October 5, 2023, Rockville, MD – Avendra, the leading hospitality procurement services provider in North America, announced today it has joined with other industry leaders as a founding member of the Hospitality Alliance for Responsible Procurement (HARP), a collaborative effort whose purpose is to improve sustainability throughout the entire hospitality supply chain.

The Alliance includes major hospitality industry peers, Accor, Hilton, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International, and Radisson Hotel Group and fellow group purchasing organization Entegra. EcoVadis, an independent sustainability ratings agency, will coordinate the efforts of HARP. Suppliers who participate will become part of a shared supplier pool open to all Alliance members.

“Avendra understands that collaboration is critical to success in reaching sustainability goals. Our efforts with HARP help ensure we have a deep and wide pool of hospitality suppliers to meet our clients’ sustainability needs,” Chip McIntyre, Senior Vice President of Strategic Sourcing for Avendra Group, said. “With this initiative, Avendra’s clients now gain one more advantage when working toward their sustainable sourcing strategy including Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and social responsibility, among other sustainability efforts.”

Avendra began utilizing EcoVadis as a third-party sustainability assessment and scorecard tool in May of 2020. The EcoVadis platform provides suppliers with a variety of tools, resources, and recommendations to strengthen their programs on environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. Actions on these issues lead to increased customer confidence, greater risk management, and improved supply chain stability for everyone.

EcoVadis will enhance HARP’s actions to support hospitality suppliers. Engaging hospitality suppliers in a coordinated, collaborative effort will result in greater outreach to accelerate supplier adoption of EcoVadis.

The core mission of HARP is:

• Improving the sustainability performance of suppliers in the hospitality industry

• Enhancing actions to support environmental, human, and economic health and vitality practices over time

For more information about HARP, visit: https://sector.ecovadis.com/the-hospitality-alliance-for-responsible-procurement-initiative-harp/

About Avendra

Avendra is North America’s leading hospitality procurement services provider. Our supply chain management solutions are tailored to our clients’ business strategies and deliver benefits beyond great savings. We combine years of hospitality expertise, purchasing power, services and software to help customers impact the bottom line, improve operational performance, and better serve guests. More than 16,500 customers rely on Avendra as a trusted partner. Avendra is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland and has regional offices throughout North America.