Hotel chain Marriott International will spend 75 percent of its 2013 furniture, fixtures and equipment budget with suppliers who are part of sustainability consultant MindClick's Hospitality Sustainability Performance Index.
The HSP Index measures suppliers’ corporate social responsibility, environmental operations, and product sustainability efforts. Marriott is incorporating MindClick’s supplier scorecard as it tries to improve the environmental sustainability of its global supply chain.
The announcement follows Marriott's first year of membership in the Hospitality Sustainable Purchasing Consortium, a body that has worked to establish a supplier sustainability rating system for the hotel industry and advised MindClick on the establishment of the index.
MindClick says sustainability is important to the hospitality industry. In a study of Fortune 1,000 corporate travel executives, 75 percent of those spending $50 million in annual travel have "green business" travel programs. As a result, RFPs now include questions specific to sustainability initiatives, including efforts in hotel construction, operations and purchasing, MindClick says.
A study of 5,000 US Expedia consumers conducted in January 2012 shows that two out of three consumers believe hotels need to be more mindful of their impact on communities and the planet. Of these 5,000 participants, 90 percent were able to identify at least one piece of furniture or fixture they believe allows hoteliers to provide rooms which are healthier and better for the planet, according to MindClick.
However, according to a MindClick survey released last year, only two percent of corporate travel executives would include LEED certification in their definition of hotel sustainability.
In other sustainable hotel news, Four Seasons Resorts Maldives has won the "Doing It All" and "Wildlife Conservation" categories for large resorts in the Condé Nast Traveler World Savers Awards 2012. The awards aim to honor the travel companies that are doing the most to help protect the planet and give back to their local communities.
Four Seasons Resorts Maldives' environmental efforts began in 1998 with a coral reef regeneration project developed with local environmental consultancy Seamarc Pvt. Ltd. The project is now one of the most successful of its kind in the world and has propagated more than 2,400 coral frames in the islands' lagoons. Now in its 14th year of working with Seamarc, the resort has adopted additional projects that range from fish breeding to turtle conservation.
