Travers Smith, in partnership with the Energy & Environment Alliance (EEA) to launch its ESG timeline for the hospitality industry. The ESG agenda presents enormous challenges and opportunities for the hospitality sector. Investors face a raft of new market disclosure obligations, developers must respond to rapid changes in building standards and hotel owners and operators must balance increasingly stringent requirements on energy use, carbon reporting and workforce diversity, as well as guests with ever-higher expectations of ethical performance.

To help businesses meet these challenges, the EEA, pioneering ESG thought-leadership within the hospitality sector, has partnered with law firm Travers Smith to produce a timeline of anticipated ESG-related developments across the UK and the EU in the coming years, specifically targeted at businesses involved in the sector. The ESG timeline will be made freely available to the industry and is designed to help businesses horizon-scan for regulatory and legislative developments that will affect them across a broad spectrum of ESG topics, including sustainable finance, environment, sustainable real estate development, ethical workplace and wider ethical business issues. As well as helping identify future legal developments, the timeline also records developments which have taken place in the past two years.

Travers Smith has a market-leading reputation for ESG advice, with a thriving cross-practice ESG Group which now includes 15 partners and more than 50 lawyers from across the firm, complemented by its expertise in the hospitality sector. The firm, which is a member of the Legal Committee of the EEA, has produced a collection of articles, podcasts and videos on ESG topics, which can all be found on its dedicated ESG site .

The EEA, founded by Ufi Ibrahim, is a not-for-profit coalition of hospitality sector leaders working with renowned experts to achieve an exciting new vision of the world – one which is green, sustainable, and where everybody can prosper. This vision is one that consumers are increasingly demanding; it is one that investors are backing; and it is one for which governments worldwide are legislating.

Ben Chivers, partner in the Commercial, IP & Technology department at Travers Smith commented: “We are delighted to be partnering with the EEA on this ESG timeline. The ever-evolving ESG agenda is of crucial importance to our clients operating in the hospitality sector and beyond, and we hope that this resource will go some way to help all those involved in the sector, be they developers, owners, operators, investors or other players, keep on top of developments and take advantage of the opportunities presented in this area.”   

Ufi Ibrahim, founder and CEO of the Energy & Environment Alliance commented: “The EEA is delighted to have partnered with Travers Smith on the development of this much needed ESG regulatory timeline for the hospitality industry. As governments, led by European Union and United Kingdom, accelerate legislation toward achieving national decarbonisation commitments, our ESG regulatory timeline will become increasingly invaluable as a tool to help investors and businesses mitigate ever-increasing compliance risk.”