Five major, global hotel firms — Accor, Hilton, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International and Radisson Hotel Group — have set up an international procurement alliance to improve supply-chain logistics, sustainability, social objectives, best practices and economies of scale.
In a news release, Accor said the Hospitality Alliance for Responsible Procurement, or HARP, has been established by the five hotel companies in cooperation with two hospitality group purchasing firms, Avendra and Entegra, and sustainability rating agency EcoVadis.
EcoVadis, which has been touting the development of the initiative for several months, said the project will start in 2023 and that it is acting “as the initiative’s coordination office, which includes a robust governance structure overseen by each member organization’s chief procurement officers and members’ quarterly meetings.”
Accor’s release added the justification for the project is that “a major part of hospitality’s environmental, social and governance footprint lies with its suppliers. As the primary interface with supply chains, procurement functions and organizations have a decisive role to play in shaping more sustainable practices. HARP was created as a new way of measuring and improving supply-chain sustainability performance.”
“Innovative and solution-based initiatives that focus on core business activities are crucial to realizing the hospitality industry’s vision for a sustainable future,” said Caroline Tissot, group chief procurement officer at Accor.
Accor said it has also joined the Business Ambition for 1.5°Celsius initiative, adding that is the “first international hotel group to make a long-term commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.”
It added that its corporate headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux, on the outskirts of Paris, now is “100% renewable energy-supplied.”
In July, Accor completed a sale-and-leaseback deal for its headquarters to real estate fund management firm Velasco Group for €460 million ($482.6 million).
Another organization, the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, has global support from the hotel and hospitality industry and is working on several initiatives, including framing guidelines, best practices, standards and agreed wording on sustainability, which has wide-ranging effects such as insurance coverage, investment grading and underwriting.