Hospitality Cos., EcoVadis Launch Sustainability Alliance

Corporate sustainability management company EcoVadis last week launched the Hospitality Alliance for Responsible Procurement, or HARP, with founding members Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International, Radisson Hotel Group, Accor and IHG Hotels & Resorts. The alliance also includes procurement organizations Avendra and Entegra.

HARP acts as a collaborative corporate sustainability initiative to rate hotel suppliers—cleaning product providers, laundry services, food and beverage suppliers and others—using EcoVadis' scorecard ratings to identify providers that will contribute to sustainable procurement practices and eco-friendly operations across the industry.

The company's methodology aligns with sustainability and human rights schema from the United Nations and several other international organizations. The methodology uses seven indicators across 21 sustainability criteria within four themes, including environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. Current sustainability management for each trade partner is scored on a scale of zero to 100 and HARP will provide recommendations and action items for improvement. An organizations' size is considered, and scores are weighted accordingly. 

"Our purpose and mission are to provide reliable ratings and scorecards to guide companies to improve," an EcoVadis spokesperson told BTN. "Rather than a pass/fail or other 'binary' approach, we provide a … platform to guide and accelerate capacity building and improvement." 

Scorecards and recommendations are made visible to member procurement teams who can then "monitor the sustainability performance of their trading partners" and "collaborate on continuous improvement actions," the spokesperson said. 

There will be quarterly reporting to track HARP progress towards objectives set, the company said. 

According to EcoVadis, HARP will make select key performance indicators public on its website to indicate progress. It cited as examples: number of supplier countries covered in the HARP Initiative pool, number of supplier industries covered in the HARP Initiative pool and annual HARP pool growth. 

Hospitality leaders who make up HARP's founding members act as board leaders within the steering committee. This committee then receives perspective member interviews and will meet monthly or quarterly, "depending on the projects in progress," according to EcoVadis.