UK’s ‘greenest’ hotel company named

Marriott International has been named the ‘greenest’ hotel company in the UK, retaining its top 10 position in The Sunday Times 60 Best Green Companies in Britain list..

Marriott, which was ranked ninth on the list, was the only hotel company in Britain to make it into the top 10.

The hotel chain also won the ‘Best Employee Environmental Engagement’ for the second year running.

Marriott said its global environmental goals included working towards the ‘greening’ of its supply chain, further reducing energy and water consumption by 25% per available room by 2017, creating green construction standards for hotel developers, educating employees and guests to support the environment and investing in innovative conservation initiatives including rainforest protection and water conservation. 

“This is a tremendous achievement as we strive to create a sustainable environment for both our guests and associates," said president and managing director Europe Amy McPherson. "I congratulate each of our hotels in the UK for their continued innovation and remarkable efforts to do business in an environmentally responsible
manner and thank them for helping us to progress toward our goals.” 

The hotel group topped the category of ‘Best for Employee Environmental Engagement’ through an ongoing programme of employee activities, offering Marriott associates the opportunity to give back to their local communities through clean-up and regeneration projects around the country, it said.

Associates also participate in environmental training and are actively encouraged to contribute their own energy saving ideas and participate in programmes such as Cycle2Work.

Despite experiencing one of the coldest winters on record, Marriott’s 58 hotels in the UK still able to achieve a reduction of 3% in carbon emissions in 2010 and 2011 and the effective implementation of recycling schemes has enabled a significant number of hotels to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill to zero.

In addition, Marriott hotel guests can participate in Marriott’s environmental practices by reusing bathroom towels during their stay, turning the lights off when leaving their room and recycling. Also, guests who wish to support rainforest preservation or offset their hotel have the opportunity to make a donation via their hotel bill to Marriott’s conservation project in the Juma Reserve, Amazonas, Brazil, to preserve 1.4 million acres of rainforest.

By Linsey McNeill