Indian Hotels to eliminate single-use plastic across properties by 2030

Tata group hospitality firm Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL) on Tuesday said it will completely eliminate single-use plastic across all its hotels by 2030, besides committing to skill 1 lakh youths in the next five years as part of its sustainability and social impact measures under a newly launched initiative, Paathya.

The company has outlined a host of short and long-term goals for 2030 with a commitment to sustainability, social impact and growth. These include ensuring 100 per cent reuse of wastewater, 50 per cent of energy to come from renewables and 100 per cent of the company's hotels certified to a global sustainability standard.

"By 2030, all (our) hotels will be single-use plastic-free, have onsite organic waste management systems, and all of the wastewater will be recycled or reused. Also, 100 per cent of all of our hotels will be EarthCheck certified," IHCL Managing Director & CEO Puneet Chhatwal said while launching the Paathya initiative.

Amongst other initiatives that will make a large impact, he further said, "50 per cent of our energy will come from renewables and over 50 per cent of raw materials will be sourced locally and there will be 100 per cent adoption of supplier code of conduct by tier-one suppliers."

Keeping in tune with the times, Chhatwal said 50 per cent of IHCL's hotel guest parking areas will be committed to EV charging stations, while 100 per cent of business meetings and conferences will go green and be paperless with sustainable setups, using environment friendly and recycled or upcycled materials.

Sharing the short term goals, he said, "We have committed to skilling 100,000 youth who will be trained with relevant skill sets geared towards livelihoods over the next five years."

Stating that IHCL is also "looking at every action from the lens of what is gender progressive", he said, "There will be 25 per cent representation of the women on the boards of our various associates and subsidiary companies."

Stressing that hospitality goals are not met unless "we keep Incredible India shining", Chhatwal said, "All of our hotels will have at least one initiative to preserve heritage, arts and crafts. There will be 100 per cent adoption of UNESCO's cultural heritage projects in the geographies we operate in. Any business that wants to be future-ready has to be with sustainability in every sphere of its business."

IHCL said its 78 hotels have achieved EarthCheck certification -- the global leading environmental certification and benchmarking program for the travel and tourism industry -- with 47 Platinum recognitions, the largest in the global tourism industry.

The company has a portfolio of 232 hotels, including 58 under development globally across 4 continents, 11 countries and over 100 locations.