In celebration of Earth Day today, a host of companies have announced eco-initiatives and sustainability targets. These include:
InterContinental Hotels Group announced progress made with its online environmental management tool IHG Green Engage, which helps more than 2,300 IHG hotels reduce energy, water and waste consumption. The group exceeded its three-year target (2010-2012) to reduce energy per available room by between 6-10 percent in managed and owned estate with a reduction of 11.7 percent, against a 2009 baseline. It also reduced carbon footprint in owned and managed hotels by 19 percent per occupied room in 2011, compared to 2010, and reduced purchased water per occupied room by 11 percent, compared to 2009.
Haggar Clothing has upcycled more than 80 million post-consumer plastic bottles through its eco-friendly apparel line, e-clo, which includes the LK Life Khaki brand. These pants contain a blend of cotton and Repreve, which is made from recycled materials, including post-consumer plastic bottles.
Dell is piloting a team member garden and sustainable living facility on its global headquarters campus. The Dell Eco-Learning Center will highlight sustainable landscaping and food cultivation including gardening beds to demonstrate concepts such as using native flowers for landscaping, growing seasonal herbs and vegetables and composting. It will feature sustainable horticulture methods such as drip irrigation and organic pest control.
MGM Resorts International launched a corporate social responsibility website today. Over the past five years, MGM Resorts has achieved a total savings of more than 300 million kWh of electricity, 500,000 MMBtu of natural gas and 1.9 billion gallons of water; and increased its recycling rate by more than 420 percent. Additionally, MGM Resorts’ properties have achieved six LEED Gold certifications.
Storage and Information management firm Iron Mountain pledged today to cut its absolute GHG emissions across North America and the UK 5 percent below 2012 levels by the end of 2014. Achieving the goal will require the company to eliminate approximately 13,500 metric tons of absolute GHG relative to its carbon footprint in 2012. To do so, Iron Mountain and real estate partner CBRE are upgrading lighting systems in facilities across the United States and Canada with high-efficiency T8 lamps. The project is expected to yield an annual energy savings of about $2 million. The company is also taking steps — including installing telematics technology in vehicles — to improve the fuel economy of its truck fleet.
Delta Air Lines is celebrating Earth Month by matching up to $25,000 of carbon offset contributions made by customers during April in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. Delta’s year-round carbon offset program allows customers to purchase and retire carbon offsets on delta.com to reduce CO2 associated with their travel. Proceeds benefit The Nature Conservancy's Rio Bravo Project, which conserves tropical forest and wildlife habitat in northern Belize. In the last 12 months, Delta and Delta customers have purchased 4,472 metric tons of carbon offsets, the company says.
Office Depot announced the results of its latest Earth Day-focused Small Business Index indicating that small businesses are motivated to go green by concern for the environment (76 percent), saving money (49 percent) and employee encouragement and participation (20 percent). The survey of more than 1,000 small business owners found that more than one-third of those surveyed (36 percent) would pay a higher initial cost for greener office products if they would generate long-term savings. Eighty-four percent say they would purchase the “green” office product over the comparable regular office product if the two were equally priced.
Bon Appétit Management Company today turns its 500-plus cafés into culinary classrooms addressing food choices and climate change with invited corporate guests from across the US, from eBay to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bon Appétit commissioned a review of more than four dozen scientific papers projecting how crops such as corn, wheat, rice, fruit, dairy and coffee will fare in a changing climate. Earlier thaws, later frosts and higher-than-average temperatures, droughts and new pests and weeds are already affecting these foods. Along with its Low Carbon Diet Tips, which include “You Bought It, You Eat It - Don’t Waste Food” and “Moooove Away From Beef and Cheese,” Bon Appétit has reduced its own purchases of beef by 33 percent and cheese by 10 percent since 2008.
Last year, Coke, Pepsi, Whole Foods, Target and Caribou Coffee, among others, joined in the Earth Day festivities.
How is your company celebrating Earth Day? Leave a comment below.
