Marriott Tops Hotel Companies on Climate Counts Scoreboard

The organization ClimateCounts.org recently released its Climate Counts Company Scoreboard. It includes scores for six hotel companies--Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Starwood, Wyndham, and Carlson. The annually updated scorecard reflects the self-reported efforts of companies to address climate change--or avoid it altogether. The Scoreboard is based on a 0 to 100 point scale and 22 criteria are used to determine if companies have measured their climate footprint, reduced their impact on global warming, supported (or suggest intent to block) progressive climate legislation, and publicly disclosed their climate actions clearly and comprehensively.

GreenOrder, a sustainability strategy firm, provided strategic guidance on the Climate Counts program, assisted in the development of the scoring system, and provided insights on the scoring implications.

Leading the hotels sector is Marriott with a score of 62, followed by Starwood with 38, Hyatt with 29, Wyndham with 27, Hilton with 23, and Carlson with 13. Marriott increased its score by 11 points when compared with the previous year, Starwood increased its total by 14, Hyatt increased its score by 16, Wyndham increased its score by two, there was no change in Hilton's score, and Carlson increased its score by one point.

Based on what I know about the companies' environmental initiatives, the scoring does appear to accurately reflect their efforts to address climate change--for the most part. One baffling score: Hilton is given zero out of 22 points for showing no effort to measure its companywide impact on global warming. Yet, Hilton has a very successful internal impact measuring program called LightStay that measures energy and water use and waste and carbon output at Hilton properties around the globe. How could that have been missed?

Be sure to check out the hotels section of the Climate Counts Company Scoreboard and then leave a comment here to let me know what you think.