Hotels kick off participation with cleanliness drive around local precincts
New Delhi, India, 2015-2-3 — /Travel PR News/ — InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), one of the world’s leading hotel companies, has launched its year-long commitment to the national Swachh Bharat Abhiyan initiative with a series of hotel-led cleanliness drives.
In a show of support for the “Clean India Mission”, more than 500 employees across the company’s Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels in India formally adopted a local area, such as parks and roads, pledging to clean and maintain it throughout the year. As part of the year-long effort, each hotel team has also initiated an education programme which aims to inform the surrounding community on the importance of keeping the neighbourhood clean.
IHG was the first international hotel company in the country to launch a comprehensive, full-year campaign in support of the national initiative. Since announcing its participation last year with a cleanliness drive in Jaipur, IHG has also started a donation drive to help support and fund the development of toilets in key areas across the country. The group aims to have a number of lavatories ready by World Toilet Day in November this year.
Shantha De Silva, Head of South West Asia, IHG, said: “Being a responsible business is at the heart of everything we do and this means making a positive impact in the communities and environments our hotels operate in. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is an important national initiative which will boost the image of India as a destination and all our hotel and corporate colleagues are entirely committed to doing our part to make this campaign successful. This is just the beginning and I am looking forward to doing even more in the future to help deliver a Clean India by 2019.”
Other activities which will be carried out by hotels throughout the year include partnerships with schools for the underprivileged in a joint effort to clean the surrounding areas whilst educating them about hygiene and sanitation; and cleaning backwaters to generate awareness of water body conservation and increase sanitation standards.
As part of IHG’s corporate responsibility programmes, all IHG properties in India are also IHG Green Engage certified. IHG Green Engage is an online environmental sustainability tool, which gives hotels the ability to track energy, carbon and water consumption as well as to assess how waste is managed, further demonstrating IHG’s ongoing commitment to sustainability. The company has a global target of reducing carbon footprint per occupied room by 12% across their entire estate and reducing water use per occupied room in water-stressed areas by 12% by 2017.
IHG currently operates 20 hotels across four brands in India: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express; with another 47 hotels in the development pipeline due to open in the next three to five years.
Notes to Editors:
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with a broad portfolio of nine hotel brands, including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, EVEN™ Hotels and HUALUXE® Hotels and Resorts.
IHG manages IHG® Rewards Club, the world’s first and largest hotel loyalty programme with over 82 million members worldwide. The programme was relaunched in July 2013, offering enhanced benefits for members including free internet across all hotels, globally.
IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns over 4,700 hotels and 697,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries, with almost 1,200 hotels in its development pipeline.
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group’s holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.
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