At Hilton, we’re committed to driving responsible travel and tourism globally. Our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy is called Travel with Purpose, and it is integrated through every aspect of our business, including our operations, our supply chain, and our engagement with our communities.
LightStay, our award-winning ESG management system, helps us track, analyse, and report our environmental and social impact at each of our hotels, as well as our progress towards our 2030 Goals.
At Hilton Cambridge City Centre, our 2022 annual goals to reduce our carbon footprint was to reduce energy use by 5%, reduce water use by 5% and reduce waste by 5%.
We exceeded our goal with an 8% reduction in energy use in 2022 by changing 99% of our lights to energy efficient LED lighting, installing energy efficient equipment, setting our air conditioning and ventilation on timers, completing boiler upgrades and installing laser steam detectors on our kitchen extractor fans. These efforts also increased our EPC rating from C to B.
In 2022, the hotel reduced water use by 42% by installing water efficient aerated shower heads, identifying and resolving leaks throughout entire water system, implementing toilet bricks and installing low-flow water faucets.
A 12% reduction in waste was accomplished in 2022 with an on-site recycling system, participating in a soap recycling programme, establishing paper and plastic reduction initiatives, installing large, multi-use toiletry bottles, on-site food composting, recycling cooking oil and eliminating single-use plastics.
As we work towards our 2030 goals, Hilton Cambridge City Centre also participates in a robust community engagement programme, which has thus far resulted in 21 community engagement projects totalling 339 team member volunteer hours and $8,370 in local impact and 76 donations totalling an estimated $77,211 value. We support and invest in our community by contributing to the local economy, developing a talented workforce and fostering local relationships that help ensure success. A few examples of our community engagement include partnering with a local community organization, training our team members on the issue of human trafficking and using controlled sourcing with local suppliers (within 100 mile radius).
We also offer our meeting clients the opportunity to host carbon neutral meetings. Prior to any meeting held with us, we can estimate your event’s environmental impact using Hilton’s proprietary LightStay Meeting Impact Calculator. We can then offset your event’s carbon emissions by investing in a portfolio of high-quality carbon reduction projects with our partner, ClimeCo.
We invite our clients to join us in our efforts to Travel with Purpose. Bookers and delegates can consider following these examples during your meeting or event:
- Encourage your delegates to bring re-usable water bottles to refill at our hydration stations.
- Reduce food waste by only taking what you plan to eat at the breakfast buffet.
- Work with the hotel team to select zero-waste menus, diverting unavoidable food waste from landfill, and/or donating excess, edible food.
- Encourage attendees to use the Hilton Honors app for digital check-in, keys and check-out to reduce the use of printing, paper and plastic.
- Ask about our Meet with Purpose programme and include a delegate activity that will have a positive environmental impact.
- Finally, give us your suggestions about improving the sustainability of your event!
Ask our events team about how you can reduce your carbon footprint next time you host a meeting with us.
