Part 3

Read the documents and materials provided in Materials, Part 3.

Evaluate the companys corporate social responsibility strategy and how it relates to its stakeholders.

Part 3

3.1 Whitbreads Force For Good Strategy

Sustainability

We believe we have a responsibility to help people live and work well. Our sustainability programme, Force for Good aims to ensure we have a positive impact on all of our stakeholders and the world around us. Split into three pillars; opportunity, community and responsibility, weve made great progress so far and have set long-term strategic targets to continue on our journey.

Our strategy and targets

We know that being a Force for Good is not only the right thing to do, but it makes business sense too. With over 275 years of history, we understand the importance of making decisions now that will have a positive impact on the future of our business, our teams, our guests and the world around us.

Creating our strategy

Each year we undertake a robust process to help shape our sustainability strategy, ensuring we focus on tackling the risks and opportunities presented at this time of great social and economic change.

In 2020 we took the opportunity to undertake learnings from our stakeholders and from wider sustainability trends to identify the programmes and issues that need our focus. We used this as the basis to reset some of our targets and to ensure they are fit for our current business.

Our strategy is called Force for Good, and is more important than ever before. The strategy is split into three pillars;opportunity,communityandresponsibility.

Whitbread is tackling the complex social and environmental challenges that we face, today and for the future. We know that focus, direction and collaboration is required to make positive and impactful change. Our specialist sustainability function helps to align Whitbreads sustainability programme to the overarching business strategy whilst also providing specialist support to solve sustainability challenges. We remain focused on being a Force for Good even in the most challenging business environments and are proud of our ability and progress thus far to enable our people to live and work well.

Rosana Elias, Head of Sustainability, Whitbread

Targets and reporting

Each year, we deliver an integrated Sustainability and Annual Report which highlights our progress against the targets outlined below. In 2020 we also released a stand-aloneEnvironmental, Social and Governance report (ESG Report)to showcase the breadth of our Force for Good programme and achievements.

We strive to strike the right balance between clear disclosure on key indices that map to the material issues we face, whilst also not throwing the net too wide that could result in duplicated reporting. We annually report on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and have now started to report to Sustainability Accounting Standards (SASB) as well as providing an update on our progress towards responding to the Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations.

Our programme is underpinned by a number of policies, each outlining the standards we commit to working towards as we move towards achieving our targets.

Opportunity

A team where everyone can reach their potential. No barriers to entry and no limitations to ambition.

We will be for everyone, championing inclusivity across the organisation and improving diversity

We will actively seek to break down all barriers to entry and be an inclusive and representative prospective employer

Our people will feel represented and respected, no matter how they identify

We will have industry-leading training and development schemes

Through our apprenticeship programmes we will support people to find and develop their hospitality careers

We aim to promote internal succession above external recruitment and will support our teams in this endeavour

We will be bold about broadening career opportunities, supporting cross-functional and meaningful career development

Team member wellbeing will be considered in everything we do

We will listen genuinely to our teams, ensuring their views help inform decision making

We will support the physical and mental wellbeing of our teams

Community

Making a meaningful contribution to the customers and communities we serve

We will make a positive contribution to the communities we serve

For every new site, we will donate our time to actively supporting local community activity

Working collaboratively with our teams and support chain, we will support our charity partner to meet their mission

We will raise 20m for Great Ormond Street Childrens hospital by 2020

We will support the wellbeing of our guests and customers

We will improve the nutritional value of our menu by continuing to reduce sugar, salt and calories and will continue to develop inclusive menus for customers with a range of dietary needs. We will do this in a responsible and transparent way whilst maintaining great taste, quality and value for money for our guests

We will strive to be a leader in our sector for delicious, appealing and healthier childrens food

Responsibility

Always operating in a way that respects people and planet.

We will source responsibly and with integrity

Human rights will be respected across our value chain

We will work with our supply chains to source to internationally recognised sustainability standards

We will reduce our environmental impact

We will eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic by 2025

We will cut food waste by 50% by 2030

We will not send any waste to landfill

We will minimise water use across our business and champion water stewardship with high risk areas

We will reduce our Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions intensity by 80% by 2030 and Net Zero by 2040

We will reduce our Scope 3 carbon emissions intensity by 50% by 2035 and 64% by 2050

We will always do business the right way

We will always operate with integrity and respect

We will always support our people and partners to do the right thing

We will always be honest and transparent in our communication

Delivery

We work hard to make our Force for Good programme part of everyones job. We dedicate time to embedding our strategy across our business, setting accountability and ensuring this programme lives and breathes in everything we do. From our CEO to our housekeepers, we want to ensure everyone has a stake in enabling us to be a Force for Good.

3.2 Premier Inn as a Force for Good

We're a Force for Good

At Premier Inn, we really care about you, our teams, our communities and our planet. Thats why being a Force for Good is at the heart of everything we do, from donating surplus food to communities and helping raise over 17 million for the incredible causes at GOSH, to responsibly sourcing our cotton for all our comfy bedding, and more.

As the UKs largest hotel chain, were proud to be setting industry-leading goals for sustainability, so you can rest easy knowing were all about making positive changes in a big way and doing our bit for the world we live in.

Operating responsibly and sustainably

Being a Force For Good in all we do supports our vision of enabling people to live and work well.

Serving up tonnes worth of food

We donated over half a million meals worth of surplus food to charity in 2020 - one of many steps were taking towards the larger goal of cutting our food waste in half by 2030.

Stop Food Waste Day

Thanks to our partnership with FareShare and The Real Junk Food Project (TRJFP), our restaurants have donated over 140 tonnes of food to those in need, the equivalent of 335,000 meals.

Caring about our customers

Whitbread plc is passionate about using our scale and size to make a positive difference to peoples lives, our communities and the world in which we operate.

Community

We have over 800 hotels across the UK and every single one of them is built into a community. We pride ourselves on playing an active role in those communities, whether thats through charity fundraising, volunteering or providing work experience opportunities.

Part of the community

Every time a new hotel or restaurant opens, were joining a new community. We support and sponsor each team member at our new sites to volunteer three hours to a local cause that both they and local residents are passionate about. This can be anything from picking up litter to redecorating community centres or donating to food banks. It works for everyone we learn more about the communities were part of, and the community gets to see more of who we really are.

We support GOSH

Weve been partnered with the fantasticGreat Ormond Street Hospital Childrens Charity(GOSH) since 2012. Since then weve raised over 15m through our teams, guests and suppliers. 7.5m of this helped to build the Premier Inn Clinical Building; a new, much-needed facility at the hospital. Premier Inn team members voted overwhelmingly in favour of continuing our partnership withGOSHin 2017 and we pledged to raise a further 10 million towards a newSight and Sound Centre. Due to open in 2020, the centre will be the first dedicated medical facility for children with sight and hearing loss in the UK.

Caring about our customers

Were proud to serve high quality, great-tasting food and drink. Thats whywere committed to improving the nutritional value of our menu by continuing to reduce sugar, salt and calories and will continue to develop inclusive menus for customers with a range of dietary needs. We will do this in a responsible and transparent way whilst maintaining great taste, quality and value for money for our guests. Not only this but we are striving to be a leader in our sector for delicious, appealing and healthier childrens food.

Responsibility

We know our work affects the environment and the people around us, which is why we have industry leading targets across our programme to reduce our impact on the environment and respect the human rights of workers across our value chain.

We source responsibly

We only work with suppliers who share our values and meet our high standards. We pride ourselves on working with our suppliers to continuously ensure that human rights are respected across our value chain and source products to internationally recognised sustainability standards.

We're going Net-Zero

Were committed to reducing our carbon footprint, and were already really proud of our achievements so far; we use 100% renewable energy to power our hotels, and we have solar panels installed on over 180 of them. Weve also planted roof gardens on some of our hotels to help support local biodiversity, and encourage birds, bees and other wonderful wildlife to thrive at our buildings.

Weve recently set an industry-leading target to reduce our carbon emissions intensity by 50% by 2025 and were going one step further by going Net-zero on our scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2040.

We're reducing our waste

All waste from our hotels and restaurants is diverted from landfill, and we recycle all of our beds, pillows and duvets. Were working to remove all unnecessary single-use plastics from our hotels and restaurants by 2025. We were also the first business in the UK to sign up to Refill offering free water bottle refills at over 3000 sites.

Source: Premier Inn (2022a)

3.3 We value difference at Premier Inn

The reception of our hotels are at crossroads for everyone, no matter what theyre here to do. Everybody is made to feel welcome when they visit, and we wouldnt have it any other way. But this goes far beyond the guests we host, its at the core of our business. We believe that embracing difference is not only the right thing, its the smart thing. Diversity in people creates diversity of thought, and diversity of thought leads to new ways of thinking and doing.

So we arent just accepting of difference, we value it and we welcome it with open arms.

Were committed to supporting all our colleagues, including those from under-represented groups such as those who are ethnically diverse, identify as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, trans sexual, non binary or use another term, and people with disabilities. Whilst we have made significant progress in the last 12 months, we recognise we have more to do, to be both more diverse and more inclusive and we wont rest easy until we achieve these.

In 2020 we made commitments to change:

Greater representation through stretching targets around gender and ethnicity in our senior leadership roles in the business

Review our recruitment processes, particularly at mid-management level

Invest more in diverse talent of the future

Support the leaders in our business with knowledge and skills to be confident and capable inclusive leaders

Amplify the voices of our minorities through networks and forums, such as GLOW (LGBTQ+ and newly formed Race, Religion and Cultural Heritage, Gender Equality and Disability groups)

Review our organisational policies to ensure they are inclusive. For example weve just introduced a new policy allowing our team members to transfer Bank Holidays to other religious holidays, and signing up to theHalo Collectiveas part of our appearance policy

Celebrate a wider range of cultural events within our business we have recently celebrated Black History Month, LGBTQ+ History Month, International Womens Day alongside religious festivals such as Diwali, Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan.

We also signed the Princes responsible business network Business In The Communitys Race at Work Charter and are working to implement its five calls to action to tackle barriers that ethnic minority people can face.

Gender equality continues to be an area of commitment. View our latestGender Pay Gap report.

Were committed to doing more, and we look forward to sharing our progress with you as we continue on this journey.

Source: Premier Inn (2022b)