This update, published in August 2010, is TUI Travel PLC’s second Sustainable Development Report. We intend to publish the next full Sustainable Development Report more closely aligned with TUI Travel’s Annual Report.
You can find our first full Sustainable Development Report, and First Choice Holidays PLC reports from 2005 onwards, at www.tuitravelplc.com/sustainabledevelopment
The scope of this report includes data and progress on sustainable development activities from businesses owned by TUI Travel, for the financial year 2008/09, running from 1 October 2008 to 30 September 2009, except where otherwise stated.
We have indicated where data refers to joint ventures or Company suppliers. Since September 2009, TUI Travel has acquired new businesses for which key data has not yet been gathered. Data and progress for these businesses will be included in the 2009/10 Sustainable Development Report.
We recognise that we must play our role in sustaining the communities and the environment that we depend on. Our contribution needs to be relevant to the impacts and expertise of our business.
In June 2006, the First Choice Holidays PLC Group Management Board worked with Forum for the Future to articulate the company’s business case for sustainable development. We identified four main drivers for a sustainability programme, which we have adopted for TUI Travel:
In 2007/08 we developed our sustainable development strategy in consultation with internal and external stakeholders, including Forum for the Future. Now nearly 2 years on, we are going through a process of revising our approach. We are working closely with external advisors to evaluate more closely the Groupwide risks and opportunities sustainable development presents to the company. This piece of work will help us align sustainable development with TUI Travel’s key strategic imperatives and set long-term key performance indicators for sustainable development.
This report outlines our performance on key sustainable development issues that we consider to be material to our company. We aim to ensure that the content of our Sustainable Development Report is relevant to our stakeholders, both internal and external. In determining the contents of this update, we took into account feedback on our strategy and previous reports from colleagues, investors and other stakeholders.
For this report we gathered data for our performance indicators from two main sources: the 2009 Group Sustainable Development Evaluation and our 2010 submission to the Carbon Disclosure Project.
Group Sustainable Development Evaluation
The 2009 Group Sustainable Development Evaluation is used to assess and report on sustainability performance within tour operating businesses across the Group. The 2009 Evaluation follows on from the Sustainable Development Survey 2008. It consists of questions relating to Embedding, Carbon Management, Destinations, Our Colleagues and Our Customers.
In October and November 2009, the Evaluation was sent to the Managing Directors of TUI Travel tour operating businesses, and 87% responded. The reporting period relates to the 2008/2009 financial year (1 October 2008 – 30 September 2009). To ensure the responses reflected the size of the businesses that responded, we weighted them by colleague numbers.
In December 2009, we sent an amended version of the Group Sustainable Development Evaluation to TUI Travel’s hotels and cruise ship operations. We tailored the survey questions to the recipients, focusing on their carbon emissions and environmental management practices. The survey was sent to the environmental managers of Atlantica Hotels, Gran Resort, Nordotel and Paladien Hotels and the operations directors of Thomson Cruises, Island Cruises and Quark Expeditions, TUI Travel’s most significant cruise businesses.
The next Group Sustainable Development Evaluation is planned to take place at the end of the 2009/10 financial year.
Carbon Disclosure Project
TUI Travel makes an annual submission to the Carbon Disclosure Project, a coalition representing 534 institutional investors and combined assets of $64 trillion (£42 trillion) under management. As one of 2,500 participating companies, our response to a detailed questionnaire is scored and benchmarked with respect to our approach to managing climate change risk and opportunity, both in terms of the quality of our disclosure and performance. In 2009, for the second consecutive year we were included in the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index, which highlights the top 10% of FTSE350 companies that have displayed the most professional and transparent approach to climate change disclosure. www.cdproject.net
TUI Travel’s Carbon Disclosure Project submissions for 2008, 2009 and 2010 can be found at www.tuitravelplc.com/sustainabledevelopment
Please note that 2006/07 carbon emission data is based on a pro forma financial year ending 30 September 2007 for TUI Travel PLC. Where the data was not available from First Choice Holidays PLC or the Tourism Division of TUI AG for that period (1 October 2006 to 30 September 2007), the nearest full 12 months of data was used.
i TUI UK & Ireland online customer research, November 2009
ii TUI Travel Sustainable Development Evaluation 2009 (weighted by colleague numbers)
iii United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA)
iv Scope 1 - Greenhouse gas emissions arising from sources owned or controlled by an organisation.
v Scope 2 - Greenhouse gas emissions which do not physically occur from within the organisation’s reporting boundary and are therefore “indirect” emissions
vi Scope 3 - Indirect greenhouse gas emissions other than those covered in Scope 2 - they are from sources that are not owned or controlled by an organization, but which occur as a result of its activities.
vii Flagship Hotel Properties are those that are part of TUI Travel PLC's differentiated product offering. These hotels tend to accommodate exclusively TUI Travel's customers, thereby TUI Travel can provide more input to the day-to-day running of the hotel to maximise the sustainability performance
viii ‘Other’ carbon dioxide emissions include those from aircraft operated by suppliers on our behalf, emissions classed as Scope 3 under the GHG Protocol (e.g. business travel by air and emissions associated with IT data centres used remotely).
ix Group Responsible Leadership programme replaces the former Group Leadership programme
x Sweden’s greenest brands survey by Differ, 2009
xi A Passport to Adventure - Industry Trend Report by TUI Travel’s Activity Sector, including research by YouGov in 2009
Colour photography supplied by: TUI Travel PLC businesses
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