Marriott launches new sustainability platform for meetings

Hotel giant Marriott International is launching a new sustainability programme to help meeting planners reduce the environmental impact of their events.

The new initiative, called Connect Responsibly with Marriott Bonvoy Events, will offer meeting and event organisers access to “meeting impact reports”, which will measure the environmental footprint of events, as well as offering options to purchase carbon credits to mitigate this impact.

These impact reports will be made available to clients following an event. They will include data about the meeting’s carbon and water footprints, as well as the sustainability practices used at the hotel during the event.

Meeting planners can also choose from a range of “verified” carbon offsetting projects to help mitigate the impact of their events. These offsets will be made available online through Marriott’s collaboration with South Pole, an emissions reduction projects specialist.

Marriott’s move comes just weeks after fellow hotel company Kempinski introduced a similar suite of new tools to help meeting planners to assess the environmental impact of their events.

Erika Alexander, chief global officer of global operations at Marriott International, said: “With the Connect Responsibly programme, we are giving our meetings and events customers options to better understand the impacts of their meetings as we collectively strive to create a more resilient future for travel.”

Marriott said that the Connect Responsibly programme is set to “go live” globally at participating managed and franchised properties by the end of October. It will be available in 11 languages based on location.

Tammy Routh, Marriott’s senior vice president of global sales, added: “Our customers are eager to participate in sustainability efforts. Connect Responsibly expands ongoing initiatives and strengthens our efforts focused on sustainability in hospitality.”