Accor has topped the first Tomorrow's Value Rating of the world's ten largest hotel groups.

Accor has not only recognised the key sustainability challenges facing the hotels sector, says the new research, it has also designed a comprehensive approach to managing them.

However, when it comes to many of the other large hotel operators, the news is not quite so good.

"I wouldn't be surprised if campaigning groups soon started hanging "please clean up your act" signs on hotel room doors," states Thomas Krick, Global Programme Manager of the Tomorrow's Value Rating.

Researched and produced by Two Tomorrows, the leading sustainability consultancy, the Tomorrow's Value Rating assesses companies on how well they manage their most pressing social and environmental issues. The new Rating aims to further the debate on sustainable business, identify and reward best practices, and spur healthy competition among companies by examining the largest companies in globally important industries.

The Tomorrow's Value Rating results in the following hotels ranking:

  1. Accor
  2. InterContinental Hotels Group
  3. Marriott
  4. Global Hyatt
  5. Choice
  6. Carlson
  7. Hilton
  8. Wyndham
  9. Starwood
  10. Best Western

Krick continues, "Accor is exploring some commendable solutions to sustainability challenges. For example, it is piloting innovative energy saving technologies and buildings, and working with communities to maximise local procurement, thereby ensuring that locals benefit from its presence."

However, the Rating also shows that many of the world's largest hotel groups are only just beginning to address the wide range of social and environmental challenges facing the sector. Many don't recognise how these may be relevant to the success of their businesses. Even major issues such as climate change, biodiversity or local employment receive comparatively little attention and only half-hearted responses.

He explains, "Despite increasing consumer awareness of these issues, the companies generally provide little information on their sustainability efforts and performance, and only a few manage their social and environmental impacts systematically. These companies are running reputational risks, and missing out on opportunities for strategic differentiation.

"Tourists and businesses have reined in their spending on travel, and the sector is having a tough time that may well carry on for a while. But those that fail to take sustainability seriously now are going to find it even harder in future."

Key findings include:

  • Accor tops the Tomorrow's Value Rating of the world's largest hotel groups.
  • Only three of the rated companies seem to see sustainability management as important for protecting and creating commercial value. Most of them have a long way to go to integrate sustainability management into core processes.
  • Most of the big hotel groups trail the rest of the business world. Whilst they have noted the big issues, management approaches are immature. Climate change, employment practices, community welfare, waste and sustainable buildings are the most recognised issues, however, evidence of diligent management of the issues is scarce.
  • Other important issues, such as integration into local cultures, sustainability of franchisees or the climate change impacts of tourist travel are rarely considered.
  • Whilst most hotel groups demonstrate some good sustainability practices, only the leaders have begun rolling these out across the majority of their hotels. For example sustainable purchasing often only covers a narrow range of products, and green building practices are restricted to a few sites.
  • Cost drives sustainability efforts. Hotel groups focus mostly on the savings that result from being more efficient with resources. Most of them seem less concerned with reputational risk management or the brand differentiation opportunities that sustainability offers.

For full details, please visit www.tomorrowsvaluerating.com

Ends

For further information, contact:

Thomas Krick, Two Tomorrows Europe, Tel: +44 (0)7903 357 326
[email protected]

Issued by Penny Adair/Nicki Websper, Forsyth Websper
Tel: + (0) 117 904 0173 or +44 (0) 1225 425782

Notes to editors

The Tomorrow's Value Rating is a new tool for assessing how well companies manage their most pressing social and environmental issues. Every two months, a new sector rating examines the largest companies in a globally important industry.

It examines companies' performance in five key areas, or 'domains': Strategy, Governance, Engagement, Value Chain and Innovation. Assessments are based on companies' public disclosures, including their annual report and accounts, sustainability, CSR and corporate citizenship reports, and information on their websites.

The Tomorrow's Value Rating methodology draws on five years' of experience with its predecessor rating, the Accountability Rating. In that time, many large companies made significant progress in the areas of performance assessed by the Accountability Rating. The new Tomorrow's Value Rating is designed to assess and advance the areas of sustainability performance that still have much scope for improvement among the majority of companies. That is why it focuses in particular on innovation for sustainability, sector-specific issue management and the corporate value chain.

The Tomorrow's Value Rating is produced by Two Tomorrows, the leading sustainability consultancy with a global network of consultants and associates based out of offices in Europe, Asia and North America.

www.twotomorrows.com

Penny Adair
+44 (0) 1225 425782
Two Tomorrows Group Ltd