Our Approach
With hotels in thousands of communities all over the world, our business and brands touch the lives of millions of people every day. By caring for our guests and colleagues, working in partnership with our hotel owners, protecting the environment and giving back to our communities, we deliver our purpose of True Hospitality for Good. Our actions are shaped by a culture of strong governance, clear policies and a series of ambitious commitments set out in our Journey to Tomorrow 2030 responsible business plan.
Our approach to responsible business shapes our operations and the strategic investments we’re making to drive performance and strengthen our enterprise, recognising that how we grow and create positive change for the greater good is being followed more than ever by our stakeholders.
Key to delivering our strategic priority to care for our people, communities and planet is our Journey to Tomorrow plan. This is underpinned by commitments to our purpose, values, behaviours, workplace culture, risk appetite, and strong governance and accountability.
Journey to Tomorrow
In 2021, we launched Journey to Tomorrow – our 10-year plan to help shape the future of responsible travel together with those who stay, work and partner with us. Aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it’s a powerful framework for how we can focus our efforts to deliver our purpose of True Hospitality for Good in five key areas: our people; communities; carbon & energy; waste; and water.
Ensuring we operate thoughtfully and grow sustainably, it’s a plan that will make IHG a stronger company, where we will build upon our inclusive culture and help people thrive. A plan that reflects the needs of our communities, from supporting social change to advancing human rights. And a plan that helps protect the planet now and for generations to come.
Sustainable Development Goals
We are committed to ensuring our actions contribute to the UN SDGs and have aligned our Journey to Tomorrow programme to those goals where we feel we can have most impact. To ensure we stay on track, we disclose our progress against a set of performance metrics on an annual basis. Our 2022 progress can be found in our Responsible Business Report.
Progress
Disclosure and transparency are important to us at IHG, and we ensure that progress against our goals is shared publicly. Our performance for the year can be found in our Responsible Business Report, which is accompanied by our ESG Databook.
We participate in numerous ESG questionnaires and rating indices, including the S&P Global Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), MSCI, Sustainalytics, FTSE4Good, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ESG and Workforce Disclosure Index (WDI).
Our reporting integrates the recommendations of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
See our ESG Databook for our reporting standards accounting.
Governance
Our commitment to responsible business starts at the top. Our Board is focused on ensuring we maintain the highest ethical standards of governance to support our culture, values and commitment to conducting business responsibly. Our CEO, Executive Committee and Senior Leaders make sure governance is embedded, measured and upheld on a day-to-day basis.
The Board is supported by its principal committees in overseeing the delivery of strategic objectives and driving sustainable value for shareholders while considering the impacts on, and interests of, other stakeholders.
The Board’s Responsible Business Committee reviews IHG’s responsible business objectives and strategy, including the impact on environmental, social, community and human rights issues; IHG’s strategic approach to sustainable development and responsible procurement; and how IHG engages with stakeholders. Key considerations and recommendations are then shared with the Group Board.
In 2022, the Responsible Business Committee-focused on monitoring progress against the Group’s 2030 responsible business commitments set out in our Journey to Tomorrow plan. This included Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting and reviewing the Group’s responsible procurement programme, its human rights programme and Modern Slavery Statement, plus considering the inclusion of an ESG metric in the Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) for Executive Directors.
For more on our governance structures, see our 2022 Annual Report and pages 13-14 of our Responsible Business Report.
To read our policies, including the Code of Conduct, click here.