IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group)

Background

IHG is an international hotel company managing seven highly recognized 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 with more than 4,500 hotels in 100 countries. IHG manages a comprehensive online sustainability system called “Green Engage” which provides hotels with information about conserving resources and saving money. Green Engage was recently endorsed by LEED making IHG the first hotel company to have an existing hotel program endorsement and provides three levels of certification:
Level 1 Certification includes action Items that are relatively simple to implement with good cost benefits and return of investment.
Level 2 Certification is more challenging to achieve. The Level 2 action items will require some capital investment from the hotels. Completing Level 2 Certification enables hotels to pursue LEED certification.
Level 3 Certification is best practice. Hotels that achieve Level 3 are demonstrating a leading and innovative approach to being sustainable.
Green Engage is already driving change across our business. Trials of the system show potential energy savings of up to 25%. If all the hotels in IHG’s 4,400-strong portfolio adopted the system the estimated total savings for hotel owners could be over $300 million. So far over 1,400 hotels have signed up to the system.

IHG’s currently has a company-wide benchmarking initiative that aims to realize energy savings ranging from 6% to 10% in owned and managed properties by 2012. IHG is participating in the Better Buildings Challenge by committing 24 million square feet of hotel space.