Thomas Cook Group plc

In this section, you can read about how we performed against our sustainability targets for 2009, as well as our priorities for 2010. Our performance data are included in the relevant Our impacts sections.

In producing this report, we referred to the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. This is an internationally recognised standard for sustainability reporting that stipulates indicators for organisations to include in their reports. Our GRI index provides links to the relevant information for those indicators we are currently able to report against. This report meets Level B requirements.

Reporting boundaries

Unless otherwise specified, data included in this report relate to our financial years, which run from 1 October to 30 September. Where we talk about 2009, therefore, we mean 1 October 2008 to 30 September 2009.

We report annually and our last report was published in January of 2009, covering the financial year 1 October 2007 to 30 September 2008. This report is not independently assured, although the GRI has checked the application level.

We are in the process of establishing Group-wide sustainability and data systems. This report therefore covers those parts of the business for which we were able to gather information: this varies for each data set, so we have included notes with our data to explain which parts of the business are excluded. Joint ventures (see pages 113-115 of our Annual Report and Accounts 2009) are not included in the data. Thomas Cook UK & Ireland features more prominently than other parts of the business partly because it employs over half our staff and partly because the Thomas Cook Group is a UK-listed company. We are aware that there is potential for underreporting of our environmental performance data. This is due to the recent merger, the complexity of our business model, our worldwide activities and the fact that we are still in the process of establishing a Group-wide data management system for environmental reporting.

The following changes to our business structure have taken place in 2009:

• In the UK, we acquired Med Hotels, an online hotel booking site.
• Airtrack, a sports travel business, was also acquired in the UK.
• In Continental Europe, we acquired the remaining 24.9% stake in Condor, making it a wholly owned subsidiary.
• In France, we acquired Wasteels, a distribution business.
• We disposed of our 19.99% share in Cyprus-based Aqua Sol Hotels.