Highlights 2009/10
Welcome to Whitbread's first Good Together report.
We launched Good Together in 2009 in response to market and stakeholder research telling us that it was what our customers and our team members want, and that it is simply good business.
Good Together is an overarching strategy and programme of initiatives to drive sustainable performance and to help Whitbread's people, customers and supply chain partners make changes to how they work and how they 'eat, sleep and drink' Whitbread.
Good Together will help us to build the best large-scale hospitality brands in the world by becoming the most customer focused organisation there is, anywhere. More information can be found on our separate strategy page.
Strategy
Targets
To help drive Good Together, we have set public performance targets relating to key areas of the programme such as carbon emissions, team development, responsible sourcing and supporting communities. This report starts to tell the story of how we are delivering these targets.
Commitments
Across these six areas we have developed our Good Together Commitments, which express how we will do business responsibly. By applying these Commitments Whitbread believes our brands will be stronger and better because we will be a business for which people will want to work, in which investors will want to invest and with brands that customers will be proud to visit and come back to again and again.
Corporate Responsibility Leadership
The Whitbread Good Together Steering Committee has overall responsibility for the delivery of the Good Together programme. The Committee was set up in May 2009. It is chaired by Chief Executive Alan Parker and reports to the Whitbread PLC Board. The Committee meets every eight weeks and consists of 10 senior Directors and Board members.
Environment
Carbon Trust Standard
Tamworth Energy Consumption
The annual performance of our green hotel at Tamworth was monitored and was assessed by comparing its water footprint and carbon footprint to a local Premier Inn hotel of the same size. In its first year of operation, the hotel has delivered an 81% reduction in carbon footprint and a 66% water saving.
We are now going further, building a new energy and water efficient 60 bed hotel and Beefeater restaurant in Burgess Hill, West Sussex. We aim for this site to deliver at least a 70% carbon saving and a 60% water saving vs. a similar sized hotel and restaurant.
Even more importantly, we are now working to incorporate water and energy saving technologies and the learning from Tamworth across our entire hotels estate.
As a result of this and other energy saving initiatives Whitbread was awarded the Carbon Trust Standard in 2009.
Water footprint
Average Water Consumption
Our annual water consumption is 3.4 million m3. In 2009 we worked with Waterscan to profile the water use in an average Premier Inn. This work showed us that our operational water use predominantly comes from guest use in bathrooms. Therefore, the most effective ways that we can reduce our water consumption is to use technologies in our bathrooms that encourage water savings and to engage our guests on this issue.
People
Apprenticeship scheme
Our goal is to deliver 3,000 qualifications through our nationally recognised apprenticeship programme by the end of 2010. We are just over halfway there, with 190 completed apprenticeships (representing 760 qualifications awarded) and over 850 Skills for Life qualifications awarded.
This means a total of over 1,600 qualifications awarded to the 364 employees currently in learning at the end of fiscal year 2010.
In 2009 Whitbread's Apprenticeship programme was inspected by the Government's Office for Standards in Education, 'Ofsted', receiving strong ratings of Good to Outstanding across all elements assessed.
Sourcing
Rainforest Alliance CertifiedTM coffee
100% of Costa coffee production going to UK Costa stores was Rainforest Alliance certified as of May 2010. This includes all sites run by franchise partners.
Read our Rainforest Alliance case study
Supplier policy
We have produced a Responsible Sourcing policy, which is based on international guidelines. It sets out the standards that we ask all of our suppliers to follow as well as Whitbread's commitments to responsible sourcing and to our suppliers.
Health
Reducing salt levels in our menus
Over the past year we have worked closely with the Food Standards Agency (FSA). We are active members of the Pub Restaurant Forum and have worked closely with our manufacturing suppliers so they can understand the FSA agenda on salt and saturated fats.
Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants have already reduced the salt content in the majority of our restaurant recipe dishes and are on target to meet the FSA's 2012 health targets during 2011. Costa met the FSA's 2010 salt targets across all its own-brand food by the end of 2009, 12 months ahead of the deadline.
Healthier Eating Policy
As a leader in the hotels, restaurants and coffee shop markets we want to help our customers and guests to make healthier food choices. We have developed the Whitbread Healthier Eating Policy to guide and inform our work in improving our menus and engaging our customers and suppliers on healthy eating.
Community
Costa Foundation
In three years since the launch of the Costa Foundation, we have built 11 schools in Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Uganda. That's a total of 55 classrooms that are now being used by 6,700 children. In 2009/10 we raised a total of £306,000 for the Costa Foundation. Thank you to all our team members and guests who have supported the Costa Foundation.
Find out more in our community section
WaterAid
As a hospitality business we use many precious resources, water being one of them. We wanted to give back to those communities that go without the most basic requirements of life, safe water and sanitation.
We realised we could not do this on our own so in June 2009 Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants joined forces with a globally recognised charity, WaterAid. Since June 2009 when we launched our partnership with WaterAid, we have raised a total of over £200,000 for WaterAid, one fifth of the way to achieving our target of £1million! Thank you to all our team members and guests who have supported WaterAid.
Find out more in our community section
Charity registration numbers 288701 (England and Wales) and SC039479 (Scotland)
Our annual water consumption is 3.3 million m3. In 2009 we worked with Waterscan to profile the water use in an average Premier Inn. This work showed us that our operational water use predominantly comes from guest use in bathrooms. Therefore, the most effective ways that we can reduce our water consumption is to use technologies in our bathrooms that encourage water savings and to engage our guests on this issue.
