CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

IH&RA Work

 IH&RA Environmental Award
As a way of encouraging environmental awareness, IH&RA has successfully promoted good environmental practice for a number of years through its Annual Environmental Award, now in its 13 th year.
This Award was run in 2005 in association with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). IH&RA works actively with UNEP to promote the message that environmental action makes good business sense.

The Award’s Founding Partner is American Express and Programme Partners in 2005 were Conservation International, Green Globe 21 and the International Tourism Partnership, part of the International Business Leaders’ Forum.

UNEP Tour Operator Initiative

• Working through UNEP, IH&RA ensured that hotel specific interests were defended when Tour Operators drafted sustainable reporting indicators for the TO supply chain within the context of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). GRI is designed to enable all industries to report on their sustainability measures in a comparable and credible way.
• IH&RA considersit important to establish the limits to which hospitality operators can be asked to report to other parties in the supply chain (including tour operators) on measures taken to ensure economic, social and environmental sustainability of their operations.
• IH&RA encourages the industry to be pro-active in establishing its own Sustainability Performance Indicators rather than remain reactive to those established by other sectors of the Tourism industry.

WTO Global Code of Ethics for Tourism

• In 2001, the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) approved the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism designed to promote sustainable practises in the tourism industry worldwide. This instrument is not legally binding and its acceptance is voluntary.
• As an Affiliate Member of WTO, IH&RA raised specific objections to theImplementation mechanism proposed for the enforcement of the Code and is pleased to report that the Protocol of Implementation now acknowledges the voluntary nature of the mechanism proposed for the resolution of disputes concerning the Code’s interpretation or application.
• IH&RA has consistently stressed that a code of ethics should not attempt to intervene in areas already covered by national legislation and enforcement mechanisms.
• IH&RA has been appointed to sit on the World Committee on Tourism Ethics as a representative of the Employer section of the Affiliate Members ensuring that hospitality matters are properly understood and thus dealt with by the Committee.

Code for the Protection of Children from Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Tourism

• WTO and the European Union joined forces to support a Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation of in Tourism initiated by a group of Swedish Tour Operators in 2000.
• IH&RA was consulted during the drafting phase and regularly participates in a WTO-Tourism task force bringing together other concerned travel industry partners.
• Tthe Code has been signed by IH&RA members Cham Palaces & Resorts and by Carlson Companies at the North American launch of the Code at UN headquarters in New York in April 2004.
• Companies signing the Code commit to six criteria including: formally repudiating the commercial sexual exploitation of children; raising staff awareness and training; informing tourists of the problem and suppliers of the company’s policy; liaising with key persons at destination; and reporting annually on the implementation of the Code.

 IH&RA Global Council on Corporate Social Responsibility

IH&RA is currently in the process of setting up a Global Council on CSR. The GC will look at different aspects of CSR e.g. Best Practice, Reporting, Accountability, Codes, possibly also broken down by specific area - environmental, economic or social.

Work will be carried out in close cooperation with other tourism and hospitality related agencies involved in CSR, such as the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) and ECPAT (End Child Trafficking) and others.

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