Green Targets
Hotel and restaurant group Whitbread aims to reduce its carbon emissions by 26% by 2020. The move, announced as the UN climate change conference took place in Copenhagen, is Whitbread's first statement of intent on carbon reduction and will form part of its new 'Good Together' corporate sustainability strategy.
Alan Parker, Whitbread chief executive, said: 'Whitbread has always put a high value on being a responsible business.
'Committing to this carbon reduction target is a statement of our determination to drive down emissions and ensure that we operate as efficiently and sustainably as possible.
'By taking the lead, we can help our customers to make a difference and show that action on the environment is most effective when we all work together.'
Good Together sets targets for achievement and behavioural change in seven areas: environment; employee engagement; sourcing of products and services; standards and performance measurement; customer engagement; health; community.
In addition to the emissions pledge, Whitbread confirmed a number of other initial sustainability targets, including: achieving 80% of waste diverted from landfill from its hotel and restaurant sites by February 2012; 100% of all Costa Coffee production to be Rainforest Alliance certified by June 2010; raising £1m for the WaterAid charity.
Whitbread also reported that from 2007-2009, it improved its carbon efficiency by 4%, equivalent to saving 8,562 tonnes of CO2 or taking 2,446 cars off the road.
In recognition of this achievement, the group has been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard.
The Carbon Trust Standard is the world's first award that requires organisations to measure, manage and reduce their carbon footprint and actually make real reductions year-on-year, rather than simply offset their emissions.
Whitbread operates more than 580 Premier Inn hotels with over 40,000 rooms across the UK, together with 375 Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Taybarns restaurants, and 1,500 Costa coffees shops worldwide.