Key achievements

• TUI Travel is the top-placed travel company, at 16, in The 2008 Good Companies Guide  - The Observer’s annual ethical ranking of  FTSE 350 companies.
• TUI Travel airlines saved 57,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2007/2008, through the Groupwide Fuel Conservation Programme. The savings were made by implementing fuel efficiency measures in engineering, flight planning and management, maintenance and ground operations.
• TUI Central Europe awarded the title of TUI Environmental Champion to 101 hotels worldwide that met strict criteria for environmental protection and sustainable hotel management.
• First Choice Holidays won the inaugural British Travel Award for Most Environmentally Responsible Large Tour Operator in 2007 and retained it in 2008.
• TUI Marine’s flagship yacht base in Tortola (British Virgin Islands) is working to save water, with new laundry water recycling facilities handling 12,000 gallons per day, and a desalination plant which produces 65,000 gallons of fresh water daily.
• TUI UK & Ireland and its customers donated over £2m to the World Care Fund, helping to find more than 50 sustainable tourism projects through The Travel Foundation and funding 250,000 tonnes of Gold Standard carbon offsets through ClimateCare, equivalent to 20% of First Choice Airways' carbon emission.
• YMT Vacations in California switched to an environmentally-friendly bus fleet through MTR Western which was awarded the United Motorcoach Association’s inaugural Green Highways award.
• TUI Deutschland released an online ‘green brochure’ highlighting its commitment to the environment.

Over the past year, sustainable development has been an important part of the business agenda for TUI Travel. We have had an unrivalled opportunity to combine the experience of two leaders in the field and incorporate sustainable development into the values and structure of one of the world's largest leisure travel companies.

Strategy development

Commitment from the most senior level is vital for embedding sustainable development throughout the Group. In the last year we developed a best practice governance structure, strengthened the Group Sustainable Development team and appointed both a Board-level Steering Committee and Sector Coordinators for sustainable development. For more details on the governance of sustainable development see page 39.

This year’s focus has been on developing a Groupwide sustainable development strategy in consultation with Sector Coordinators, senior management and key external stakeholders. We conducted an internal audit of all Group businesses against sustainable development KPIs, and delivered workshops to share and develop best environmental practice in our airlines.

We seek to make sustainable development central to the way we run and manage TUI Travel. In early 2008, we commissioned Forum for the Future to develop a fact base of sustainable development issues – with particular reference to climate change – for consideration by the Managing Directors of all Group businesses when developing their business strategies.

Sustainable development was a key topic at this year’s inaugural Group Management Conference and the inclusion of Responsible Leadership as a Company value this year means that all TUI Travel colleagues are actively considering how these issues affect them. Sustainable development was also included in the senior management leadership programme in Costa Rica.

Engaging with stakeholder groups with an interest in the Group and its activities helps us to develop as a business and to incorporate respect for the environment and people into the way we work. In the financial year, we developed a directory of sustainable development-related stakeholder contacts and consulted key stakeholders on the draft Group sustainable development strategy.

Reporting and communications

In the past year we made two public disclosures of sustainable development progress. TUI Travel completed its first submission to the Carbon Disclosure Project in July 2008 and came second out of 72 companies in the Hospitality, Leisure & Business Services sector. Our Environment & People update was published in September 2008 with independent assurance of our environmental data by Bureau Veritas. Both reports can be downloaded from www.tuitravelplc.com/tuitravel/environment

Members of the Group Sustainable Development team presented at high-profile industry events such as the Toronto Responsible Tourism conference (November 2007), Oxford University’s Climate Change and Tourism conference and the PATA CEO Challenge (both April 2008).

Priorities for 2008/09

TUI Travel’s new Sustainable Development strategy is focused around four themes:

• Climate Change – reducing the Group’s carbon emissions from aviation, cruise ships, ground transport, major premises and exclusive properties 
• Destinations – optimising our holidays’ environmental, economic and social impact through influencing our supply chain and initiating projects in destinations
• Our People – involving and empowering our colleagues in sustainable development
• Our Customers – creating and satisfying customer demand for more sustainable holidays, through customer communications and product innovation

The key priorities and actions for 2008/09 are to complete Sector-specific sustainable development strategies and further embed sustainable development into Group business strategies. Further details of the Group’s Sustainable Development strategy will be communicated in early 2009, when we plan to publish our first full sustainable development report as TUI Travel.