Hilton Worldwide is well on track to achieving its sustainability goals following the continued success of its meetings and events offset initiative in Australia.
With the aim of reducing carbon emissions by 20% by 2014, Hilton Worldwide launched the Carbon Offset Meetings and Events Initiative in 2009, which offsets all carbon emissions generated from meetings and events.
Now in its third year, Hilton Worldwide vice president operations Ashley Spencer confirmed the program is going strong in Australia, and is likely to smash the initial target.
“We are progressing to where we want to be to hit the 20% global target, but our Australian operations are doing really well. We will definitely hit the target in Australia,” he told The Nibbler.
Hilton has offset more than 5000 metric tonnes of carbon since 2009, with 90% of that from the MICE sector, Spencer said.
“We have managed to offset a huge portion of our energy consumption by targeting meetings and events,” he said. “We are also winning business from companies who want to take part.”
Hilton will set new sustainability goals beyond 2014. However, Spencer admitted that challenges remain for some global operators.
“Australia is doing well in this space, but others such as India and China still have some way to go,” he said. “There’s no doubt everyone will have to move in this direction, but other countries just run in different ways.”
