WASHINGTON, D.C.—Washington D.C.’s Willard InterContinental Hotel, a leader in sustainable hospitality, has released its second Sustainability Report. The new report, summarizing its 2008 activities, follows Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC). The report highlights the results of the hotel’s strategy based on the “triple bottom line” of economic prosperity, social responsibility and environmental protection.
The report examines the Willard’s environmental and social performance against the previous year’s report of the hotel’s sustainable development initiatives which began in 2005 as “Willard InterContinental, The Next 100 Years.” The new report also benchmarks against the hotel’s first Sustainable Development (SD) Report for 2007, published in 2008 according to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. The Willard’s SD achievements in 2008 over the prior year include an 82 percent increase in recycling, 33 percent increase in composting and a 27 percent reduction in landfill waste reduction, among others.
The GSTC was recently launched by the United Nations Foundation, United Nations Environmental Program, U.N. World Tourism Organization, and the Rainforest Alliance. EnviRelation, which produced the report, provides service to those in the hospitality industry interested in helping to manage their relationship with the environment—from waste management to data collection and reporting.
Commitment to Sustainable Hospitality
“The Willard enjoys an incredible legacy which is summarized in its vision as ‘America’s Hotel’— stemming from its location between the two most powerful political institutions of the world—the White House and the U.S. Congress,” explains Hervé Houdré, the hotel’s general manager. “We believe that we have an obligation to our industry and our world to show the way through sustainable hospitality by ensuring that the legacy of our property remains strong in the years to come.”
“The Willard’s Sustainability Report represents another important step in furthering the encouragement of hotel Sustainable Development reporting through accepted metrics and frameworks,” said Walker Lunn, EnviRelation’s founder and manager.
The Willard’s 2008 environmental program achievements include: 100 percent wind energy to power the hotel; a decrease in electricity consumption by 12 percent; helped build two water wells in South Africa and South Dakota thanks to towel/sheet reuse; green chemicals for in-house laundry; 100 percent removal of toxic dry cleaning chemicals; hotel-wide usage of 30 percent recycled paper; composted 37 tons of food waste; recycled more than 190 tons of waste; decreased landfill waste from 870 tons to 635 tons; and 100 percent elimination of oil-based paints. The hotel now offers guests a “Going Green” guide in partnership with Xerox, offered online at the hotel’s website, or on recycled paper.
The 2008 report is available online along with detailed information on the Willard’s sustainability initiatives at www.willarddc.com/sd or through EnviRelation’s website, www.envirelation.com.
