As part of its commitment to sustainable development, Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts is proud to release its first public sustainability report. This report has been produced to inform the global hotel group’s guests and stakeholders about the long-term strategy, goals, initiatives and performance relating to sustainability activities across the group.

Over the past three years Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts has established a robust and strategic sustainability framework, culminating in the implementation of a global sustainability strategy and infrastructure. To deliver a systematic implementation of this strategy, a web-based integrated sustainability management system has been deployed in all hotels. To ensure consistent standards are achieved, all locations were assessed and successfully certified by the Swiss Association for Quality and Managements Systems (SQS) and met the internationally recognised standards of ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environmental management) and OHSAS 18001 (workplace health & safety management). Reporting and analytical tools have been developed and implemented in collaboration with external partners, which help to measure and assess the effectiveness of social and environmental initiatives. This includes the monthly and yearly reporting of over 100 performance indicators from each property which are consolidated and analysed by the corporate office. Sustainability teams at all hotels ensure the corporate strategy is implemented, with consideration given to local regulations, cultures and practices.

The commitment of the hotels has shown some encouraging results with following improvements having been achieved since 2009:

• 11 % reduction in water consumption per guest night
• 13 % reduction in CO2 per guest night  
• 13 % reduction in energy consumption per guest night

“For us, being sustainable isn’t about the things you say, but the things you do”, says Meinhard Huck, President Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts. “It is our goal to be clear and honest in the communication of our objectives, goals and performance and we welcome dialogue with all our partners, guests and team members. With the release of this sustainability report we have achieved another important milestone.”

The Swissôtel sustainability report follows the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting guidelines and meets their criteria for Level C. Furthermore, it has been externally verified by SQS.