Home Personnel Profile IHG’s Lindsay Wilkinson Helps Push Company Toward 100 Percent IHG Green Engage...

IHG’s Lindsay Wilkinson Helps Push Company Toward 100 Percent IHG Green Engage Participation

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Name: Lindsay Wilkinson
Title: Manager—Environmental Sustainability, Corporate Responsibility
Company: InterContinental Hotels Group
Years in position: Two
Primary responsibilities: “I oversee integration of programs in the Americas and China. I also have some key functional responsibilities with sales, brand and operational teams. I manage our relationship with Clean the World and serve on the Global Business Travel Alliance Sustainability Committee.”
Organization’s most significant sustainability-related accomplishment: “Our IHG Green Engage system. It was launched in 2009. The tool is our online sustainability platform. Hoteliers have access to more than 200 solutions.”
Organization’s most significant sustainability-related challenges moving forward: “Things like fuel usage and energy consumption. Another challenge is water consumption.”  

ATLANTA—Late last year, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced that its IHG Green Engage program would be rolled out across the company’s global estate of 4,900 hotels as of January 1, 2015. All properties flying an IHG flag—Holiday Inn, Hotel Indigo, Candlewood Suites, etc.—now have until the end of this year to reach at least Level One within IHG Green Engage. In a franchisor/franchisee relationship, mandates sometimes do not go over well but in this case, says Lindsay Wilkinson, Manager—Environmental Sustainability, Corporate Responsibility for IHG, reception has been widely positive. Helping to oversee the transition to IHG Green Engage is just one of Wilkinson’s many responsibilities within IHG.

Those properties working to achieve Level One must accomplish 10 action items—setting up a green team and tracking utility data are two of the items. “Beyond Level One, hotels can pick and choose what makes sense for them,” Wilkinson says. “We find that hotels that complete Level One get inspired and start doing additional action items.” There are four levels a hotel can reach within IHG Green Engage.

When talking to Wilkinson, almost every conversation leads back to IHG Green Engage. Because utility data related to energy, water and waste is tracked within that system, IHG has been able to more easily set water and carbon reduction goals. With 2012 as the baseline, IHG has set a goal of a 12 percent reduction in carbon footprint per occupied room by 2017. Wilkinson says so far IHG has reduced its carbon footprint by 3 percent. Since 2012 IHG has reduced water use per occupied room in water-stressed areas by 4.2 percent. IHG’s goal is 12 percent by 2017. Last year, more than 21,745 green solutions were implemented through IHG Green Engage.

Response to Drought in California

One of the most recent success stories in water conservation occurred in California. Last year, IHG Green Engage Water Conservation Kits were sent to 230 IHG hotels in that state, including Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo and Holiday Inn hotels. The resources in the Water Conservation Kits included details on how hotels can actively participate in conserving water, with tips on IHG Green Engage Green Solutions to implement, as well as examples of how other hotels have been successful in their water conservation efforts. The kits also included aerators to easily install on water faucets. Wilkinson says 80 percent of the hotels receiving the aerators installed them. This small step alone is expected to save 7 million gallons of water annually. “We are also working on broader bathroom refresh projects in California,” Wilkinson says.

In the area of waste management, IHG has reduced the amount of dry waste per occupied room from 3.78 pounds in 2012 to 2.83 in 2014. Total wet waste per occupied room fell slightly from 2012 to 2014—from 3.13 pounds to 3.05.

As Manager—Environmental Sustainability, Corporate Responsibility, Wilkinson helps sales teams address RFP questions. She also provides guidance on how to form and run successful green teams. She says some of IHG’s properties may only have a dozen employees while others have many more, making green teaming a unique challenge at each hotel.

IHG invests extensively in hotelier training and education and gathers success stories to help hoteliers share best practices. Environmental champions are celebrated in social media and also in the company’s Responsible Business Report.

Focus on Supply Chain Sustainability

Responsible procurement is a key part of IHG’s responsible business strategy. “We have a robust standard code of conduct,” Wilkinson says. IHG, for example, has committed to removing shark fin from its menus and will make another similar announcement soon. By 2017, IHG intends to integrate corporate responsibility criteria into the selection and evaluation process for all preferred suppliers.

Wilkinson, who has a Master of Business Administration from Emory University—Goizueta Business School and a Bachelor of Music in Classical Instrumental Performance from New York University, says that, career-wise, hospitality is what she is most passionate about. A door to her current position opened for her at IHG when she was a management intern.

When asked how she thinks the lodging industry as a whole is faring when it comes to sustainability, she said, “I am really proud of what the industry has done within the franchise constraint.”

Go to InterContinental Hotels Group.

Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.

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