Mainstream: Western Europe
Progress report
"We are progressing well with our mainstream businesses on our road of Sustainable Development. Both the roadmap and the dedication of the teams are present. Our smaller businesses have the same responsibility to our environment and future. So we need to get them to the same level of development and engagement. During the coming year this will be a clear point of action’’. Bart Brackx The businesses of TUI Western Europe embrace sustainable development and they are working to embed sustainable development into their business strategies, even though they are all at different stages of their journey. We have set up a network of sustainability champions and we hold an annual conference to discuss strategy and share best practice. Many of our businesses have been working on sustainability for many years, TUI Nederland since 1998 and Nouvelles Frontières since 2004. In early 2010, TUI Nederland published its own Sustainable Development Report. The report is available in Dutch and can be accessed here. Key sustainability highlights
Sustainability awards
For more on awards see What others say Links |
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TUI Nederland published its own Sustainable Development Report in 2011 |
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Carbon Management
Reducing emissions across our airlinesWestern Europe has three airlines: Corsairfly in France, Jetairfly in Belgium and Arkefly in the Netherlands. There has been fleet replacement activity within these three airlines in the last financial year and more scheduled for the 2010/11 financial year, enabling fuel-efficiency improvements and providing better customer experience by taking older aircraft out of service. For example, Jetairfly will add three new Boeing 737-800s to its fleet in 2010/11 and Arkefly has received a Boeing 767-300 during 10/11 which had been retrofitted with winglets giving a boost to fuel economy and therefore fewer carbon emissions. Corsairfly has placed an order with Airbus to purchase two A330-300’s to replace its ageing Boeing 747s – these newer aircraft will offer an improvement of between 10-15% fuel burn per seat. Reducing emissions across our officesReducing paperIn an effort to reduce paper, Jetair cut the quantity of its 2010 Summer brochure print run for the eighth consecutive year, by 3.8%. Savings from several paper reduction initiatives added up to 25,000 Euros which was donated to Doctors without Borders for aid relief in Haiti. Many businesses also use FSC paper for brochures and white office paper, including Aventuria/Tourinter. Green head officeIn September 2010, TUI Nederland started to construct their new head offices in Enschede, which is due to be one of the greenest offices in the country when it opens in August 2011. The office will be built to BREEAMix Excellent certification, a voluntary measurement rating for green buildings. Some of the features will include solar panels, a double insulated roof and utilising heat from the IT data centre to heat the building. Carbon offsettingTUI Nederland offsets the flight and ground transfer related carbon emissions associated with holidays to Robinson Clubs via offset provider ClimateCare. To date 4,800 tonnes of CO2 has been offset through five exclusive TUI Travel renewable energy projects. To read more about these projects click here. |
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TUI Nederland's new offices will be built to BREEAM Excellent certification |
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Destinations
Greening our supply chainTravelife Sustainability SystemTUI Nederland and TUI Belgium support the Travelife Sustainability System. In 2009, TUI Western Europe launched a website for suppliers to encourage support for the system (www.tuigreen.com). The website is available in seven languages and this year they also produced a Travelife flyer for contractors to distribute to hoteliers. More than 75 hotels were Travelife audited in 2009/10 and our Summer 2011 programme featured 195 Travelife awarded hotels. Highlighting greener hotelsIn 2010, TUI Nederland focused on further greening its supply chain. Environmental and social contractual standards for accommodation suppliers have been integrated. Contracts require that hotels register to the Travelife Sustainability System and complete a self assessment. TUI Nederland now offers more than 300 hotels with sustainability certifications in their Summer 2011 programme (hotels which have achieved certifications such as Travelife awards, ISO14001 and the EU Flower eco label), an increase from 24.3% since Summer 2010. New EncountersSince 2008, Nouvelles Frontières has developed a programme called Nouvelles Rencontres (New Encounters). The New Encounters programme includes tours, excursions and activities in the hotel, all designed to give customers the opportunity to meet local people and contribute to the local community. It consists of 68 tours in 34 countries, 30 excursions in 15 countries and 8 hotel activities in 15 countries. Working with stakeholdersNouvelle Frontières is working with CETO (the Association of French Tour Operators), and the French sustainable tourism label ATR (Acting for Responsible Tourism), to expand the current label so that it can be applied not only to specialist tour operators but to mainstream tour operators as well. Destination projectsChild ProtectionTUI Nederland has been committed to child protection for many years. In 2009/10 they began a three-year child protection project in Northeast Brazil, working in collaboration with Plan Nederland and ECPAT Nederland. The project aims to give vulnerable adolescents a good education and help finding a job in the tourism industry – with 240 adolescents to find employment by June 2013. Animal welfareA campaign was launched in late 2010 by TUI Nederland and animal welfare organisation WSPA Netherlands to highlight the poor treatment of elephants in the tourism industry. The campaign aims to make tourists aware of the issues and informs them about alternative elephant friendly excursions. From November 2010, TUI Nederland only offers elephant friendly excursions such as visits to the Elephant Nature Park near Chiang Mai in Thailand. |
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TUI Nederland's and TUI Belgium support the Travelife Sustainability System and produces flyers to distribute to hotels |
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Our Colleagues
Bringing sustainable development to lifeEngaging product managersTUI Nederland’s product managers were encouraged to submit applications for the inaugural internal Green Product Award. These awards gave colleagues the opportunity to promote their best sustainable products but also to encourage more sustainable products to be included in TUI Nederland’s product portfolio. Upon short listing, TUI Nederland colleagues were able to vote for their favourite green product – the winner was the Elephant Hills Jungle Safari in Thailand. Engaging our retail colleaguesIt is important that we engage and educate our retail colleagues on sustainable tourism because they have the opportunity to talk to customers about these issues at the point of sale. In 2009/10, TUI Nederland launched the inaugural internal Green Palm Award for the greenest TUI Nederland’s owned travel agency and the greenest franchise travel agency. The winners took part in a volunteering day at the AAP Foundation Sanctuary for exotic animals. In addition, Holland International, extended their travel agent loyalty programme (Smiles4U) to include green loyalty points for green accommodation bookings. The initiative aims to encourage responsible holiday choices and raise awareness of sustainable tourism among travel agents. For every booking made, the company donates money to one of three charities chosen by the travel agents. |
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Internal Green Product Award - the winner was the Elephant Hills Jungle Safari in Thailand |
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Our Customers
Engaging customers in sustainabilitySupporting reforestationNouvelle Frontières supports a reforestation project in northern Madagascar, with a commitment to planting 15,000 trees. As well as funding a tree for every colleague, the business gives customers the opportunity to buy a tree for 8 Euros. Once the tree has been planted customers receive a certificate and photo with the number and GPS coordinates of the tree and they can follow monthly updates about the project online. Since January 2010, 8,244 trees have been bought by customers. The project also helps encourage local economic activity in the area, such as supporting a cooperative and helping the locals establish links to sell products from the forest, like fruit and essential oils. A Euro for HopeI Viaggi del Turchese supports several charities each year. In 2008/09 the organisation collected 143,000 euro for a project called ‘Euro per la speranza’ (A Euro for Hope). In November 2009 the donations were given to two Egyptian non-profit associations (Misr El-Kheir Foundation and the National Hepatology Medicine & Research Institute) involved in health and local communities' projects. Customer grading systemThe aim of the Our Customer grading system is to make clear to businesses the extent of their communications compared to others in the Group, and to encourage improvement in these efforts. The chart to the right highlights the Mainstream Western Europe grades for 2009/10. To view the Group results click here Grade A - Sustainable development messages are fully integrated into core customer messages Grade B - Sustainable development messages complement and support the core customer messages of the business Grade C - Sustainable development messages are separate from core customer messages |
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Over 8,244 trees have been bought by Nouvelle Frontières’ customers 
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