Sustainability issues cannot be tackled by individual companies acting alone, so we collaborate with various external organisations. In doing so, we benefit from their expertise, share best practice and contribute resources that can go further under these organisations’ management. The main bodies with which we work are listed below. In addition, we support the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the core standards of the International Labour Organization.
Sustainability initiatives
Tourism 2023: Thomas Cook Group is one of a number of travel companies co-funding Forum for the Future’s Tourism 2023 initiative. The project aims to help the UK outbound travel and tourism industry understand the challenges it faces and plan for a sustainable future. Future scenarios have been generated, through which we can explore the impacts that issues such as climate change and population growth will have on how people travel. We were among the first companies to sign up to the Tourism 2023 Vision, by which we pledge to collaboratively create a sustainable UK outbound tourism industry by the year 2023.
United Nations: Thomas Cook Group supports the United Nations’ Nairobi work programme on climate change. Its objective is to assist all parties, in particular developing countries, to improve their understanding of climate change and their vulnerability to it, and to assess practical actions that can be taken to reduce emissions and adapt to the changing climate.
Tourism industry organisations
ABTA: ABTA is the UK’s largest travel association, which merged with the Federation of Tour Operators (see below) in 2008. Thomas Cook Group is an active member and Andrew Cooper, our Director of Governmental and External Affairs, sits on ABTA’s Board. As members of ABTA, our UK subsidiaries trade in accordance with the ABTA Code of Conduct and, via ABTA, provide financial protection for package holidays not covered by the Civil Aviation Authority’s ATOL scheme.
The Federation of Tour Operators (FTO): Thomas Cook Group is an active member of the FTO’s Responsible Tourism Committee. Since 2003, this committee has been developing initiatives to help tour operators to integrate responsible tourism practices into their business. Our particular focus has been on developing a supply chain management system, and we encourage our hotels to allow independent auditing of their sustainability performance.
Futouris: Thomas Cook in Germany is a member of Futouris, a travel industry organisation dedicated to environmental protection and social responsibility, as well as raising awareness of sustainability issues. Futouris is organised under the auspices of Deutscher ReiseVerband (DRV). Thomas Cook sponsored three Futouris projects in 2009, relating to socio-cultural responsibility, environmental protection and diversity.
Sustainable Aviation: Thomas Cook Airlines UK is a signatory to the Sustainable Aviation strategy, an initiative bringing together the leading players in the UK’s aviation industry. Signatories commit to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, nitrogen oxide emissions and aircraft noise by 2020.
The Travel Foundation: Thomas Cook Group is proud to be a founder member of, and major fundraiser for, the Travel Foundation. This UK charity raises awareness of sustainable tourism issues and encourages the travel industry to take action to support destination communities. Andrew Cooper (our Director of Governmental and External Affairs) is a trustee of the Travel Foundation and Ruth Holroyd (our Head of Sustainability) sits on its Activities Committee.
Travelife: Travelife is an initiative of the European Union and the FTO to integrate sustainability principles into the operations of the tour operator sector. It promotes a common approach across travel companies, which includes a sustainability management system, training and supplier auditing. We encourage our hotels to sign up to the Travelife approach and many have been recognised for embracing these practices with Gold, Silver and Bronze Travelife Awards.
Organisations addressing climate change and other environmental issues
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP): CDP is an independent investor-driven organisation that gathers data on carbon emissions from businesses around the world. This data is then used to inform investment and policy decisions. We submitted Thomas Cook Group’s data in 2009 and were included in CDP’s Leadership Index, which highlights the top 10% of FTSE 350 companies in relation to carbon disclosure.
The Carbon Trust: The Carbon Trust is an independent company funded by the UK Government to support the transition to a low carbon economy. Thomas Cook UK has been working with the Carbon Trust to identify opportunities to effectively manage our energy consumption, carbon emissions and operating costs.
The Prince’s May Day Network: In 2007, the Prince of Wales called for businesses to take action on climate change and Thomas Cook Group signed up to become part of the May Day Network. In 2009, the Prince renewed his May Day call and Thomas Cook Group pledged to monitor and reduce our carbon emissions, and to encourage employees to reduce their emissions at home as well as at work.
World Economic Forum: The World Economic Forum is an impartial, international organisation that brings together leaders to improve the state of the world. We sat on its travel and tourism industry working group on climate change and have contributed to the report, ‘Towards a Low Carbon Travel and Tourism Sector’.
Organisations addressing social issues
ECPAT: Standing for ‘End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes’, ECPAT is a global network of organisations and individuals. Thomas Cook Northern Europe supports ECPAT, having signed up to its Code of Conduct in 1999, and Thomas Cook UK is currently working with them to develop training for the tourism industry on how to reduce child sex tourism.
Sail4Cancer: As a provider of sailing holidays, Neilson Active Holidays supports the Sail4Cancer charity in a number of ways. Neilson employees raise donations that enable Sail4Cancer to fund cancer treatment and research, as well as providing cancer patients with the opportunity to enjoy sailing. The company also helps arrange and fund Beachplus holidays for patients and their families, and has worked with Sail4Cancer to help raise awareness of skin cancer across the sailing community. In 2009, Nielson’s resort staff raised £22,800 for Sail4Cancer. In addition, the company contributed £20,028 worth of holidays for 59 people. Since 2005, 368 people whose lives are affected by cancer have been on Neilson holidays through the charity.
Animal welfare organisations
The Born Free Foundation: Dedicated to preventing animal suffering and protecting endangered species, the Born Free Foundation rescues vulnerable animals and campaigns around the world to raise awareness and change cruel practices. Thomas Cook UK supports the Foundation’s Travellers’ Animal Alert initiative and raises awareness of it among customers by featuring it on our website. Through Animal Alert, holidaymakers can report any cases they see of animals being treated poorly. Reports are followed up by Born Free with investigation and positive action.
Government
We make no political donations. We do, however, engage with government departments on issues that affect the tourism industry, including social and environmental policy. In 2009, this engagement included:
Lobbying for the reform of the UK’s Air Passenger Duty (APD). While we support the overall objective of reducing travel-related carbon emissions, we argue that the APD is flawed in that it does not reward the use of higher-efficiency aircraft nor encourage airlines to maximise the number of passengers per flight. It is our opinion that it should be reformed as per aircraft, rather than per passenger, duty. We also contend that the industry more than covers its environmental costs already, and that APD should be withdrawn when legislation to extend the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to aviation is implemented.
Consulting with legislators at both national and EU levels on the ETS and other environmental legislation. Various economic measures have been proposed to reduce emissions and noise from aircraft. Our engagement focuses on finding fair and effective ways to incentivise environmental improvements without creating economic barriers to travel. We believe this would be very damaging on a social level as it would make travel the preserve of the rich and deny income to the world’s poorest countries that depend on tourism.