What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2016-2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Report Wyndham Worldwide identified a range of material issues, such as business ethics and compliance, long-term economic trends/issues, data privacy/cyber security, labour standards. Among these, optimising water use stands out as a key material issue for Wyndham Worldwide.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The organization should identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Wyndham Worldwide engages with:   

Stakeholder Group

Associates

Shareholders

Suppliers

Communities

Customers

Global partnerships

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics, Wyndham Worldwide conducted surveys and follow-up interviews with more than 50 stakeholders. Wyndham Worldwide also carried out a survey with a sample representation of its stakeholders, to develop its materiality matrix.

What actions were taken by Wyndham Worldwide to optimise water use?

In its 2016-2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Report Wyndham Worldwide reports that it took the following actions for optimising water use:

• Promoting water conservation
• Wyndham Worldwide locations in all business units globally, including franchise locations, are encouraged to use low flow showerheads, faucet aerators and consider other conservation programmes, including low flow toilets, urinals and minimising water loss due to poor landscaping management practices. On a quarterly basis, Wyndham Worldwide’s properties purchase over 9,000 efficient fixtures through the company’s Strategic Sourcing website. Those fixtures, save approximately 40 million gallons over the life of products. Additionally, Wyndham Worldwide has developed a series of programmes and engagement initiatives with its guests, suppliers and franchisees to support its water conservation plan. Guest sustainability programmes, in particular, are a priority. By participating in Wyndham Worldwide’s towel and linen re-use programme at its hotels, guests can choose not to have their linens and towels laundered every day, reducing both water and energy consumption. Wyndham Worldwide calculates that this programme saves more than 300 million gallons of water, on a yearly basis.

• Assessing water risks
• Wyndham Worldwide has assessed its water risk from owned, managed and leased properties in its portfolio using the World Resource Institute’s Aqueduct tool and the World Wildlife Fund’s Water Risk Filter. Based on the location of its properties, Wyndham Worldwide considered a series of risks which included water scarcity, water stress, flood occurrence, pollution and overall water risk, across thousands of properties in its portfolio. Based on the findings of Wyndham Worldwide’s water assessment, 26 properties in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Thailand and Singapore were prioritised due to overall water risk and/or degree of water scarcity. The results of the water risk assessment were presented to Wyndham Green Council, in order to develop targeted programmes to address communities and properties with the greatest exposure to water risks.

• Recycling and reusing water
• At Wyndham Vacation Resorts Seven Mile Beach Club in Australia, Wyndham Worldwide implements several programmes to help save water, through recycle and reuse. The property harvests 23,650 litres of rain water and uses it for laundry, when available. The water supplies two washing machines and two laundry troughs. In addition, the property treats all onsite sewage and grey water from its apartments and other infrastructure and recycles it into irrigation water that feeds into an underground drip system below resort lawns. The above ground irrigation is supplied via a water storage dam, which saves approximately 100,000 litres of water per week.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:

1) Disclosure 303-1 Water withdrawal by source

2) Disclosure 303-2 Water sources significantly affected by withdrawal of water

 

Disclosure 303-1 Water withdrawal by source corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
• Business theme: Sustainable water withdrawals

Disclosure 303-2 Water sources significantly affected by withdrawal of water corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
• Business theme: Sustainable water withdrawals

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

7 GRI sustainability disclosures get you started

Any size business can start taking sustainability action

GRI, ISEP, CPD Certified Sustainability courses (2-5 days): Live Online or Classroom  (venue: London School of Economics)

• Exclusive FBRH template to begin reporting from day one
• Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and People
• Formulate in group exercises your plan for action. Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP. 
• Benchmarking methodology to set you on a path of continuous improvement

See upcoming training dates.

 

References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Wyndham Worldwide, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning.  If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page

3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

4) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

Note to Wyndham Worldwide: With each case study we send out an email requesting a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2016-2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Report Wyndham Worldwide identified a range of material issues, such as long-term economic trends/issues, environmental management, data privacy/cyber security, labor standards, occupational health and safety. Among these, promoting ethical business behaviour stands out as a key material issue for Wyndham Worldwide.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The organization should identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Wyndham Worldwide engages with:   

Stakeholder Group

Associates

Shareholders

Suppliers

Communities

Customers

Global partnerships

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritize material issues Wyndham Worldwide carried out surveys and follow-up interviews with over 50 stakeholders, including a survey with a sample representation of stakeholders to develop its materiality matrix.

What actions were taken by Wyndham Worldwide to promote ethical business behaviour?

In its 2016-2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Report Wyndham Worldwide reports that it took the following actions for promoting ethical business behaviour:

• Promoting ethical conduct through the Business Principles
• Wyndham Worldwide’s Business Principles (the company’s Code of Conduct and Ethics) provide guidance to employees on ethical issues, while promoting a lawful and ethical business environment. The Business Principles lay down policies and processes regarding issues such as Associate Responsibilities, Workplace Violence, Protecting Our Information, Records and Systems, Antitrust, Intellectual Property. In addition, Wyndham Worldwide provides training to support its Ethics and Compliance programs, in a variety of formats.

• Protecting human rights
• In 2007, Wyndham Worldwide’s Board of Directors adopted a Human Rights Policy Statement. Additionally, Wyndham Worldwide supports the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and endorses the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect, and Remedy” Framework. Wyndham Worldwide is also a member of the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) and has supported the establishment of ITP’s working group on combating human trafficking.

• Combating child exploitation
• Wyndham Worldwide does not use child labor and has also signed the Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct (The Code). The Code focuses explicitly on protecting children from sexual exploitation in the travel and tourism industries and commits Wyndham Worldwide to strengthen its anti-child trafficking policies and provide training to help employees identify and report possible trafficking activities. Moreover, Wyndham Worldwide supports the Polaris Project, an organization that combats all forms of human trafficking and provides, with Polaris, continuous training to its hotels.

Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?

The GRI indicators/Standards addressed in this case are:

1) G4-15: List externally developed economic, environmental and social charters, principles, or other initiatives to which the organization subscribes or which it endorses – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 102-12 External initiatives

2) G4-56: Describe the organization’s values, principles, standards and norms of behavior such as codes of conduct and codes of ethics – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 102-16 Values, principles, standards, and norms of behavior

3) G4-SO4: Communication and training on anti-corruption policies and procedures – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

7 GRI sustainability disclosures get you started

Any size business can start taking sustainability action

GRI, ISEP, CPD Certified Sustainability courses (2-5 days): Live Online or Classroom  (venue: London School of Economics)

• Exclusive FBRH template to begin reporting from day one
• Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and People
• Formulate in group exercises your plan for action. Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP. 
• Benchmarking methodology to set you on a path of continuous improvement

See upcoming training dates.

 

References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Wyndham Worldwide, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning.  If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page

3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

4) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

Note to Wyndham Worldwide: With each case study we send out an email requesting a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.