Waste

• Eliminate single use items, or move to reusable or recyclable alternatives across the guest stay
• Minimise food going to waste through a “prevent, donate, divert” plan
• Collaborate to achieve circular solutions for major hotel commodity items

With millions of guests visiting our hotels around the world each year, we have an opportunity to help them achieve more sustainable travel experiences through reducing the impact of the products and services they use.

The world produces more than two billion tonnes of waste annually. More than one-third of this is not managed responsibly, and in the UK alone, food waste costs the hospitality and food sector $3.98 billion every year – averaging at nearly $12,500 per outlet.

This year we have taken further steps to establish action plans for each of our three regions, focused on minimising food waste, eliminating single-use items and achieving circularity, aligned to our Journey to Tomorrow waste commitments.

To find out more about our commitment to reducing waste you can read pages 33-36 of our Responsible Business Report.

This year, we have worked with a specialist to develop a baseline methodology for calculating the use of single-use items throughout the guest stay. This baseline has been developed globally by brand and will be used to inform our strategy for single-use items elimination and will also support reporting of progress as items are removed. In 2019, we became the first global hotel group to commit to replacing bathroom miniatures with full-size amenities, which has been implemented into brand standards across all hotels globally.

We have also launched a toolkit developed with Travel Without Plastic, which provides hotels with a best-practice approach to reducing, reusing, replacing and recycling single-use items. Available globally, it includes best-practice examples from across our brands and insight into the decision-making process for properties with diverse waste infrastructures. Following the waste reduction hierarchy, decision trees prioritise the elimination of waste first before looking at alternative materials or solutions. 

This year, we have also concluded a review of our brand standards to identify where we can support our owners to drive sustainability in their hotels. We will now be working with teams over the next few years to remove, amend or establish new brand standards to reduce our environmental impact. This review of brand standards will help form a roadmap for each region to eliminate single-use items, or move to reusable or recyclable alternatives across the guest stay by 2030. For example, in 2023, in Greater China, wooden key cards were implemented for all brands as a brand standard to reduce the use of plastic and save hotels money.

An estimated one-third of food is wasted globally each year – equivalent to $1 trillion – which has a greater impact on our climate than the global airline industry. Approximately 26% of this waste is created by the travel and hospitality industry, so it is vital that we find ways to support the UN’s SDG to cut food waste by 50% by 2030, as well as reduce the significant cost to our hotels.

We launched our global food waste training for all regions and hotels in 2022, which includes an e-learning module in 13 languages for colleagues and is part of the General Manager training programme. Uptake in 2023 continued to be positive, with more than 1,600 hotels and over 37,000 courses completed by managed and franchised colleagues. Based on a ‘prevent, donate and divert plan’ and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) Guardians of Grub campaign for the hospitality industry, our training encourages hotels to track food waste and take recommended actions. To track progress, hotels measure food waste daily before monthly totals are entered into IHG Green Engage.

We recognise that products provided to guests staying in our hotels can collectively generate large amounts of waste if not reused or recycled. Therefore we aim to embed circular economy principles by procuring products that incorporate recycled content or make sure items can be put to good use once they leave our hotels. For example, this year we updated carpet brand standards across our Holiday Inn Express brand in Europe to add an option for 100% wool carpets or 100% recycled nylon carpets. This allows our hotels to take into consideration the circularity of these products and choose solutions that are biodegradable and or recyclable. We also have a system in place to evaluate the environmental credentials of our suppliers and we are making recommendations to our hotels where possible. See pages 41 to 43 for the progress we’re making on responsible procurement.