Question

Self reflection report on Island Shangri-La hotel eco friendly concept

Answer 1

Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong is committed to serving as good stewards of the environment and the hotel mitigates impacts on the environment by ensuring that our day-to-day operations promote and implement responsible environmental practices and continuous improvement.

Well ahead of 2015 targets, environmental and conservation achievements in 2012 include a 20% reduction in potable water consumption per guest night and a 13% reduction in energy consumption per guest night across the group compared with 2010 levels. Even with an increase in the total number of hotels, Shangri-La reduced CO2 emissions by 16% per guest night over the two-year period. A number of Shangri-La hotels also achieved international certifications and a wider adoption of occupational health and safety protocols, moving closer to the group goal of a fully Integrated Management System.

Ownership of CSR and sustainability lies with each individual hotel and progress is tracked via a CSR scorecard. In 2012, the average overall CSR score for a mainland China hotel was 71.2% compared with the average score of 63.5% for the 40 hotels located outside of mainland China covered in the report*.

The 2012 report shows Shangri-La’s mainland China hotels performed evenly and consistently across the group’s five CSR focus areas. Despite just missing the target of two percent employment of people with disabilities (employing 1.98 percent), and 98% of Shangri-La’s China hotel colleagues completed Shangri-La’s new CSR training module, which was rolled out to 38,000 colleagues group-wide by 413 newly certified CSR ambassadors.

'Sanctuary', Shangri-La’s Care for Nature Project, was expanded from international resorts to urban hotels in mainland China with water conservation projects in Shenyang, Qingdao and Beijing; a Nature Reserve project in Xian, and a Care for Panda Project in Chengdu. All Shangri-La hotels are implementing strategic 10- to 15-year local community programs in Education and Health through 'Embrace', Shangri-La’s Care for People Project. Shangri-La’s hotel colleagues rendered 60,000 volunteer hours in 2012 in support of these and other CSR projects.

Major CSR initiatives put in place last year included Shangri-La’s Sustainable Seafood Policy, which was issued in January 2012 with the commitment to immediately cease serving shark fin in all of its operated restaurants. The company also instituted a Responsible Procurement Programme and introduced the Shangri-La Supplier Code of Conduct incorporating criteria that align with Shangri-La’s Core Values and the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact, which Shangri-La has been reporting progress on since 2012.

“We are proud of our people who continue to reflect ‘from the heart’ commitment to CSR, and appreciate the support of our suppliers and other stakeholders,” said Dogan. “We know we have a long journey ahead, and there is much work to be done. But we are in this for the long-term.”

The 2012 Sustainability Report highlights the results of the first stakeholder engagement survey conducted by a third-party service provider. The primary focus was on internal stakeholders, and this was supplemented by input from a sample of key external stakeholders. Findings support the group’s continued focus on improving energy and water efficiency and conservation; enhancing measurement of CSR program's effectiveness, especially on local communities, and encouraging consistent uptake of CSR behavior across hotels. These will form part of Shangri-La’s latest CSR strategy.