Green Initiatives at Marriott

The below is an excerpt from the blog of Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO of Marriott International:

"It's Environmental Awareness Month at Marriott, so I want to pick up our discussion on the environment. Judging from some of the comments you've sent, there's a lot of interest in global warming. Many of you challenged me on whether our company's efforts were strong enough and that's really great. That's why I started my blog --because I want to hear from you.
What you had to say mirrors consumer trends, especially in travel. People want to do business with companies that do the right thing. I think conserving natural resources and reducing Marriott's environmental footprint is the right thing to do. I told you about how we're going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by six percent by 2010. Actually, that's on top of the 11 percent reduction we've already made.

But our environmental efforts don't end at our front door. My dad felt strongly about creating a caring corporate culture. It revolves around service for our guests and our communities. We call it our Spirit to Serve. This month it will take center stage as our associates around the world volunteer their time and partner with Clean Up the World.

We'll be cleaning up shorelines - like the Thames in London and the Potomac River here in Washington, DC, and beaches like Taba Heights in Egypt. In Jordan, the desert is consuming what's left of its forests, which are only one percent of Jordan's land. Near the capital, Amman, our associates are planting trees. The government is even calling it the Marriott Forest.
We've set a goal of planting 3,000 trees around the world this month. Experts say each one of these trees will remove one ton of carbon emissions from the atmosphere over their lifetime. The Dayton, Ohio Marriott is planting trees and building a bird sanctuary. And the Frankfurt Marriott in Germany will begin converting its wet waste into a new energy source called marsh gas.

We have a video about some of these projects. And, of course, we want to see what you're doing to save the environment that could result in an eco-vacation to Costa Rica. Just go to You Tube to learn more.

There's so much we're doing around the world and much more we will do. April will be designated Environmental Awareness Month at Marriott, but it's a 24/7 effort. I'm Bill Marriott and thanks for helping me keep Marriott on the move. "

I think Marriott deserves credit for increasing transparency of their CSR via this blog and soliciting feedback from their customers. This is an illustration of how CSR initiatives can increase customer loyalty by involving customers and other stakeholders in the initiatives, which can result in both higher profits (via lower customer turnover and acquisition costs) and a positive environmental impact. I think this is a great way that "shared value" can be created.

The link to the blog is: http://www.blogs.marriott.com/default.asp?item=555490 and an overview of their green initiatives is at: http://www.blogs.marriott.com/environment/.