National: Ahead of the occasion of World Environment Day, Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), India’s largest hospitality company, has announced a host of sustainability and social impact initiatives under its ESG+ framework, Paathya. In line with this year’s theme of ‘Only One Earth’, the company has undertaken tangible measures under Paathya’s six key pillars of Environmental Stewardship, Social Responsibility, Excellence in Governance, Preserving Heritage, Value Chain Transformation, and Sustainable Growth.
With defined short and long-term goals to be fulfilled by 2030 under Paathya, IHCL continues its endeavour toward building a better tomorrow with several initiatives including:
- EarthCheck Certification: 77 IHCL hotels are EarthCheck Certified for their sustainable practices, 57 of which are Platinum Certified. This year, IHCL has added 13 more hotels to participate in the certification process.
- Waste Management: To minimise and manage waste, IHCL has established waste composters at 25 hotels in the past year to manage kitchen waste; thereby taking the total number of hotels to 67. This has ensured that the waste sent to landfills is minimised by 17,000 cubic metres, which is equivalent to 515 standard 20 feet of shipping containers.
- Green Footprint: With a keen focus on reducing its carbon footprint, IHCL has taken a pledge to plant a total of 1 lakh saplings across all its hotels this year, thereby laying the path for a greener future.
- EV Charging: Taking forward the commitment of 5 per cent of hotel guest parking areas supporting EV charging stations, IHCL has collaborated with Tata Power and signed an MOU to install EV charging stations across its hotels.
- Energy Conservation: By 2030, 50 per cent of IHCL’s energy to come from renewables.
- Livelihood Impact: IHCL aims to impact the livelihood of over 100,000 youth through skill-building, thereby creating employability for the deserving and the marginalised.
- Heritage: As the custodians of Indian heritage, IHCL will adopt 100 per cent of Intangible Cultural Heritage (IHC) projects in the geographies it operates in, in continued collaboration with UNESCO.
Derived from the Sanskrit term पथ्य, inferring a path, Paathya aims to lead positive change guided by IHCL’s core values of Trust of all stakeholders, Awareness of the needs of our ecosystem and Joy at heart.
Under Paathya, IHCL will continue to pioneer sustainable practices in its pursuit of excellence and create benchmarks in the tourism industry.