Exemplary Sustainability at Hilton WorldWide

As we’ve seen, many companies within the hotel industry change their hotels to be sustainable because of the appeal to the consumer, and while Hilton is one of these companies they also do so much more to better sustainability across the globe. Now that it is more or less cost efficient for hotels to spend the extra money to become sustainable it is hard to distinguish the hotels that are making the switch to make money and those that are making the switch because they genuinely care about the well being of the planet.

Hilton goes above and beyond the expectations of a “sustainable hotel”by trying to improve global sustainability for a selfless cause. In the beginning of 2014 Hilton Worldwide partnered up with Sundance Institute to create the Hilton LightStay Sustainability Award. This award is one that promotes the spread of knowledge (similar to this blog) by recognizing exceptional documentary films which divulge into the issues surrounding sustainability. The four documentaries that were chosen to receive this award this year were The Island President, Easy Like Water, Solar Mamas, and From the Mara. Each documentary explored climate change and the effects in third world countries. By getting promotional marketing from Hilton’s award more and more people are watching these documentaries and becoming educated about the topic.

 

Below is the video of Hilton’s LightStay Sustainability Award that explains how the award causes the spread of knowledge.

 

Before the expansion into global #sustainability like the LightStay Award, Hilton had a concrete formula for change within the company that allowed them to continuously improve. In the Flow Chart below, Hilton WorldWide shows how they envision sustainability reaching its full potential across the #hospitality industry. Within each hotel, it is important do more than just try to make improvements. Once the sustainable changes have been made to the hotel it is imperative to measure their success, follow up with a #CSR report, and most importantly learn from what went well and what didn’t. Using these means of improvement is how Hilton achieved exemplary sustainability and I believe that other chains would do well do learn from Hilton example.

 

Such a selfless drive for sustainability is the goal across the hotel industry but in reality there is no definite end goal. Hotel consumers and Hotel chains need to work with and off each other to keep #change continuous. Spreading change and knowledge of sustainability is the only way that the hospitality industry will have a key, long lasting effect on sustainability world wide.

Consumer’s Have More Power Than They Think

So we have explored the ways that different hotels have already started taking the initiative to become sustainable, but now we need to ask ourselves why this is important and moreover how as hotel  goers can we act as a catalyst for change? The mission of this blog was to give readers insight into sustainability in the hospitality industry; however, one key take away is understanding how much power you, the hotel user, has.

While sustainability in all companies is important because of the positive effects it has on the world, it is more important for business in the hospitality industry because it adds value to the business as a whole. Customers are knowingly seeking out business that are sustainable because they want their consuming to be beneficial in the big picture. Enough drive for sustainability from the hotel consumers will yield more and more hotels finding it cost effective to be completely sutainable.

There are several different ways that sustainability adds value to hotels more than other businesses which is why CSR in the hospitality industry is so important. One major way that CSR is value adding in hotels more than other business is that hotels require a large amount of fixed costs i.e. gas and electric, water, and land. By making these features pull from sustainable sources like solar panels, it will reduce the fixed costs of the hotel in the long run. Yes, the upfront cost of installation will be more; however, hotels are long-lasting entities and using sustainable features is cost efficient in the long run.

Below is a flow chart to illustrate how consumers drive change:

 

How do we know that our impact as consumers haven’t already caused sustainable change throughout all hotels? The following is just one example of how uneducated consumers actually forced a hotel to be unsustainable in order to conduct business:

The Hilton Hotel in San Francisco, CA installed a self-regulating air temperature system which negated the need for an A.C. system in the room, but people simply would not rent a room without an A.C. system in the so they had to install an unnecessary one in each room. This was not only an extraneous cost, but it reduced the sustainable motivation that the Hilton had because of consumer demands.

Here’s another Hilton branch in the Bay Area that has learned from this incident as is trying to adapt.

Coming full circle we see that the consumers drive change. You create the value in sustainability and the value in sustainability is in the eyes of the consumers which is why it is continuously crucial for hotel users to be educated in their power in creating sustainable hotels.

 

Check out this short video about how consumers will pay more for sustainable goods and services:

Sources:

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/07/12/carbon-cabbage-rolls-hilton-measures-sustainability

http://cr.hiltonworldwide.com/sustainably/sustainability_lightStay.html

http://www.concordhilton.com/sustainability/

 

Breaking Down Sustainability — Hilton WorldWide

Hilton WorldWide is a powerhouse in the hospitality industry with over 4,000 hotels in 91 countries and while their profitability has been stable for decades, they have more recently broken down sustainability into sections in order to conquer what they believe to be the most pressing pillars. Hilton understands that while profitability is important for the stock holders, their corporate social responsibility needs to be as in touch with the community around them and affect the world in a positive way. It’s their new “Living Sustainably” mantra that attempts to combine guest satisfaction with positive, worldly influence by slicing and dicing sustainability into sections. Now let’s take a look at how Hilton has used sectioning to their advantage.

“Sustainability is simply good business. Since Hilton Worldwide brands touch thousands of communities and millions of people every day, it’s important for us to lead our industry with sustainable practices that deliver great guest experiences and protect the world in which we live.”           —    Hilton WorldWide

This company’s sustainability initiative starts with the categorizing of different components into sections. Hilton has created the following sections to continuously work on and improve throughout all of their hotels: LightstayTM, Energy, Carbon, Waste, Water, Supply Chain, Engagement and Awareness. By breaking down sustainability into subsections, Hilton can more easily delegate goals and tasks which can make them much easier to achieve. They create goals that match their customers specific needs which allows them to use task-forces to reach these goals more efficiently.

Hilton focuses on ways that they can be more sustainable in electricity in the LightstayTM and energy sections by coming up with ideas such as installing a master light switch in each room so the guest can just switch one light-switch off when they leave to turn off all electricity—a very imaginative idea. They then concentrate on their emissions in the carbon and waste sections. By instituting a bike to work and a compost program they are doing their part to lower emissions.  Lastly, they continually work on their internal operations with the supply chain and engagement and awareness sections. While this is more open ended, their is a great deal of improvement happening here as well.

Breaking down sustainability into sections made it easier for Hilton WorldWide to focus their energy and create specific tasks to meet their sustainable goals.

Take a look at Hilton’s “Living Sustainably” plan.

Also stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter to find out more about sustainability in the hospitality industry.

—Sam