Sustainable Luxury | The Peninsula Hotels
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Sustainable Food Sourcing

Sustainable Luxury

Sustainability means longevity, which is relevant to The Peninsula Hotels with our almost century-long history. Looking to the future, we continually ask ourselves what lasts, what endures, and how we can safeguard the things that really matter.

Our company, like all businesses, impacts the world around us, and as such at The Peninsula Hotels we strive to ensure our influence is positive, on the environment as well as on society. We share this vision with our guests: they appreciate that while we are devoted to their comfort, providing quality and enjoyment must also be done with respect for our world. Sustainability and luxury share similar values: as we endeavour to offer refined craftsmanship and exceptional service, which is sustainable because it is timeless, thoughtful and purposeful.

As a modern business engrained in heritage, every decision we make must consider the welfare of all stakeholders. It is through this lens that we view the future, with an unwavering commitment to enhance our guest’s experience, empower our people, and enrich our communities.

Since the start of our sustainability journey in 2007, and the launch of our first Sustainable Luxury strategy in 2013, we have achieved over 90% of the sustainability goals we set for ourselves. More recently, we have transitioned to our new Sustainable Luxury Vision 2030, which has at its heart what we believe to be the three key topics of concern for the future:


• Diminishing natural resources such as energy, water and food

• Climate change, and

• Growing social inequalities


Our business is a complex one, building and operating five-star luxury hotels in iconic locations globally. This translates to a myriad of measures minimising the negative impacts of our activities. Here are just a few examples of the initiatives we are undertaking:

The Peninsula Paris L'Oiseau Blanc Terrace
The Peninsula Paris employees

The Peninsula’s enduring foundation is comprised of strong and committed people who share a passion for hospitality, luxury and making a difference. As part of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, we are dedicated to building a lasting and genuine relationship with all our employees, whose average length of service is 8.5 years.

To support our diverse workforce around the world, including our female employees, who make up 41% of both our management and general workforce, we run a number of programmes aimed at ensuring all our people feel they belong and are an essential part of the team:

• Regular employee sentiment survey gauging engagement, resilience, empowerment, and well-being, driving our talent retention and attraction strategy.

• On-going training and education, with e-learning content ranging from wellness, management, essential skills and leadership.

• Always competitive health benefits complemented by a holistic welfare programme, that includes a global Employee Assistance Programme access to country-specific counselling.

WELLNESS AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

• The welfare of our community is of paramount importance to The Peninsula Hotels. We support youth development, elderly care and uplifting marginalised groups through outreach programmes and impactful philanthropy. Since the launch of our first sustainability strategy, we have given more than 100,000 hours of service to local communities.

• Our group-wide “Love of Community” programme prepared and donated over 190,000 meals to disadvantaged members of the local community, an example of our focused community support during the height of the pandemic.

• We have implemented a holistic employee wellness initiative aimed at strengthening the physical and mental wellbeing of our people.

A PLASTIC-FREE FUTURE

Amenities

• In line with the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative, we continue to work towards the complete elimination of single use plastics within The Group by 2025 or earlier.

• We introduced a 99.9% petroleum plastic free bathroom amenity line, featuring 45% recycled aluminium packaging.

SOURCING AND PROVENANCE

The Peninsula Tokyo sourcing

• We take the issue of traceability and provenance of our supplies to heart. From our food and beverage offering to the daily goods used in our operations, transparency, accountability, and fairness are mandated throughout our many supply chains.

• It is vital that the businesses we partner with share our values and strive to ensure all our key products align with our standards of quality and responsible sourcing specifications, and we are happy that more than 95% of our coffee, 90% of our chocolates and 80% of our tea have met this goal. We continue to look for sustainable products and enhancing our partners’ sustainability awareness and standards.

NATURALLY PENINSULA

The Peninsula Tokyo Naturally Peninsula dish

• Our Naturally Peninsula cuisine is prepared with nutritious plant-based ingredients, designed to support a wellness lifestyle fit for our guests.

• Our pioneering shark-fin ban made headlines in 2012, and we are thrilled it led to industry-wide adoption and raised awareness on the need to protect marine biodiversity.

• We recently adopted a group-wide commitment to cage-free eggs, as an important step towards our commitment to animal welfare.

BETTER BUILDINGS

The Peninsula Paris

• We strive for all our hotels to be EarthCheck certified – currently Hong Kong, Tokyo, Chicago, New York and Paris have attained this position.

• We strive to achieve a groupwide reduction of 55% carbon footprint (per square meter) and water footprint (per guest night) by 2030 compared to 2010 baseline, through equipment upgrades, adoption of new technologies and behavioural change, all without compromising our quality.

• We have been constructing and renovating our hotels according to BREEAM standards, one of the world’s leading sustainability assessment programmes. After its 2017 renovation, The Peninsula Beijing became our first property (and the first hotel in that city) to get BREEAM accredited, to be followed by our London and Istanbul properties when construction is completed.

Investing in Tomorrow

As we look to the future, we continue to focus on creating positive impact for all stakeholders. We add value to the guest experience by procuring renewable resources, operating sustainably, and understanding the provenance of our supplies. Our people work in a safe and inclusive workplace, equipped with career opportunities, and we will continue to support our communities, forging partnerships and collaborations with like-minded businesses to drive sustainable change together.


We invite you to discover more: Sustainable Luxury Vision 2030.