by Ann Withanee — November 11, 2011—Hilton Worldwide has achieved major strides in its sustainability programs that are being measured under the title of Hilton’s LightStay. Having chalked up impressive gains to date, Hilton Worldwide is in the forefront of making Hilton Worldwide the first major multi-brand hospitality company to make sustainability measurement a brand standard.
A quick glance at a few measures of improvement from its portfolio of ten hotel brands shows that its LightStay efforts are the equivalent to the removal of more than 50,000 cars from the road, water savings that could fill more than 1,000 swimming pools, and energy conservation that could provide power to nearly 20,000 homes a year.
Since the introduction of LightStay, the company continues to improve sustainability and economic performance and has saved more than $74 million in utility costs as a result of the following reductions:
- 6.6 percent reduction of energy use
- 7.8 percent reduction of carbon output
- 19 percent reduction of waste output
- 3.8 percent reduction of water use
In keeping with its accomplishment as the first major multi-brand hospitality company to make sustainability measurement a brand standard, Hilton WorldWide is also committed to making continual improvements to its overall sustainability results each year. All of the more than 3,750 properties are required to use LightStay by this December—a handful of weeks away—bringing the company even closer to its long-term goals.
To further support these efforts, new features were recently built into LightStay to allow hotels to track projects, share best practices and communicate with one another through a “social network” dashboard. Thus far, LightStay has more than 1,200 projects in the system, which is expected to double by next year conserving additional resources.
As a result of these actions, Hilton Worldwide recently earned ISO 14001 certification for Environmental Management Systems, achieving one of the largest ever volume certifications of commercial buildings—with more than 3,750 properties across ten brands and 85 countries. As part of the Hilton Worldwide certification process, DEKRA Certification, Inc. performed a series of audits and will continue ongoing assessments to monitor compliance.
Over the next three years, Hilton Worldwide will continue to invest in its owned assets to improve building performance, illustrating the company’s commitment to both long-term cost and energy savings. Projects will include the installation of energy-efficient chillers, boilers, motors, building automation systems, water reclamation systems, high-efficient windows and white roofs. The Hilton New York, for example, with be installing an onsite cogeneration system, which will offset 54 percent of its electrical needs and 33 percent of its thermal needs.
By 2014, Hilton Worldwide is committed to reducing energy consumption, CO2 emissions and waste output by 20 percent, as well as reduce water consumption by 10 percent from direct operations within the company’s owned hotels and corporate properties.
