Demonstrating progress on Shangri-La’s sustainability strategy

Shangri-La sought support to engage their stakeholders to verify ESG issues and compliance standards

Challenge

With an aggressive growth and expansion strategy, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, under the Hong Kong listed Shangri-La Asia Limited, has kept its commitment to demonstrating progress in sustainability through ESG reporting over the years. In 2015, it introduced a Responsible Business section in its Annual Report and departed from issuing stand-alone sustainability reports to be more practical, effective and efficient with its disclosures.

This focus shifted efforts to better prepare for the stricter reporting guidelines, such as the GRI Standards which were imminently coming into force. Shangri-La decided that early adoption was going to be a wise decision for building internal readiness and capability.

Solution

TPB was engaged in 2016 to conduct stakeholder engagement and review materiality of ESG issues to ensure better compliance and true referencing of the GRI Standards. Suppliers, corporate clients and a mix of senior leadership from head office and at the hotel levels were interviewed to gauge their impressions on the company’s sustainability performance. Discussions informed not only the report content but where the company could go with even more meaningful activation of its strategy.

TPB has since supported Shangri-La in succeeding reports. The 2017 Responsible Business section covered the ESG performance of 95 hotels.

Impact

Shangri-La has remained the sole constituent in the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Index from the Hotels, Resorts & Cruise Lines sector and listed in the Hang Seng Sustainability Index since 2012. It also continues to disclose to key reporting platforms such as the UN Global Compact, and CDP.