Sustainability & Responsible Business
As responsible global people, our actions as a business should reflect our commitment to positively contribute to the world around us.
Our Commitment
With one eye on the tomorrow, Kew Green Hotels have pledged to become Net Zero by 2040 – 10 years ahead of the Paris Accord Target.
We’re BIG vision people here at Kew Green Hotels and with the recent UN IPCC “code red warning for humanity” firmly concluding the correlation between human activity and the climate crisis, we are taking decisive action now to mitigate climate disaster and future-proof our business.
Action Stations
As part of our roadmap to Net Zero, we have developed four Action Stations – the areas in which we will focus activities.
- Workplace - Our buildings, travel and operations
- Marketplace - The customer experience and our supply chain
- Environment – Biodiversity
- Community - Our people and charity outreach
We will regularly review our roadmap against new industry guidance, regulations and technologies, as well as our growth plan to ensure our standards and targets are aligned.
Sustainable Choices for our Hotel Guests
From sustainable events and weddings packages at each of our Green Accredited* hotels to partnering with PoGo to offer EV charging at our hotels, creating 40 new accessible EV charging hubs across our estate by 2025 - we're working hard to ensure our guests can make informed choices when staying with us.
We recently launched sourced. restaurants in Leeds Brighouse, Rotherham, Runcorn, East Kilbride, and Bromsgrove, sourcing 50% from local suppliers within a 50 mile radius. We're proud to serve Sea Change Wine and at least one regional beer at each of our hotels, plus we partner with Too Good to Go, to reduce our food waste.
We now have pool covers in place in all You Fit clubs, reducing energy consumption by retaining heat more effectively when not in use.
In addition to our own initiatives, we are fully committed to operating our hotels in line with our hotel brand partners' sustainability initiatives including: IHG Green Engage, Hilton Travel With Purpose and Marriott Serve 360.
*Awarded by Green Accreditation from Venue Directory
Planet Mark
We have furthered our sustainability commitment by becoming Planet Mark certified, measuring and working towards reducing our carbon footprint year on year.
A comparison between our carbon emissions of 2019 and 2022 shows a decrease of around 23.06% in absolute carbon emissions to achieve Planet Mark Certification.
Planet Mark is an internationally recognised sustainability certification for every type of organisation. A Planet Mark certification recognises continuous improvement, encourages action and builds an empowered community of like-minded individuals who make a world of difference.
The Trusell Trust
Selected by our employees as our charity partner for 2022 and beyond, we are working with the Trussell Trust as our nominated charity partner. The Trussell Trust supports a nationwide network of food banks, providing emergency food and support to people locked in poverty and campaigns for change to end the need for food banks in the UK.
In the UK, more than 14 million people are living in poverty – including 4.5 million children. The Trussell Trust supports more than 1,200 food bank centres in the UK to provide a minimum of three days’ nutritionally-balanced emergency food to people who have been referred in crisis, as well as support to help people resolve the crises they face.
We look forward to working with the Trussell Trust as our new charity partner to help drive change and lift people out of poverty.
Other Partners
We know that the BIG picture starts with the tiny details so as part of our ongoing commitment to carbon reduction, we have partnered with Rewards Earth to plant one tree in the UK for every Kew Green Hotels employee to help combat climate change.
So far, between 2022-23, we have planted one tree for every employee during two planting sessions, offsetting 1,890 tonnes of CO2 over the lifetime of the trees, the equivalent of 4.8 million miles in a petrol car or 238 homes' energy use for one year.
We’re innovation fuelled, becoming the first white-label operator to join The Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, a gathering of brands to give a voice and to champion socially conscious causes.
Ownership
The accountability for achieving the commitments set out in our roadmap sits with us. Our Kew Green Carbon Busters, adjacent, are leading multiple taskforces across our business to deliver our Race to Zero and implement our sustainability initiatives across our business.
The taskforce will review the status of each action set out in our roadmap along with collecting and reporting the carbon data and progress made towards the commitments.
Communication & Collaboration
Achieving the commitments set out in our roadmap requires working closely with all our stakeholders to take decisive action. We commit to communicating our progress against the commitments annually, being transparent on the areas we need to improve in, as well as areas where we are succeeding.
Independent Verification
Our environmental data and progress against our commitments will be audited annually and independently verified by Planet Mark to ensure full transparency.
