Hilton Worldwide has been awarded the highly acclaimed Carbon Saver Gold Standard for effective carbon reduction and management at all of its UK hotels, where carbon emissions have been reduced over a three year period.

Sustainability is a critical performance measure of the business, just like quality, service, and revenue. Hilton Worldwide is the first major multi-brand hospitality company in the industry to make this commitment.

At the heart of the company’s success is the utilization of the proprietary sustainability measurement system LightStay, which analyzes performance across 200 operational practices, such as housekeeping, paper product usage, food waste, chemical storage, air quality, and transportation, and is used to improve sustainability performance on a continuous basis. A unique aspect of LightStay is the ‘meeting impact calculator’, a feature that calculates the environmental impact of any meeting or conference held at a property.

The Carbon Saver Standard provides external verification of Hilton Worldwide’s efforts to measure, manage and minimise its carbon emissions. To achieve this, Hilton Worldwide had to show three years’ worth of energy reductions and provide evidence of sustainability strategies being undertaken within its UK properties.

Glenn Wilkinson, managing director at Carbon Saver Ltd says, “This is a great achievement for Hilton Worldwide. The level of staff participation is particularly impressive and a clear sustainability message is provided across all hotels. The company has shown a commitment to sustainability and behaviour change and it has really paid off.”

Darren Cook, senior director of engineering operations, Hilton Worldwide, Europe, added, “Achieving the Carbon Saver Gold Standard accreditation across all our UK properties is fantastic news and demonstrates the real commitment from Hilton Worldwide to continually reduce our impact on the environment. We are very proud of the industry-leading work we are doing in this area and it’s gratifying to see the hard work of our team members recognized in this way.”

LightStay also provides a platform for staff engagement and communication. The system allows hotels to become ‘neighbours’ with other Hilton Worldwide hotels, encouraging hotel comparisons and providing the opportunity to share sustainability best practices across the global system.

Hilton Worldwide is the first multi-brand hospitality company to make sustainability measurement a brand standard and recently earned ISO 9001 and 14001 certifications for quality and environment management - one of the largest volume certifications awarded for commercial buildings. In 2010 alone, the company saved more than $74 million globally in utility costs through a 6.6 percent reduction of energy use; 7.8 percent reduction of carbon output; 19 percent reduction of waste output; and 3.8 percent reduction of water use.