TUI UK & Ireland – best known for the brands Thomson and First Choice – aims to be at the forefront of finding ways to improve and sustain all the markets and destinations we operate in. Over the past few years, we’ve been delighted to win some of the most sought-after sustainable tourism awards in the UK (please view What others say about us page for details).

Embedding

One of the key strategic goals of TUI UK & Ireland is to be a ‘high performance company’, striving for operational excellence in all we do. Our sustainable development performance is a critical success factor in helping us achieve this goal, and the TUI UK & Ireland Board measures performance against key sustainability indicators monthly. These indicators include carbon emissions measures for our airline and our premises, and customer, supplier and colleague engagement with our sustainability strategy.

Many colleagues in the business have formal sustainable development objectives in support of achieving our strategic goals, and in 2007/08 we assigned additional resource to embed sustainability in our airline, retail and commercial divisions.

Examples of our management’s involvement in sustainability include:

• Public advocacy for a more sustainable tourism industry – TUI UK & Ireland managers presented their views at 10 UK conferences or academic institutions during the 2007/08 financial year
• A focus on sustainable development at TUI UK & Ireland management conferences

Climate Change

Thomson Airways
Thomson Airways was formed from the merger of Thomsonfly and First Choice Airways on 1 November 2008. Because of its impact on climate change, the airline’s sustainability focus is on reducing its fuel consumption. In 2007/08, the airline emitted 75.7g of carbon dioxide per revenue passenger kilometre (CO₂/RPK) – comparing very favourably with other scheduled and low-cost airlines – and saved a total of 34,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide through fuel efficiency activities.

During 2009, Thomson Airways appointed an Airline Environment Manager. In 2009/10, a priority will be to develop and implement an Environmental Management System (EMS) for aircraft maintenance activities, in line with ISO14001. In the longer term, Thomson Airways is scheduled to be the European launch customer for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which promises a reduction in carbon emissions of up to 20% and a 60% noise reduction compared to our existing fleet.

Premises
Our Facilities and IT teams have developed a series of initiatives to address the environmental impacts of our office, retail and call centre premises. For example:

• 231 First Choice shops are on green energy contracts, which equates to 28% of the total energy used by the TUI UK & Ireland retail estate.
• Head offices have invested in energy efficient motion-sensor lighting, improved air conditioning controls and energy efficient hand driers.
• Retail refurbishments have benefited from low energy lighting and air conditioning controls.
• An enhanced recycling programme has been introduced to our retail estate.
• We are implementing an automatic overnight PC shutdown for head office and retail estates, which is expected to save over 2,500 tonnes of carbon per year.
• We have introduced FollowMe printing, where colleagues are required to present their security card at a printer before their work will print, reducing paper waste.
• In June 2008 we launched a car-sharing scheme for colleagues. By June 2009, 295 of them had signed up to use it.
• In 2009, we commissioned experts to conduct carbon audits in key retail, airline and head office locations to identify potential areas where we can make further energy savings.

Destinations

We recognise that we share responsibility with our hosts and suppliers for protecting the environment and supporting local communities in our destinations.

During 2009, our Resort Team Managers were given responsibility for promoting sustainable excursions and hotels, implementing ‘green office’ guidelines in destination offices and ensuring we provide sustainable tourism training to all overseas teams.

Supplier management
In 2007/08, we appointed a Sustainable Product Manager to oversee the implementation of sustainable development principles throughout our supply chain in destinations. We are working with Atlantica Hotels on the development of First Choice’s Holiday Village in Rhodes to ensure that sustainable design and construction considerations are integrated into the new property.

We are actively encouraging all our suppliers to use the Travelife Sustainability System. Our focus in 2008/09 is our top 400 hotels by customer numbers, which together provide accommodation for over 50% of our customers. In 2009, we commissioned an external expert and recruited an environment specialist to work closely with our top 60 hotels, which together provide accommodation for over 20% of our customers. Together, they are undertaking in-depth audits of these hotels’ environmental management and following up on performance improvements.

Sustainable excursions
We want all our customers to be able to experience excursions that have minimal environmental impacts, celebrate authentic local culture and ensure economic benefits are fairly distributed locally. We have distributed guidance to all of our destination offices and will have drafted minimum sustainability criteria for all excursions by the end of Summer 2009.

Flagship resort community programmes
At each of our 10 main 'flagship' resorts worldwide – First Choice's Holiday Villages and Thomson's Sensatori properties – we aim to introduce a project that ensures increased benefit to local communities from our operations. The first project is now well underway in Chumpon, Mexico, where we’re helping a Mayan community preserve their traditional ways by helping finance the production of jams that will be used by our hotels on the Riviera Maya.

Charitable giving
In 2007/08, First Choice Airways raised money through in-flight collections for the Family Holiday Association and local charities in the UK. First Choice resorts held charity days benefiting the NSPCC children’s charity and local charities in the destination. In developing countries, all the money raised went to local charities. During the same period, Thomsonfly raised money for the Born Free Foundation and Thomson resorts held events benefiting Macmillan Cancer Support and local charities.

Charitable giving: TUI UK & Ireland

* Total raised in 2007/08 by TUI Travel PLC
** Total raised in 2007/08 by TUI UK & Ireland
*** Total raised from May 2008 to April 2009 (majority of funds raised before September 2008)

Our People

Our people are key to the success of TUI UK & Ireland’s sustainable development strategy. In order to engage our colleagues, our Internal Communications team provides regular news, newsletters, events and programmes for colleagues based in the UK and overseas.

In October 2008, we carried out a survey of senior managers within the business. The results of our internal survey revealed that 64% of colleagues agreed that "TUI UK acts responsibly on environmental matters" and 38% agreed that "TUI UK acts responsibly in the local communities in which we operate". Our goal for 2008/09 is to increase these results to 70% and 50% respectively.

During 2007/08, a Be Green campaign was launched across head offices, call centres and shops, to encourage colleagues to reduce their use of energy, water and paper, and increase recycling. To support the campaign, in January 2009, all Thomson and First Choice retail shops received an environmental charter outlining key actions our colleagues can take which focused on brochures and printing, energy and waste and recycling.

Project Discovery
TUI UK’s volunteering scheme, Project Discovery, was in its second year in 2007/08. Ten people from Product, Marketing, Health & Safety and Retail visited sustainable tourism projects run by The Travel Foundation in Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Egypt and Brazil. Colleagues used their skills from their everyday roles to contribute to these projects for up to two weeks. In 2008/09, we aim to build on the success of this scheme.

Learning & development
Key departments within TUI UK & Ireland are trained on sustainability issues specific to their roles.

• We have an ongoing programme of training for retail teams on sustainable tourism and how to encourage customers to contribute to the World Care Fund (see below)
• We have run training sessions for customer-facing airline colleagues and for our airline engineers
• Sustainable tourism and child protection guidelines were distributed to overseas managers to train their teams
• In December 2008, we started a new series of face-to-face inductions at head offices which all include a workshop on sustainable tourism. 
• In April 2009, we developed a short film on our sustainable tourism activities for the TUI UK & Ireland Management Conference, and have now shown it to all colleagues

Our Customers

TUI UK & Ireland is committed to involving our customers in sustainable tourism and to making it as easy as possible for them to make more sustainable choices.

World Care Fund
In April 2008, we extended First Choice’s World Care Fund to all TUI UK & Ireland brands for departures from May 2009 onwards. At the point of sale, we ask customers to donate £1 per adult (50p per child) to carbon reduction and sustainable tourism projects overseas, and TUI UK & Ireland matches their contribution in full.

Around a third of customers contributed to the World Care Fund between November 2007 and October 2008, raising £1.7 million together with TUI UK & Ireland’s matched funding. For further information, visit www.firstchoice.co.uk/worldcarefund or www.thomson.co.uk/worldcarefund  

Customer communications
In 2007/08, TUI UK & Ireland extended its sustainable development messages in communications throughout the customer journey, including in brochures, websites, point of sale communications, ticketbooks, in-flight magazine and kids’ clubs activity programmes.

Eco-Traveller
In autumn 2008, eight First Choice shops began a sustainable tourism education trial with 15 local schools. The Eco-Traveller programme, developed with the National Schools Partnership and The Travel Foundation, gives schools access to downloadable activity sheets on environmental issues in the UK and overseas, to complement Key Stage 2 learning for seven- to eleven-year-olds.

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