Disability Council are mutually beneficial, helping us and the
organisations we work with achieve our respective goals.
We want to provide a welcoming environment to all our guests. The Accessibility section sets out what
we do to accommodate disabled guests.
Because it's important to us that employees across the organisation are engaged we make opportunities
for development and training programmes, including leadership and management training, accessible
throughout IHG. In particular, we offer development programmes for women and succession planning for
high-potential candidates.
IHG's Australian Reconciliation Action Plan
Recently, IHG became Australia's first hospitality company to make a firm commitment to providing
equal employment, training and education opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people, establishing the country's 201st Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
We've set a target of having 2% of our total workforce in Australia made up of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people by 2013 – one of many undertakings outlined in the RAP.
The RAP is a vital element of the Australasian team's Corporate Responsibility program, and will
be a core component of IHG's people and talent development strategies in Australia. The RAP
represents over a decade of experience working with the Bininj people of Kakadu in Australia's
Northern Territory. It was developed with the support of Reconciliation Australia, the independent
body set up by the Australian Government to support growth of equal opportunities for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people.
'We are one of only two tourism industry operators to have made such a firm commitment to
closing the gap in opportunities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other
Australians – the other being QANTAS,' said Australasian COO, Bruce McKenzie.
'I am personally really excited about what the future holds for our existing and potential
partnerships with Australia's traditional landowners, both in terms of what we can contribute to their
communities, and what they will bring to our business.'
We won a Springboard
Award for Excellence
for our approach to
recruiting people with
disabilities.
In our Americas
region:
44%
44% of IHG owners are women and
minorities
83%
83% of our workforce are women and
minorities
Corporate Responsibility / Community / Human rights
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Human rights
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Approach
Local economic opportunity
Our people
Human rights
Supply chain
Accessibility
Our performance
Key achievements
Developed a unique Human Rights policy
We endorse the United Nations Global Compact as a reflection of our policy.
At IHG we believe that strong ethics and good business are natural partners. We are committed to
operating our company with integrity, working to the highest ethical standards. Our reputation is built on the
trust and confidence of all our stakeholders, and is fundamental to our vision to make IHG one of the
world's great companies.
More and more of our stakeholders want reassurance that we provide decent working conditions for all of
our employees, manage our risks with all our business partners and make sure the rights of the local
people where we operate are protected. While we work towards covering these areas in our contract terms
and conditions we accept we have much more to do.
In 2010 we signed up to the Global Compact, aligning our operations and strategies with the ten universal
principles that include commitments to human rights and labour standards.
Since 2008 we have been developing comprehensive methods to help us assess and respond to human
rights issues. All members of the Executive Committee take responsibility for human rights on behalf of the
Board.
Find out more on our Human Rights policy.
Working conditions
We respect and support our employees' rights to decent working conditions. Our employment policies are
designed to comply with all local labour laws and also to create safe, healthy and fair conditions throughout
the whole of IHG. We know that wages, working hours and job security can be challenges within our
industry. To begin to mitigate these risks we put in place a Human Rights policy for IHG-owned and operated properties and will expand this to include business partners in contract terms and conditions.
IHG's Anti-Bribery Commitment
IHG is committed to carrying out business with integrity and in accordance with the highest ethical
standards. IHG does not support or condone bribery or corruption.
We have in place a Bribery and Anti-Corruption Policy and a Gifts and Entertainment Policy which apply to
all IHG employees and in all our owned and managed hotels. We include appropriate language in relevant
agreements (including Hotel Management Agreements and Franchise Agreements) and we have launched
a bribery training programme for our employees. Our financial control, risk management and internal audit
processes also take into account bribery legislation to raise awareness of regulations and compliance with
our policies.
How our employees can raise a grievance
We have a whistleblower line and let employees know about it through internal communications and a
dedicated website www.ihgethics.com
Labour unions
We recognise the importance of partnerships with labour unions that represent our employees. 'Room to be
Yourself' is the employer side of our deal with our employees. Through it, we support our employees' right
to decide if they want to be part of a union or not, free from any outside pressure or intimidation. In order to
make the process fair, personal and democratic we support our employees' right to a private, secret ballot
election.
Approximately 20% of hotel-based employees in the United States and Canada are members of an
organised labour union. There are no collective bargaining agreements in other regions. In the Europe,
Middle East and Africa region, we set up a Works Council for employee representation.
We give employees and union representatives advance notice of material operational changes. Minimum
notice periods may vary by location and we always seek to comply with local laws.
Responsible supply chain
Our terms and conditions for suppliers include human rights criteria. The Supply Chain section gives further
information on how we support our suppliers in this area.
Protecting local communities
Through Green Engage we provide hotels with some initial steps they can take to ensure they respect the
rights of local communities. These include:
undertaking a social impact assessment before carrying out any building work to minimise the impact of
the work on communities
engaging regularly with local leaders to identify and resolve any rights issues
keeping our use of resources to a minimum and making sure we don't deplete existing community
supplies
following our Code of Conduct to guard against bribery and corruption
following our Human Rights policy to avoid the unlawful exploitation of labour, women or children. Staff
are expected to receive training on how to recognise and resolve these sensitive situations
supporting cultural preservation projects through corporate donations or staff volunteering.
Corporate Responsibility / Community / Supply chain
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Supply Chain
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Approach
Local economic opportunity
Our people
Human rights
Supply chain
Accessibility
Our performance
Promoting responsible business practices in our supply chain
We recognise that we have a significant part to play in local economic development. We encourage our
hotels to source goods and services locally and in addition to supporting local suppliers. We also
understand the need to promote responsible business practices by those same suppliers.
Through Green Engage, our environmental management platform, we highlight our responsible sustainable
procurement objectives to all hotels, including our franchise properties. We recognise that our franchise
business model limits our sphere of influence but, nevertheless, we are taking steps to show leadership via
our platform. We also provide locally and ethically sourced food where possible in our Global Headquarters.
We are currently strengthening our global procurement function, including reviewing our corporate
purchasing policy and want to work more closely with our suppliers in this area, which we see as a key
strategic focus for us in the near future.
We believe the hotel sector is in a unique position to advance the development of green building
technologies. As IHG has the largest branded hotel pipeline in the world, we have a key part to play in
helping to bring these technologies to market and in making them cost effective. We have also asked our
owners to look at ways to work closely with product and service providers to identify areas for
improvement. We hope to report back on progress in this area in the future.
Please see the Diversity and equality section for further information on how we promote diversity.
Please read our Vendor Code of Conduct policy which sets out the standards under which IHG vendors
are expected to operate.
Corporate Responsibility / Community / Accessibility
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Accessibility
Fast facts
CEO Message
We signed a three year sponsorship
deal with RADAR to sponsor the
People of the Year event, which is
attended by over 500 people. The
Awards point the way to the future
of disability equality, inclusion and
employment, through innovation,
commitment and leadership.
We are Gold members of the
Employers Forum on Disability, an
organisation focused on disability as
it affects businesses.
IHG is a corporate patron of Tourism
for All message.
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Approach
Local economic opportunity
Our people
Human rights
Supply chain
Accessibility
Our performance
Key achievements
Received over 10 awards for our work on and commitment to accessibility.
We want to provide great service and a welcoming environment to all our guests. Recognising that each
person has different requirements we aim to make our hotel facilities available and accessible to all. In the
rare instances where this is not possible, we do our utmost to offer a suitable alternative.
We train our employees to have the 'Confidence to Serve All', making sure all new hotel employees receive
this training. Our Central Reservations Teams are given in-depth guidance on handling detailed requests
and providing appropriate support.
Our UK hotels offer a range of facilities for guests with disabilities, including:
designated Blue Badge parking
accessible facilities – bars, restaurants and meeting rooms
accessible washrooms
accessible bedrooms
large print menus
induction loops
assistance dogs welcome.
Six of our UK hotels also have ceiling track hoists, giving many disabled people with high-support needs a
new opportunity to stay away from home, whether that's for business or pleasure.
Online, we have made our Priority Club Rewards Loyalty programme more accessible. All UK IHG websites
have been reviewed and now carry the Access for All message.
Corporate Responsibility / Our performance
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Our performance
Reporting cycle
2010 performance
Priorities
Delivering a more
responsible business is a
priority and we
continued to make
significant progress in
2010.
GRI scorecard
2010 performance
We comply with the
Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI) G3
guidelines. We've
achieved 73 GRI
indicators.
See how we
performed in 2010
and the CR awards
we've won.
Find out more
Energy use
Read about our key priorities in 2011
View targets
Our Awards
How much energy our owned and managed
hotels have reduced.
Find out about awards we’ve won
Corporate Responsibility / Our performance / Reporting cycle
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
Reporting cycle
2010
CEO Message
About IHG
IHG was awarded best CR report in
the Travel and Leisure sector by
Radley Yeldar in 2010.
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Our performance
Reporting cycle
GRI scorecard
2010 performance
Priorities
Reporting cycle
This is our fourth annual CR communication. Our CR Report is a comprehensive report detailing our CR
strategy, approach and key programmes and initiatives. It shows how we put our CR thinking into practice,
providing a clear and transparent record of what we've achieved and what we need to do better. We report
on the information for which we have reliable data, is operationally feasible to prepare and is most relevant
to our stakeholders.
We have begun to update elements of this site on a quarterly basis, with more comprehensive annual
updates available at the end of each financial year. We believe this will make our communications more
dynamic and interactive, and provide an opportunity to gather more stakeholder feedback. In turn this will
help us to create a more progressive CR programme.
This site contains data from 2010. As a new company, formed in 2003, one of the key elements of our
work programme during 2008 to 2010 was to implement systems to monitor and measure progress across
the Group – in our franchised hotels as well as those we either own or manage directly. With 85% of our
hotel estate operating under brand franchises this process is not yet complete and therefore some of the
data we are able to report does not extend across the whole Group. It also means that some of our
immediate targets remain those of further rolling out systems rather than delivering specific results that can
be measured on an aggregate basis.
No significant changes from the previous reporting periods have been made, including the boundaries and
measurement methods applied throughout the report.
Corporate Responsibility / Our performance / Reporting cycle / GRI scorecard
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Innovation
GRI scorecard
This communication is designed to comply with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 guidelines. Aligning
our CR Report with GRI allows us to measure performance and achieve transparency.
This is our fourth CR communication. Our intention throughout the reporting process has been to maintain
our GRI Application Level C, which has been self-declared by IHG. The GRI report has not been assured
by a third party. For further details of our GRI reporting, please see the GRI index below.
We have achieved 73
GRI indicators
Collaboration
Environment
Community
Our performance
Reporting cycle
GRI scorecard
2010 performance
Priorities
Key
Full coverage
Partial coverage
No coverage
Not applicable to this report
1. Strategy and analysis
Indicator
Description
Coverage
Location
1.1
Statement from the CEO and Chair
CEO statement
1.2
Description of key impacts, risks and opportunities
Responsible tourism
Our approach
Key issues matrix
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
Annual Review and Summary Financial
Statements 2010
2. Organisational profile
Indicator
Description
Coverage
Location
2.1
Name of the organisation
Governance approach
2.2
Primary brands, products and/or services
Governance approach/Our brands
2.3
Operational structure of the organisation and major divisions,
operating companies, subsidiaries, and joint ventures
Governance approach/Business model
2.4
Location of organisation HQ
Innovation in action
2.5
Number of countries where the organisation operates
Goverance approach/Business model
IHG's structure
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
2.6
Nature of ownership and legal form
Governance approach/Business model
Investor Relations
2.7
Markets served (including geographic breakdown, sectors served,
types of customers/beneficiaries)
Governance approach/Business model
2.8
Scale of the reporting organisation
Governance approach/Business model
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
2.9
2.10
Significant changes during the reporting period regarding size,
structure or ownership
Governance approach/Business model
Awards received in the reporting period
Performance section
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
3. Report parameters
Indicator
Description
Coverage
Location
3.1
Reporting period for the information provided
Reporting cycle
3.2
Date of most recent report
Reporting cycle
3.3
Reporting cycle
Reporting cycle
3.4
Contact point for questions regarding the report or its contents
Feedback page
3.5
Process for defining report content
About IHG/Approach
Collaboration/Key issues
Collaboration/Our Partners & Stakeholders
3.6
Boundary of the report
Reporting cycle
3.7
State any specific limitations on the scope or boundary of the report
Reporting cycle
3.8
Basis for reporting on joint ventures, subsidiaries, leased facilities,
outsourced operations and other entities that can significantly affect
comparability across time from period to period and/or between
organisations
Governance/Business model
3.9
Data measurement techniques and the bases of calculations,
including assumptions and techniques underlying estimations
applied to the compilation of the Indicators and other information in
the report
Environment/Climate & Carbon/Our Carbon
Footprint
3.10
Explanation of the effect of any re-statements of information
provided in earlier reports, and the reasons for such re-statement
3.11
Significant changes from previous reporting periods in the scope
boundary or measurement methods applied in the report
Reporting cycle
3.12
Table identifying the location of the Standard Disclosures in the
report
Scorecard/GRI index
Reporting cycle
4. Governance, commitments and engagement
Indicator
Description
4.1
Governance structure of the organisation including committees
under the highest governance body responsible for specific tasks,
such as setting strategy or organisational oversight
About IHG/Governance approach
4.2
Indicate if the Chair of the highest governance body is also an
executive officer
About IHG/Governance approach
4.3
For organisations that have a unitary board structure, state the
number of members of the highest governance body that are
independent and/or non-executive members
About IHG/Governance approach
4.4
Mechanisms for shareholders and employees to provide
recommendations or direction to the highest governance body
Collaboration/Partners and stakeholders
Linkage between compensation for members of the highest
governance body, senior managers, and executives (including
departure arrangements), and the organisation's performance
(including social and environmental performance).
About IHG/Governance approach
4.6
Processes of the highest governance body to ensure conflicts of
interest are avoided
About IHG/Governance approach
4.7
Process of determining the composition, qualifications and
expertise of the members of the highest governing body, including
considerations of gender and other indicators of diversity
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
4.8
Internally developed mission and values statements, codes of
conduct and principles relevant to economic, environmental and
social performance and the status of their implementation
Policies section
Procedures of the highest governance body for overseeing the
organisation’s identification and management of economic,
environmental and social performance, including relevant risks and
opportunities, and adherence or compliance with internationally
agreed standards, codes of conduct, and principles
About IHG/Governance approach
Processes for evaluating the highest governance body's own
performance, particularly with respect to economic, environmental
and social performance
About IHG/Governance approach
Externally developed, voluntary economic, environmental, and
social charters, sets of principles, or other initiatives to which the
organisation subscribes or endorses
Collaboration/Partners and stakeholders
4.5
4.9
4.10
4.12
Coverage
Location
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
Winning Ways
Room to be yourself
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
UN global compact
FTSE 4 good
4.13
Memberships in associations (such as industry associations) and/or
national/international advocacy organisations
Collaboration/Partners and stakeholders
4.14
List of stakeholder groups engaged by the organisation
Collaboration/Partners and stakeholders
4.15
Basis for identification and selection of stakeholders with whom to
engage…
Collaboration/Approach
4.16
Approaches to stakeholder engagement, including frequency of
engagement by type and by stakeholder group
Collaboration/Partners and stakeholders
4.17
Key topics and concerns that have been raised through stakeholder
engagement, and how the organisation has responded to those key
topics and concerns, including through its reporting.
Collaboration/Key issues
Collaboration/Partners and stakeholders
Economic
Indicator
Description
EC1
Direct economic value generated and distributed
Coverage
Location
Community/Economic opportunities
Community/Charity donations
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
EC2
Financial implications and other risks and opportunities for the
organisation's activities due to climate change
Environment/Climate and carbon
EC3
Coverage of the organisation’s defined benefit plan obligations
Our people
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
EC6
Policy, practices and proportion of spending on locally based
suppliers at significant locations of operation
Community/Supply chain
EC9
Understanding and describing significant indirect economic
impacts, including the extent of impacts
Environment
Community
Environmental
Indicator
Description
Coverage
Location
EN3*
Direct energy consumption by primary energy source
Environment/Energy
EN4*
Indirect energy consumption by primary source
Update pending
Environment/Energy
EN5
Energy saved due to conservation and efficiency improvements
Update pending
Environment/Energy
EN6
Initiatives to provide energy-efficient or renewable energy based
products and services, and reductions in energy requirements as a
result of these initiatives
Update pending
Environment/Green Engage
Innovation in action
Environment/Energy
EN7
Initiatives to reduce indirect energy consumption and reductions
achieved
Environment/Energy
Environment/Green Engage
Innovation in action
EN8
Total water withdrawal by source
Update pending
Environment/Water
EN14
Strategies, current actions and future plans for managing impacts
on biodiversity
Environment/Biodiversity
EN16**
Total direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by weight
Environment/Climate and carbon
EN17**
Other relevant indirect greenhouse gas emissions by weight
Environment/Climate and carbon
EN18
Initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reductions
achieved
Environment/Green Engage
EN23
Total number and volume of significant spills
No spills occurred
EN26
Initiatives to mitigate the environmental impacts of products and
services and extent of impact reduction
Environment/Green Engage
* EN3 and EN4 are reported together as a total figure
Innovation in action
Innovation in action
** EN16 and EN17 are reported together as a total figure
Labour practices and decent work performance indicators
Indicator
Description
Coverage
Location
LA1
Total workforce by employment type, employment contract and
region
Community/Our people/Employee Profile
LA3
Benefits provided to full-time employees, that are not provided to
temporary or part-time employees, by major operations
Community/Our people
LA4
Percentage of employees covered by collective bargaining
agreements
Community/Human rights
LA5
Minimum notice period(s) regarding significant operational
changes, including whether it is specified in collective agreements
Community/Human rights
LA7
Rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days and
absenteeism, and number of work-related fatalities by region
Community/Manage risk & safe hotels
LA11
Programmes for skills management for lifelong learning that
support the continued employability of employees and assist them
in managing career endings
Community/Our people
LA12
Percentage of employees receiving regular performance and
career development reviews
Community/Our people
LA13
Composition of governance bodies and breakdown of employees
per category according to gender, age group, minority group
membership, and other indicators of diversity
About IHG/Governance approach
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
Society performance indicators
Indicator
Description
Coverage
Location
SO1
Nature and effectiveness of any programmes and practices that
assess and manage the impacts of operations on communities,
including entering, operating and exiting
Community/Approach
SO5
Public policy development and participation in public policy
development and lobbying
Environmental legislation
SO6*
Total value of contributions to political parties or related
institutions broken down by country
Policies
* IHG makes no party political donations.
Product Responsibility Performance Indicators
Indicator
Description
PR5
Practices related to customer satisfaction, including results of
surveys measuring customer satisfaction
Coverage
Location
Collaboration/Partners and stakeholders
Disclosures of Management Approach
Indicator
Description
Economic
Economic Performance, Market Presence, Indirect Economic
Impacts
Coverage
Location
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2010
Annual Review and Summary Financial
Statements 2010
Environment
Materials, Energy, Water, Biodiversity,
Emissions/Effluents/Waste, Products & Services, Compliance,
Transport, Overall
Environment
Environment/Green Engage
Environment/Energy
Environment/Waste
Environment/Biodiversity
Environment/Climate & Carbon
Social –
Labour
Practices
Employment, Labour/Management Relations, Occupational
Health & Safety, Training & Education, Diversity & Equal
Opportunity, Equal Remuneration for Women & Men
Community/Our People
Community/Human Rights
Community/Our People/Managing Risk
Community/Our People/Diversity &
Equality
Social –
Human
Rights
Investment & Procurement, Non-Discrimination, Freedom of
Association & Collective Bargaining, Child Labour, Forced &
Compulsory Labour
Social –
Customer Health & Safety, Compliance
Product
Responsibility
Community/Supply Chain
Community/Human Rights
Community/Our People/Diversity &
Equality
Community/Our People/Managing Risk
Corporate Responsibility / Our performance / 2010 performance
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
2010 performance
Key data
About IHG
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
7 brands
4,437 hotels
85% of hotels operate under franchise
100 countries and territories
Community
335,000 employees
Our performance
9 million tonne carbon footprint (cf 2008)
Reporting cycle
2010 performance
Priorities
Achieve energy savings of 6% to 10% in our owned and managed hotels over the next three years
(2010 - 2012) on a per available room night basis
23 IHG training academies in 10 locations
$1.65m invested in local communities
Key achievements
Innovation
Delivered version 2.0 of the Innovation Hotel, showcasing IHG's ideas in sustainable tourism
Collaboration
We developed and launched Green Engage Version 2.0 based on user feedback
Environment
Green Engage was awarded LEED endorsement. This meant that IHG became the first hotel
company to receive the endorsement for an existing hotel programme
Community
We expanded the IHG Academy concept with pilots in the UK, US and Australia.
Summary of performance
In 2010 we continued to make corporate responsibility part of the way we do business. Our online sustainability tool, Green Engage, reached over 1,000
hotels and continues to support them on their journey to be more environmentally responsible and cost efficient.
Our approach is collaborative and we continue to work actively with the brightest and best. To support the refresh of our community strategy we formed
new partnerships with Business in the Community and CARE International; we believe these alliances will challenge our thinking and add value to our
approach.
We continued to refine our strategic approach to CR, spearheaded by our CR Committee at Board level. In 2010 we invested further in Green Engage,
developing version 2.0, and this was rewarded with a coveted LEED endorsement. Along with our refined community strategy this means that IHG can
have an even greater positive impact on the environment and the communities within which we operate.
We recognise that we are on a journey and there are challenges we need to manage along the way; we see these as opportunities to further improve the
way we carry out our strategy. In 2011 we will continue to focus on improving how we communicate our CR priorities to our broad range of stakeholders
and on rolling out the second version of Green Engage to greater numbers of our franchised hotels.
Our Awards
Awarded Silver for Business in the Community CR Index 2011
IHG named in Canada's 'Green 30' list 2011
IHG has been recognised as the most environmentally and socially responsible hotelier in
Australasia, after being awarded the inaugural Responsible Travel Management award (RTM) by
the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) 2010
National Business Travel Association (NBTA) CSR award
2009 Hotel Visionary Award from Hospitality Technology Magazine for Green Engage
2009 CSR Innovation Award from Hotel Magazine
Eco-lodging Award at the China Hotel Investment Summit (CHIS)
'Best Corporate Responsibility Report in the Travel & Leisure sector', Radley Yeldar 2010
Worldwide Hospitality Award for best initiative in sustainable development
Most admired leisure and hospitality company for the third year running at Management Today's
Britain's Most Admired Companies Awards
Condé Nast Traveller 2009 World Savers Award for Willard InterContinental Washington DC
Performance against targets and priorities set in 2010
Targets
Innovation
Performance against targets
Seek to develop commercial applications for our CR Innovations
where appropriate in our hotels
We continue to develop innovative commercial
applications for our hotels, such as Green Engage.
50% ongoing
Make our Innovation Hotel more interactive
We developed a blueprint for the second version
of the Innovation Hotel. The new version of the
Innovation Hotel will go live later in 2011. It
introduces social media concepts and links to our
internal sustainability tool, Green Engage.
75%
Collaboration
Agree strategies to integrate CR into the brand planning process for
all main brands
We continue to integrate CR into brand strategies.
50%ongoing
Refine our stakeholder engagement process
We continue to refine our stakeholder engagement
process.
50% ongoing
Improve the way our employees engage with CR
Continue to update Green Engage with new learning in 2010,
focusing on making it easier to use at the hotel level
We have held Green Days in both our UK and US
offices as well as a dedicated lunch and learn
event for staff around ideas for sustainable hotel
design. We continue to do a few things well.
We developed version 2.0 of Green Engage based
on user feedback. To ensure we took account of
all user personas we conducted two usability
studies to understand how our stakeholders
interact with the product.
100%
100%
Environment
Continue to roll out Green Engage to 100% of our managed and
owned hotels and expand to franchised hotels in all three regions
Ensure that Green Engage is used accurately and regularly by
participating hotels
Develop a carbon strategy
We continued to roll out Green Engage to our
owned and managed hotels as well as our
franchise hotels. We now have over 1,100 hotels
signed up.
This year, we included a data entry KPO within
Green Engage for owned and managed hotels.
We have also enhanced the usability of Green
Engage, including making data entry more
intuitive.
This year we developed a carbon strategy
focusing our approach to managing Carbon. In
2010 the UK was impacted by the government's
Carbon Reduction Commitment. IHG registered on
behalf of hotels in the UK and was awarded the
Carbon Trust Standard for being proactive in the
area of Carbon Management.
100%
50%
100%
Community
Use government regulation and legislation worldwide to inform our
community strategy
The global Public Affairs arm of our team continue
to track government regulation and legislation
building this into key strategies where appropriate.
100%
Focus on further implementation and expansion of the IHG Academy
Refine our current community policy based on a review of our
existing approach to community support
In 2010 we expanded the IHG Academy concept
in the US, UK and Australia. These academies are
providing employment opportunities for
participants. We developed a project model that
will make the IHG Academy concept easier to
expand in 2011.
Our community policy has been refocused so that
we ensure we have the great impact, doing fewer
things well. To start with we have aligned activity
at a corporate level but the updated policy will be
100%
100%
rolled out to hotels in 2011.
Conduct a regular review of our community partnerships
Work with London Organising Committee of the Olympic and
Paralympics Games, (LOCOG) to support the sustainability goals of
London 2012.
In 2010 we reviewed our community partnerships
as part of our community policy review. We also
signed new partnerships with Business in the
Community to help facilitate the setting up of the
IHG Academy in the UK and CARE international
who are our disaster relief partner.
We are currently working with LOCOG to better
understand how our existing community
programme; the IHG Academy could be expanded
to support their legacy and sustainability goals.
100%
50% ongoing
Corporate Responsibility / Our performance / Priorities
Corporate Responsibility Report
Corporate
Responsibility
CEO Message
About IHG
Priorities
Objectives
Performance against objectives
Innovation
Innovation
Collaboration
Environment
Continue to identify and develop ways to commercialise CR to build
competitive advantage
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Launch version 2.0 of the online Innovation Hotel
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Continue to integrate CR into brand strategies
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Utilise the CR and its supporting committees to drive globally-aligned
decisions around environment and community
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Add a CR component to IHG employee engagement survey
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Work with stakeholders such as Harvard University to educate
decision makers on IHG's economic impacts
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Roll our version 2.0 of Green Engage
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Explore 'green' standards with our hotel brands
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Expand IHG Academy concept across major regions
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Refine General Managers' survey so we have an awareness of
activity in our hotels
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Continue to align corporate efforts to support new strategy
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Create IHG volunteer portal to encourage and track volunteerism
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Align corporate responsibility activity with 2012 Olympic activation
plan
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Announce a strategic partner in providing disaster relief
In progress
To be reported on further in
the year
Community
Our performance
Reporting cycle
2010 performance
Priorities
Collaboration
Environment
Community