IHG Wins National Business Travel Association Award for Corporate Responsibility

IHG, the world's largest hotel company by number of rooms, has been awarded the Travel Supplier Award by The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) at their first Green Travel Summit in California, USA.  The NBTA, who represent corporate travel managers and travel service providers, recognised IHG's commitment to improving local communities and reducing the environmental impact of their hotels through a number of initiatives including:

• Green Engage:  IHG have undertaken extensive research to understand what being a green hotel means.  To enable hotels to achieve this status IHG have developed a new on-line system to help hotel general managers manage their energy, water and waste consumption more effectively.  Early trials have shown potential energy savings of up to 25% and it's estimated that savings for hotel owners across the IHG estate could be as much as $200 million (£140 million) in the first year.

• Innovation Hotel:  In 2008 IHG launched Innovation Hotel, an online showcase of what a green hotel might look like in the future. Guests give feed back on the elements they see as most important and IHG then consider how they can be implemented as part of the Green Engage programme.

• Corporate Responsibility (CR) Report: IHG's Corporate Responsibility strategy goes beyond meeting government regulations and is focused on creating value for the business and guests. IHG's extensive online report details the company's approach to CR and the actions it is taking to deliver that strategy.

David Jerome, IHG's Senior Vice President for Corporate Responsibility said "IHG's philosophy is to innovate to find new solutions to the environmental, social and economic effects of the travel industry.  And our people demonstrate this everyday.  

When our guests book a place to stay they now take into account a hotel's environmental credentials, alongside location and price, so we're always looking for ways to stay ahead and deliver what our guests are asking for.  We're delighted that the team's achievements have been recognised by the NBTA as making a real difference to business travellers around the world." 

For more information about corporate responsibility at IHG, visit:  www.ihg.com/responsibility and www.ihg.com/innovation

IHG Press Office:                             

Emma Corcoran
Communications Director
+44 (0) 1895 512275
[email protected]          

Notes to Editors:

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms. IHG owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, more than 4,150 hotels and almost 620,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognised and respected hotel brands including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites® and Candlewood Suites®, and also manages the world’s largest hotel loyalty programme, Priority Club® Rewards with 42 million members worldwide.

IHG has more than 1,700 hotels in its development pipeline, which will create 200,000 jobs worldwide over the next few years.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group’s holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.

IHG offers information and online reservations for all its hotel brands at www.ihg.com and information for the Priority Club Rewards programme at www.priorityclub.com. For the latest news from IHG, visit our online Press Office at www.ihg.com/media

About NBTA

The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is the world's premier business travel and corporate meetings organization. NBTA and its regional affiliates - NBTA Asia Pacific, the Brazilian Business Travel Association (ABGEV), NBTA Canada, NBTA Mexico, and NBTA USA - serve a network of more than 15,000 business travel professionals around the globe with industry-leading events, networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. NBTA members, numbering more than 4,000 in 30 nations, are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers. They collectively manage and direct more than US$200 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually on behalf of more than 10 million business travelers within their organizations. For more information, visit http://www.nbta.org/