Marriott Reports on Environmental, Social and Governance Progress

Marriott International has released its 2021 Serve 360 Report, which shows the corporation’s progress towards its 2025 Sustainability and Social Impact Goals.

The goals were created with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in mind, working to empower local communities, create more sustainable practices for both associates and guests, as well as foster safe and inclusive working environments and accommodations for all.

The 2021 Serve 260 Report outlines 2020’s impact on these goals. The corporation has been widely recognized for its commitment to being a great workplace for women, people of color and people with disabilities, earning the top score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for the past eight years. It has also been listed on the 2021 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, earned first place on DiversityInc’s 2020 Top 50 Companies for Diversity list, earned a top score on the Disability Equality Index and was named one of America’s Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek.

The report’s goals are split up into four different categories. The Nurture Our World category includes the corporation’s goals of building up the communities in which its hotels are located through volunteerism and other practices. During the pandemic, the corporation did not meet its yearly goal for volunteer hours. However, the corporation became one of the biggest corporate blood donors for the American Red Cross, hosting almost 500 blood drives with over 14,000 units of blood donated.

The second category is the Sustain Responsible Operations, which includes sustainability practices like reducing water and energy consumption, investing in renewable energy, reducing waste and other initiatives.

For now, Marriott’s goal to reduce carbon emissions by thirty percent by 2025 is on track, with a reduction of 32 percent since 2016’s carbon emissions level, in part this year due to the lack of occupancy during the pandemic. Marriott’s goal to invest in 250 adaptive reuse hotel projects, in which it develops a hotel from an existing building or hotel, is ahead of schedule, having opened 184 adaptive reuse hotels since 2016.

Its goal to have all of its hotels certified to a recognized sustainability standard is behind schedule, reporting 32 percent of its portfolio having been certified sustainable. Its other goal, to source 30 percent of its energy consumption from renewable resources, is the least completed goal thus far, the corporation having sourced 0.8 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

The third category is the Empower Through Opportunity category. Marriott has partnered with a wide variety of nonprofits to help empower people from disadvantaged communities, veterans, people of color and disability, individuals from the LGBTQ+ community, refugees and more to become members of Marriott’s workforce.

So far, all of its goals in this category are on track. The corporation aims to invest $35 million to develop hospitality skills in the at-risk and underserved communities by 2025; so far it has invested $8 million since 2016.

Its goal to have its leadership be represented equally in terms of gender has been accelerated to be met in 2023, with 44 percent of its global executives being women. Lastly, its goal to have people of color represent 25 percent of its executives by 2025 is nearly met, with 20.5 percent of executives being people of color at the end of 2020.

Its last goal category, to Welcome All and Advance Human Rights, focuses on issues like recognizing and deterring human trafficking, as well as creating lasting partnerships with nonprofits and adding human rights criteria into construction contracts. So far, each of the corporation’s goals are on track, with 825,000 of its associates having already been trained to recognize and respond to human trafficking and having had 91 contracts contain human rights criteria.

“While we, along with the rest of the world, continue to focus on pandemic response and recovery, we know we also need to be steadfast in our wider commitment to Serve Our World, particularly to reduce our environmental impacts,” said Anthony Capuano, Chief Executive Officer, Marriott International.

“I am proud of what the company was able to achieve during this period and how we have also tackled some of the most challenging issues facing our industry and society. As we make progress on our sustainability and social impact journey, we remain focused on aligning our approach with current climate science and are dedicated to having a positive impact on the communities where we operate,” continued Capuano.

Please click here to read the full report. To learn more about Marriott’s initiatives, please visit Marriott.