…
Hilton Worldwide announced that it is the recipient of the coveted 2010 Extra Mile Award by Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine. The company won the award for LightStay, its new sustainability tracking system developed to improve hotel performance and drive economic returns while decreasing the company’s overall impact on the environment. Budget Travel magazine annually recognizes noteworthy and innovative companies that make travel easier and more enjoyable across all aspects of the travel industry with its Extra Mile Awards.
“Through LightStay we’re able to provide our hotels with the tools and resources needed to improve hotel performance while decreasing the company’s overall impact on the environment and enhancing our guests’ experiences.”
“Receiving Budget Travel’s 2010 Extra Mile Award is truly an honor,” said Paul Brown, president of global brands and commercial services, Hilton Worldwide. “Through LightStay we’re able to provide our hotels with the tools and resources needed to improve hotel performance while decreasing the company’s overall impact on the environment and enhancing our guests’ experiences.”
Hilton Worldwide and its portfolio of hotel brands recently became the first major multi-brand company in the hospitality industry to require property-level measurement of sustainability. The measurement system, LightStay, specifically analyzes performance across 200 operational practices, such as housekeeping, paper product usage, food waste, chemical storage, air quality and transportation. In addition to its function as a measurement system, LightStay provides a “meeting impact calculator” feature that calculates the environmental impact of any meeting or conference held at a property.
By December 31, 2011 all of the more than 3,600 properties within Hilton Worldwide’s global portfolio of hotel brands will implement LightStay. More than 300 hotels currently using LightStay were recently welcomed into the “green hotel” programs of two leading online travel agencies, Expedia and Travelocity.
LightStay underwent two years of rigorous internal testing before being unveiled to the public in April 2010 along with the first full year of findings from 2009. According to the testing results, 1,300 Hilton Worldwide properties using the system conserved enough energy to power 5,700 homes for a year, saved enough water to fill more than 650 Olympic-size pools and reduced carbon output equivalent to taking 34,865 cars off the road. Reductions in water and energy use also translated into dollars saved for hotel owners, with estimated savings of more than $29 million in utility costs in 2009.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
