WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—Expanding on its company-wide commitment to conservation and sustainable operations, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. plans to significantly reduce energy and water consumption at every one of its 1,000 hotels within the decade. Starwood is targeting a 30 percent reduction in energy use per available room by 2020; the company will also work toward a 20 percent decrease in water consumption per available room by 2020. The initiative will apply to all of Starwood’s owned, managed, and franchised hotels around the world.
“We don’t see these goals as an obligation, but an opportunity,” said Frits van Paasschen, president and CEO of Starwood. “These targets aren’t just numbers, but an embodiment of our passion for creating positive change in our communities and our world. These efforts make sense operationally and our guests are choosing brands that share their sense of purpose for reducing environmental impact. Meeting and exceeding these expectations of our brands is a critical aspect to the way we see the future and importantly, our future success.”
In 2008, Starwood issued a comprehensive Environmental Sustainability Policy. To guide its associates in moving conservation efforts forward, Starwood also launched an online Sustainability Resource Center last year, including an Environmental Initiative Assessment Survey and Initiative Tracking Tool.
In 2009, Starwood launched a partnership with global environmental nonprofit Conservation International. That partnership led to an environmental strategy addressing priority environmental issues and helped establish these performance targets and underlying actions to reach these goals. These actions build on current hotel-level initiatives to conserve water, reduce energy consumption, enhance indoor environmental quality, and minimize waste. Company-wide, Starwood has implemented sustainable-meetings guidelines at every North America property it operates. Starwood’s Sustainable Meetings Practices will roll out globally in 2011.
Lessons Learned from Element Launch
Element, which Starwood launched in 2008, became the first major hotel brand to mandate that all its properties pursue the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification for high-performance buildings and lessons from that brand are being applied throughout the Starwood portfolio.
A global, cross-discipline team of 30 at Starwood worked alongside Conservation International to establish the company’s environmental goals. To create a sound, data-based foundation for charting its performance and progress, Starwood began collecting data from all of its properties in 2007 and confirmed a baseline in 2008.
“Transparent and measurable environmental goals are a crucial step in a company’s journey toward environmental sustainability,” said Justin Ward, vice president of business practices at Conservation International. “CI is proud to partner with Starwood in their efforts to achieve ambitious targets that will include their significant franchise portfolio and help conserve healthy ecosystems for current and future generations.”
“Starwood’s associates and owners are energized and passionate about the environment and helping our communities,” said Sandy Swider, vice president of global citizenship for Starwood. “With specific and actionable long-term goals to reduce energy and water use, we can focus and motivate our associates to drive even greater positive change.”
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