Marriott Meetings Go Green

Marriott Replaces Meeting Products and Services with Eco-Friendly Alternatives

BETHESDA, Md., July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The average three-day meeting at a
Marriott hotel attended by 1,000 people produces more than 12 tons of trash,
uses 200,000 kilowatts of power and consumes 100,000 gallons of water.
Beginning this summer, Marriott, JW Marriott and Renaissance Hotels & Resorts
will introduce a series of meeting products that are eco-friendly and will
help guests and meeting planners reduce their environmental impact. Marriott
is building on an aggressive environmental strategy by adding new elements to
green its meetings. To see more about Marriott's efforts to green its
meetings, click here.
Products and Services include:
-- 100% post-consumer fiber writing pads
-- Bic Ecolutions(R) pens made from recycled content and biodegradable
(Marriott purchases 47 million pens per year)
-- Access to recycling containers in or near meeting rooms in many of the
hotels
-- Meeting rooms set with water service in pitchers or coolers rather than
plastic bottles
-- Boxed lunch containers made of recycled content, including
biodegradable cutlery kits and napkins
-- Organic, sustainable and natural food and beverage options in many
hotels to include Fair-Trade teas and meeting room chocolate options
-- Organic flower options
-- Linen-less banquet buffet tables made of 49%-recycled aluminum and are
99% recyclable at many hotels
-- Safe-to-donate food given to America's Second Harvest's network of food
banks
"Our customers have been demanding greener meetings and we feel we can
make a difference in the world by taking steps to reduce our footprint on the
environment. This is just the beginning of an evolving program that continue
to add 'green' products and services as they become available," said Bruno
Lunghi, CMP, Marriott's vice president for event management. "An important
element to any successful program is the engagement of our associates. As
part of the program, event and sales managers will be trained on what makes a
meeting environmentally friendly."
Since 2004, Marriott has received the Partner of the Year Award for
Excellence in Energy Management, and awarded more ENERGY STAR labels (200)
than any other hotel company. In 2005, Marriott proactively joined the
prestigious EPA's Climate Leaders as the next step in its six-year partnership
with ENERGY STAR. As a Climate Leader, Marriott made a commitment to reduce
greenhouse gases by 40,000 tons annually. Last year, Marriott set a goal to
reduce its carbon footprint by one million tons from 2000-2010 and is well on
track to achieving the company goal.
Some of Marriott's energy-saving programs include retro-fitting existing
hotels, seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
certification for new hotels and implementing features such as two-flush
toilets, solar panel roofs, energy demand response systems, fluorescent
lighting and more. Marriott's hotels have replaced over 450,000 lightbulbs
with fluorescent lighting and installed 400,000 low-flow showerheads and
toilets. The hotels use two million gallons of low VOC (Volatile Organic
Compounds) paint per year and are switching to one million "room ready"
towels. By not having to wash towels before using them for the first time, it
saves six million gallons of water annually. For more
environmentally-friendly hotels and programs, visit
www.marriott.com/environment.
To book a meeting at Marriott, contact your local Marriott salesperson or
log onto http://www.marriott.com/meetings/meeting-planning.mi.
Earlier this year, Marriott launched the Spirit to Preserve the Rainforest
promotion. For meetings or stays of 10 rooms or more booked during select
dates, participating Marriott hotels around the world will contribute funds
equal to five percent of the total cost of the group's guest rooms to protect
the critically endangered Brazilian Amazonas rainforest. Donations will be
made in the name of the group as part of Marriott's ongoing rainforest
protection plan. Groups must book between July 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008
and stays must take place between July 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011. For
more information, log onto www.marriott.com/preservetherainforest.
In April, Marriott International signed a historic agreement with the
Brazilian State of Amazonas to commit $2 million to fund an environmental
management plan administered by the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation. Under
the agreement, the Foundation with the State of Amazonas, will monitor and
enforce the protection of the Juma Sustainable Reserve, an area rich in bio
diversity.
The Amazonas project will support employment, education and healthcare for
the reserve's approximately 500 residents. The Foundation is seeking
certification of the conservation project by an independent accredited
environmental auditing firm under the internationally recognized Climate,
Community and Biodiversity (CCB) standards.
Working with Conservation International, a global environmental
organization, Marriott has developed a five-point "green" strategy that
includes: (1) carbon offsets through the protection of rainforest; (2) further
reducing fuel and water consumption by 25 percent per available room over the
next 10 years, and installing solar power at up to 40 hotels by 2017; (3)
engaging Marriott's top 40 vendors to supply price-neutral green products
across its $10 billion supply chain; (4) empowering development partners to
site, design and construct new hotels in line with the U.S. Green Building
Council's LEED standards by the end of 2009; and (5) educating and inspiring
employees and guests to support the environment through their everyday actions
at home, while at work and on travel.
Marriott has been actively involved in energy conservation for more than
20 years, and over the last decade, replaced 450,000 light bulbs with
fluorescent lighting, introduced linen reuse programs, and installed 400,000
low-flow showerheads and toilets at its hotels worldwide. These
industry-leading efforts have been recognized by the EPA, which awarded
Marriott with its 2008 Sustained Excellence award and placed the ENERGY
STAR(R) label on more than 250 of its hotels (the most of any hotel company).
For more details, visit www.marriott.com/environment.
Visit http://creativeservices.0catch.com/boilerplate/ for Marriott
International, Inc.'s (NYSE: MAR) company information.
SOURCE Marriott International, Inc.

Laurie Goldstein of Marriott International, +1-301-380-5296,
Laurie.goldstein@marriott.com