Whitbread PLC, owner of Premier Inn and Costa, today announces new 2020 Targets within its corporate responsibility programme, Good Together. The Good Together programme was launched in 2009 and is built around three pillars of Teams & Communities, Customer Wellbeing and Environment. After making significant progress towards existing 2017 goals, Whitbread has created new targets to further challenge its business. This announcement follows a successful year of growth for the wider business across all brands.
Teams & Communities
Following the announcement on 9th April 2015 that it will create 6,000 apprenticeships by 2020, Whitbread commits to further increasing employment opportunities in the hospitality industry. It plans to create 15,000 UK jobs, 7,500 work experience placements for school and college pupils and 6,500 structured employment placements over the next five years.
Achieving these stretching goals will contribute towards the growth of a skilled workforce in the sector, safeguarding against future skills shortages while supporting young people seeking to enter into employment in the hospitality sector.
To enhance the business’ positive societal impact, Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants aims to raise £10 million for its chosen charity of which £7.5 million will go to build the Premier Inn Clinical Building at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. Whilst the Costa Foundation has already raised £7 million and has set a target to increase this to £15 million to deliver 100 school projects in coffee growing communities helping to relieve poverty and increase education opportunities for thousands of children and their families.
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Customer Wellbeing
Whitbread has committed to setting relevant salt and sugar reduction targets across its business and to achieve 100 percent accredited supply for ten critical product sourced commodities (cocoa, coffee, cotton, fish, meat, palm oil, soy, sugar, tea and timber).
Energy & Environment
As one of the UK’s fastest growing FTSE 100 companies Whitbread is challenged to minimise energy usage, water consumption and production of waste as it grows. Having already exceeded its 2017 carbon, water and waste targets Whitbread has set new 2020 targets to reduce carbon by a further 15 percent and water by 20 percent, both against a 2014 baseline, and to increase the direct operations recycling rate across the estate to 80 percent.
Andy Harrison, CEO of Whitbread commented:
“As we grow, we have an even greater responsibility to consider our wider environmental and societal impact. Our Good Together programme is an integral part of how we do business at Whitbread and as the UK’s largest hospitality company, we aim to be a leader in developing sustainable business practices within our sector. We have set new stretching targets for the next five years to help deliver a sustainable future for our company and be a force for good in the communities in which we operate.”
Simon Ewins, Director of CSR at Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants said:
“At Whitbread, we set ourselves stretching targets across our business and our corporate responsibility commitments are no exception. We are incredibly proud of the progress we have made towards our existing 2017 targets, and in line with our wider business approach, it was important for us to review these achievements and push ourselves further to achieve more.
“We would encourage all businesses to look at how they can further enhance their environmental and societal impact and would invite business leaders to work with us to share best practice across this common aim of a more sustainable future.”
