This past week the Hospitality Alliance for Responsible Procurement (HARP) was launched. Given the number of properties represented by its first members, expect HARP to have a significant impact on pushing the supplier community toward sustainable, low-carbon practices. HARP members include Marriott International, Accor, Hilton, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Radisson Hotel Group, EcoVadis, and two global hospitality group purchasing organizations, Avendra and Entegra.
According to a statement issued by HARP, it will “work to accelerate sustainable practices by fostering close collaboration with trading partners to build transparency and scale positive impact across their value chains.”
“As companies seek to engage their value chain partners in their sustainability efforts, they realize the complex scope, as well as common challenges, in their own sector,” said Richard Eyram, Chief Customer Officer at EcoVadis. “It is through partnerships and industry-wide collaboration that the hospitality industry can maximize its collective impact. By joining forces, aligning focus, and sharing best practices, HARP members can achieve positive outcomes that pave the way towards Net Zero targets and a more sustainable future for all.”
Starts with a Supplier Assessment
The HARP initiative addresses core challenges faced by its collective supplier sustainability programs including:
- Scaling up visibility by strengthening supplier engagement rate, starting with the supplier assessment.
- Accelerating suppliers’ performance improvement curve.
- Enhancing the relevance of those engagements with a focus on the industry’s key categories.
Who is EcoVadis? According to the company, since its founding in 2007, it has grown to become the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, creating a global network of more than 100,000+ rated companies. The EcoVadis sustainability assessment methodology is at the heart of its Ratings and Scorecards and is an evaluation of how well a company has integrated the principles of Sustainability/CSR into their business and management system. Its methodology is built on international sustainability standards, including the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact, and the ISO 26000, covering 200+ spend categories and 175+ countries. The Sustainability Scorecard illustrates performance across 21 indicators in four themes: Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement.
HARP has chosen to utilize EcoVadis’ proven sustainability rating methodology, scorecards, and improvement platform. The EcoVadis Sector Initiative features are built as an antitrust-compliant network and allow for more efficient supplier onboarding, transparency, as well as collaboration and analytics. Together, these capabilities deliver HARP visibility across the hospitality supply chain’s sustainability performance and allow HARP members to align on the top priorities of their industry. This results in a positive message towards the supplier community and a more coherent direction to enable targeted improvement.
To realize this targeted improvement and meet the requirements of the hospitality industry, HARP member suppliers will have access to additional capacity-building and engagement activities, as well as tools and best practices.
More Than 2,000 Suppliers Rated
Marriott and the seven HARP founding members collectively rated more than 2,000 suppliers upon the initiative’s founding. HARP plans to further expand this number to gain greater insight into the sustainability performance of its supply chain and drive maximum improvement.
What EcoVadis will be doing for HARP is not entirely new to the group. Avendra began utilizing EcoVadis as a third-party sustainability assessment and scorecard tool in May of 2020.
Don’t expect HARP hotel company membership to grow quickly. According to the organization, there will be two open slots per year.
I strongly support this collaborative effort. Many companies in the supplier community have been doing great things for years. This will push those who have been stragglers and consolidate all worthy participants into one list for easy access by HARP members. For those interested in learning more about HARP, there is a form on the HARP site.
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