Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide announced that it has set a target of reducing its energy consumption by 30 percent and reducing its water consumption by 20 percent by 2020, according to a company press release. The targets are company-wide and apply to every one of Starwood’s 1,000 hotels, including those it owns, manages, and has franchised.
Starwood has experimented with green initiatives before. In 2008, the company launched its Element brand, which functions as Starwood’s “laboratory” for testing sustainable practices. The division recently announced that it would be installing electric car charging stations at its hotels.
And the Starwood brand itself recently rolled out a set of sustainable guidelines for business meetings, from sustainable menu choices and bottled water alternatives to energy-efficient digital signage and potted plants in place of fresh-cut flowers, to be incorporated into all on-property meetings and events next year.
Starwood has been working alongside Conservation International, a global environmental non-profit, to establish its environmental goals. Starwood began collecting data from all of its properties in 2007 and confirmed a baseline in 2008.