Analysis of Langham Hospitality Group Sustainability Report

This report provides a critical evaluation of the sustainability practices of the Langham Hospitality Group. It begins with an executive summary outlining the importance of sustainability reporting for communicating a company's contributions to its stakeholders, including the environment, community, employees, and society. The report then delves into the company background, highlighting its growth and international presence, followed by an overview of its sustainable activities categorized into environmental, community, employee sustainability, and governance. Key initiatives such as the CONNECT program and the adherence to GRI standards are discussed. The report analyzes Langham's responsible business practices, community engagement efforts, and environmental contributions, including energy conservation and water management. The impact of these activities is assessed, emphasizing the company's commitment to stakeholder needs and its alignment with GRI guidelines. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and underscores the importance of Langham Hospitality Group's commitment to sustainability.

Running head: SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING
Sustainability Reporting
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes:

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Executive Summary
Sustainability reports a help in communicating what the company has contributed in terms of
the sustainability of the company, the communities, employees, the consumers and the
society. It is with a sustainability report that a company communicates its core activities,
achievements and plans with the diverse stakeholders associated to the company. Langham
Hospitality Groups is a subsidiary operating under Great Eagle Holdings and has grown
considerably over the past couple of years and currently has 22 hotels in the chain of hotels.
The company has been able to comply with the needs of the diverse stakeholders of the
company as a result of which they have been able to develop sustainable plans for complying
with the needs of the latter. With the help of an initiative known as CONNECT the company
has invested in sustainable activities segregated into environmental sustainability,
community, employee sustainability and governance. Reporting Initiatives or GRI has been
followed by the company and it is a framework that has been provided in the sustainability
guidelines 2016. The paper has highlighted the key sustainable activities carried out by the
Langham Hospitality Groups with a detailed analysis of the sustainability reporting standards.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Sustainability Practices Table....................................................................................................3
Company Background................................................................................................................4
Sustainable activities..................................................................................................................4
Responsible Business and Governance..................................................................................5
Community Sustainability......................................................................................................6
Contribution to the Environment...........................................................................................6
Impact of the Activities..........................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Communicating the motives and activities carried out by a company determines one
of the key activities of a company (Akhmetshin et al., 2018). It is the responsibility of a
company to communicate its core activities, achievements and plans with the diverse
stakeholders associated to the company. Hence, it can be said that it is important for
companies to establish a strong relationship with the consumer community. Mediums such as
sustainability reports a help in communicating what the company has contributed in terms of
the sustainability of the company, the communities, employees, the consumers and the
society as a whole. The paper aims to critically evaluate the scope operations of the Langham
Hospitality group. A brief overview of the background of the company will be followed by
the discussion regarding the core sustainable activities carried out by the company and the
paper will further evaluate the success of the report along with the presentation of the
identified pros and cons of the report.
Sustainability Practices Table
SL. No. Sustainable activity Category / Nature of Practice
1 Corporate ethics Organizational
2 Training and awareness Organizational
3 Risk Management Organizational
4 Employee Rights and Equal Opportunities Organizational
5 Engaged Working Environment Organizational
6 Local Hiring and Diversity Organizational
7 Health Safety and wellness Organizational
8 Taking Initiative Culture Organizational
9 Community Partnership Social

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10 Employee Volunteering Social
11 Community Volunteering Social and Environmental
12 Energy and Greenhouse Gas Environmental
13 Water and Wastes Environmental
14 Global Connect Events Environmental
Company Background
Langham Hospitality Groups is a group of hotels with headquarters in Wanchai, Hong
Kong and is a subsidiary operating under Great Eagle Holdings
(Langhamhospitalitygroup.com, 2020). The company has grown considerable by moving
from serving 3.1 million guests in 2011 and currently serves around 5 million guests a night.
The company operates internationally with 22 hotels across countries such as Hong Kong,
Australia, China, Canada the United Kingdom, Thailand, New Zealand and the United States
of America. With more than 150 years in the luxury or flagship hotels industry, the company
has been the go-to hotels for people across the world. The company is driven by innovation,
quality, genuine services and a vision for development of good relationships for the various
stakeholders associated to the company. The company has been subject to various accolades
and has positioned itself as a niche groups of hotels offering the absolute best.
Sustainable activities
Regardless of the nature of operations an organization is associated to, it can be said
that companies must have the ability to comply with the needs of the diverse stakeholders
associated to the company (Maddaloni & Davis, 2018). Thus, it can be said that the aim of
the companies must carry out activities with the help of which the company is able to

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contribute to the needs of the diverse stakeholders associated to the company. Langham
Hospitality Group has been able to comply with the needs of the diverse stakeholders of the
company as a result of which they have been able to develop sustainable plans for complying
with the needs of the diverse stakeholder groups. The company is committed to sustainability
and it is with the help of which the company would address the needs of its stakeholders and
contribute to the sustainability of the latter as well. The sustainable activities that are carried
out by the company are segregated into sustainable activities Environmental Sustainability,
Community, employee sustainability and governance. Langham Hospitality group is
committed to sustainable activities with the help of a corporate program that is known as
CONNECT.
Responsible Business and Governance
The sustainability furnished by the company describes the commitment of the
company for carrying out business with integrity. Ethics are prioritised by the company and it
is the motive of the company to ensure that they carry out activities in a manner that helps
them in addressing the needs of the diverse internal stakeholders associated of the company.
The company ensures that they contribute to the sustainability of the business partners,
investors and the employees with the activities that helps the company achieve corporate
governance. Activities such as corporate ethics helps the company in carrying out ethical
behaviour while they operate in the industry. Providing best quality services is a key motive
of the company and as a result of the same, the company has invested time, effort and
importance activities that motive the employees to put in their best efforts while they operate
in the industry. Employee engagement is an aspect that determines the nature of relationships
that the employees have with the company (Eldor & Gadot, 2017). Employee engagement is
considered to be the gateway to achievement high performance outcomes from the employees
(Osborne & Hammoud, 2017). Motives such as development of an engaged work

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environment, provision of equal rights and opportunities help in fulfilling the motivational
related needs of the employees (McMullen & Bergman, 2017). The latter are further backed
by activities such Risk management, training and awareness.
Community Sustainability
Langham Hospitality group has been keen enough on contribution to the community
while they operate in the industry. The aim of the company is to contribute to the community
in a form of a CSR activity that they carry out in order to repay to the community that they
operate in. Langham groups has been successful in contributing the community
approximately $348,000 to organisations with charitable notions. Furthermore, it has bene
found that the company has been able to provide approximately 9,650 hours in terms of
community services. Langham Hotel Groups employees comply with the community
engagement policy and by complying with the same, they are able to contribute to the
community not only with donations but also with activities such as volunteering, visits and
sponsorships. There have been various strategic partnerships that have been carried out by the
company with the aim of contributing to the society. Hence, the aim of the company is to
comply with the needs of the community. Support of arts and children, providing support to
the local communities have been some of the key activities on the priority of the company.
Contribution to the Environment
Companies must ensure that they collaborate in order to contribute to the
environment. The company has been able to comply with environmental standards and has
carried out sustainable activities that has resulted in the company wining various accolades
with 7 of the hotels of the company achieving EarthCheck Gold and 1 hotel achieving
EarthCheck Platinum with two other hotels winning EarthCheck Silver and Bronze. The
company has been subject to the above accolades as a result of the high degree of affiliation
of the company towards environmentally sustainable activities that they have been able to

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carry out with the help of the core principles and Global connect Events. Direct and indirect
effects of the operations of the company are controlled and incorporated into the value chain
of the company. Furthermore, the company has been able to gain an upper hand in reduction
of energy consumption and have been able to curtail the amount of greenhouse gases that are
released while the company is tin operations. Langham identified that lack of fresh water is
an issue that needs to be addressed and thus, have taken measures to reduce water wastage.
Impact of the Activities
The sustainability report that has been furnished by Langham Hotels group has
addressed the needs of the diverse stakeholders associated to the company. In order to
achieve corporate governance, companies should be able to recognise and address the needs
of all the stakeholders associated to the company. With the sustainable notions, the company
has addressed the needs of internal stakeholders that is the board, investors, managers and
with special focus on the employees. Moreover, Langham contributed to the external
stakeholders by conservation of the environment and contribution to the community has been
extensively carried out by the Langham. Assimilation of the latter contribute to the
sustainability of the consumer community.
The company has addressed the needs of all the stakeholders associated to the
company as a result of which they have been subject to awards, prises and recognitions. They
company showed emphasis on recognition of the needs of the employees and hence, invested
importance in the same as a result of which they increased the likelihood of engagement of
the employees as that could help in achievement of high-performance outcomes.
Furthermore, the company prioritised in carrying out activities with the help of which they
give back to the community apart from contributing to the issues that help in sustaining the
quality of the environment. The sustainability report has been prepared with the standard
disclosures that comply with Global Reporting Initiatives or GRI. GRI is the framework that

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has been followed by the company and it is a framework that has been provided in the
sustainability guidelines 2016 (Islam, Jain & Thomson, 2016). The report was developed
with the motives of developing a platform for communication of the values of the company
with the diverse stakeholder groups. The performance of the company as a whole has been
successfully communicated to the stakeholders with high levels of clarity and is likely to
bolster the relation of the company with its stakeholders.
Conclusion
On a concluding note, it can be said that Langham Hospitality Groups is a group of
hotels, has complied with the needs of the diverse stakeholders of the company. The
Company have been able to develop sustainable plans for complying with the needs of the
diverse stakeholders. The sustainable activities carried out by the company have been
Developed in accordance with GRI standards and have been segregated into activities such
Environmental Sustainability, Community, employee sustainability and governance.

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REFERENCES
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stakeholder in megaprojects. An empirical investigation in the UK. International
journal of project management, 36(3), 542-565.
Eldor, L., & Vigoda-Gadot, E. (2017). The nature of employee engagement: Rethinking the
employee–organization relationship. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 28(3), 526-552.
Islam, M. A., Jain, A., & Thomson, D. (2016). Does the global reporting initiative influence
sustainability disclosures in Asia-Pacific banks?. Australasian Journal of
Environmental Management, 23(3), 298-313.
Langhamhospitalitygroup.com. (2020). Global Luxury Hotels & Resorts Collections |
Langham Hospitality Group. Retrieved 30 March 2020, from
https://www.langhamhospitalitygroup.com/en/about-us/
McMullen, J. S., & Bergman Jr, B. J. (2017). Social entrepreneurship and the development
paradox of prosocial motivation: A cautionary tale. Strategic Entrepreneurship
Journal, 11(3), 243-270.
Osborne, S., & Hammoud, M. S. (2017). Effective employee engagement in the
workplace. International Journal of Applied Management and Technology, 16(1), 4.