I've blogged quite a bit lately about what our hotels are doing to make Marriott a greener company. Earlier, I told you we are on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by almost one million cubic tons by 2010. But I believe that being green starts at home and our home is our headquarters just outside of Washington, D.C.
Our goal is to have zero net waste from our headquarters building in five years. To start, we've eliminated plastic utensils and Styrofoam . . .
Recently, Marriott won the World Savers award from Conde Nast Traveler for its culture of service and social responsibility. This was a great honor, and I've accepted some awards before, but World Savers is certainly the most impressive. It sounds like an award you'd give to Mother Teresa.
But seriously, our Marriott associates do save the world in small ways every day. For example, through our Youth Career Initiative program, they train disadvantaged youths to . . .
It's Environmental Awareness Month at Marriott, so I want to pick up our discussion on the environment. Judging from some of the comments you've sent, there's a lot of interest in global warming. Many of you challenged me on whether our company's efforts were strong enough and that's really great. That's why I started my blog --
because I want to hear from you.
What you had to say mirrors consumer trends, especially in travel. People want to do business with companies that do the right thing. I think conserving natural resources and reducing Marriott's environmental footprint is the right thing to do. I told you about how . . .
I want to keep talking about the environment because it's very much on the minds of people here at Marriott and around the world. Global warming has been getting so much attention recently, especially with former Vice President Al Gore's documentary - An Inconvenient Truth - winning an Oscar. I'm a movie buff and I saw the film and thought it was very sobering.
At Marriott, we've been working hard to conserve energy and water since the early 1980s. Now we know that also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. . .
I just returned from a General Managers' conference at the San Francisco Marriott. The associates at that hotel are serving as role models for our company's efforts to conserve natural resources and recycle waste. Becoming a better environmental steward is increasingly at the core of what we do. And I think it makes good business sense too.
Our 1,500 room San Francisco hotel launched a huge recycling effort just a few years ago. Today, it recycles about a million pounds of paper and cardboard every year. I was told that if all the paper and cardboard were stacked up, it would be ten times higher than the 39 story hotel. Our associates also recycle. . .
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