Hilton Worldwide Announces Commitment to Repurpose Waste Across 90 Countries at Ninth Annual Clinton Global Initiative Meeting

MCLEAN, Va., September 25, 2013 /3BL Media/ – Hilton Worldwide, in partnership with Feeding America, The Global FoodBanking Network, Global Soap Project, Good360, DH Hospitality Group, Serta, and Waste Management Sustainability Services, announced its commitment to reducing waste across the organization’s portfolio of more than 4,000 hotels in 90 countries.  This Commitment to Action, entitled, RePurpose: Making Waste History for our Business and Society, was submitted today at the ninth annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in New York City.    

Waste is not only a defining issue for the hospitality industry; it is a complex global challenge with far-reaching and long-lasting impact. This fall, Hilton Worldwide launches RePurpose, a commitment to support Hilton Worldwide hotels’ efforts to dispose of waste through reusing, recycling and donating items instead of sending them to landfills. RePurpose builds on Hilton Worldwide’s global, enterprise-wide focus on improving operational efficiencies by leveraging LightStay™, its proprietary sustainability measurement tool, to track and manage performance.  Further, RePurpose provides tools and strategic partnerships to support hotel participation. These efforts are intended to reduce waste and increase recycling and donation activities across the global enterprise.  

“We are honored to join the Clinton Global Initiative,” said Randy Gaines, vice president of engineering, housekeeping and laundry operations for the Americas, Hilton Worldwide. “The business impact of waste presents a complex challenge, especially within the hospitality industry.  It requires thoughtful and creative solutions like RePurpose.  RePurpose helps our hotels achieve triple bottom line results by reducing their impact on natural resources, reducing the cost of waste disposal and supporting the communities where we live, work and travel.  Sustainability is a business imperative, and we continually look to integrate it throughout our overall business model.”

A suite of national and international business and nonprofit partnerships was developed to support hotels in their RePurpose initiatives.  These strategic partnerships enable hotels to donate soap, safe food items, soft and hard goods and the recycling of cardboard, glass, plastic, mattresses and box springs in an efficient and effective manner.  Further, through RePurpose, Hilton Worldwide empowers hotels with tools to identify and establish local donation and recycling collaborations.  The organization is also seeking additional implementing partners to support RePurpose.

Current partners include:

Feeding America

Feeding America connects Hilton Worldwide hotels with local food banks and their networks of local community agencies to facilitate food delivery to school feeding programs, food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, day-care centers, and after-school programs. Hilton Worldwide has developed food donation systems for hotels in New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Minneapolis, Orlando, and Seattle. Hilton Worldwide is also working with Feeding America to provide volunteer opportunities with local food bank partners through its Global Team Member Volunteer Program.

The Global FoodBanking Network

The Global FoodBanking Network connects Hilton Worldwide hotels with its network of food banks in countries outside the US to facilitate food donations and distribution to community agencies. Food donations are already active at a number of properties in Egypt and Australia, with programs proposed for select European countries in the coming year. Activities focus on optimizing food and beverage operations to minimize food waste, educating hotels on food banking opportunities, developing relationships between hotels and local food banks, and establishing systems for donating safe and nutritious food.

Global Soap Project

Global Soap Project (GSP) and its Asian affiliate Soap Cycling reprocess soaps collected from Hilton Worldwide hotels and make them into new bars for distribution to populations at risk of hygiene-related disease. Hilton Worldwide has also invested $1.3 million to help expand the Global Soap Project’s processing and distribution capabilities.

Good360

Good360 connects Hilton Worldwide hotels with opportunities to donate gently used and surplus goods to organizations in need. By using LightStay™ each Hilton Worldwide hotel is able to enter goods available for donation into a tracking system that links to Good360’s online product donation marketplace where more than 37,000 charities have the opportunity to claim items as needed.

DH Hospitality Group and Serta

Hilton Supply Management, in collaboration with DH Hospitality Group, Inc., has developed a mattress recycling program in coordination with the installation of new Serta mattresses and box springs.  The components of the mattresses and box springs are recycled into various products including tools, oil filters, particle board shelving and carpet padding rather than being diverted to a landfill.  On average, 95 percent of the components can be recycled. 

Waste Management Sustainability Services 

Waste Management Sustainability Services (WMSS) provides scalable waste hauling solutions for Hilton Worldwide’s owned and managed portfolio. Over the next three years, WMSS has and will introduce food waste reduction strategies in tandem with the RePurpose program, as well as provide direction on capturing and recycling material streams, like cardboard, plastics, lights and glass. 

Hilton Worldwide and its partners gather data on the amount of usable waste diverted from landfills.  This information is uploaded and tracked through LightStay™ to record the aggregate impacts of donations and items recycled across the Hilton Worldwide hotel portfolio.  Impact metrics include:

• Pounds of food diverted from landfills
• Number of meals provided
• Number people impacted by donations
• Employee volunteer hours
• Monetary value of waste donated
• Cost savings resulting from waste reduction (in terms of reduced cost to dispose of waste) 

This year’s CGI Commitment to Action comes one year after Hilton Worldwide and the International Youth Foundation (IYF) announced their commitment to create the Global Youth Wellbeing Index to monitor the state of young people and help increase the effectiveness and accountability of investments targeting youth. For more information about Hilton Worldwide’s corporate responsibility commitment, Travel with Purpose™, visit http://www.hiltonworldwide.com/corporate-responsibility/. 

About Hilton Worldwide

Hilton Worldwide is a leading global hospitality company, spanning the lodging sector from luxurious full-service hotels and resorts to extended-stay suites and mid-priced hotels. For 94 years, Hilton Worldwide has offered business and leisure travelers the finest in accommodations, service, amenities and value. The company is dedicated to continuing its tradition of providing exceptional guest experiences across its global brands. Its brands are comprised of more than 4,000 hotels and timeshare properties, with more than 650,000 rooms in 90 countries and territories and include Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton, Embassy Suites Hotels, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Hotels, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Home2 Suites by Hilton and Hilton Grand Vacations. The company also manages the world-class guest reward program Hilton HHonors®.Visit www.hiltonworldwide.com for more information and connect with Hilton Worldwide at www.facebook.com/hiltonworldwide, www.twitter.com/hiltonworldwide, www.youtube.com/hiltonworldwide, www.flickr.com/hiltonworldwide and www.linkedin.com/company/hilton-worldwide

About the Clinton Global Initiative

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2,300 commitments, which are already improving the lives of more than 400 million people in over 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $73.5 billion.

To learn more about the Clinton Global Initiative, visit http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/.

#  #  #

For More Information:

Contact: Astrid Egerton-Vernon

Hilton Worldwide

703-883-5696

Astrid.Egerton-Vernon@Hilton.com