Our journey towards 2030: Reducing plastics, one straw at a time

I had the opportunity recently to tell our story on what Hilton is doing in our bid to reduce single-use plastics across our hotels on national radio, and it inspired me to share more on a platform where we can exchange learnings and encourage other business leaders to play a part.

Having been around for nearly 100 years, with a presence in nearly 110 countries, Hilton thrives on being an active member of all the communities in which we operate. We take our role as a responsible corporate citizen very seriously and we do our best to make a positive social and environmental impact through Travel with Purpose, our corporate responsibility platform.

In May this year, Hilton released our Travel with Purpose 2030 goals which are aligned with the United Nation’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. As part of that we have committed to cutting our environmental footprint in half by 2030; within that to reduce water consumption and produced waste by 50% across our hotels. Achieving our goals would make us the first major hotel company to institute science-based targets to reduce carbon emissions and send zero soap to landfill.

Unsurprisingly, this includes plastic waste. Not only does plastic pollution impact our waters and marine life, but also our food chain and overall health. Across Asia Pacific, more than 60 percent of the waste that goes into the oceans come from eight countries: and we operate in all of these countries. The scale of the issue is not lost on us and equally we recognize the huge part we can play in turning things around.

As a start, we made a plan to reduce and ultimately eliminate single-use plastics in our hotels. We began the journey with an aim to eliminate the use of plastic straws across our managed hotels globally by the end of 2018. In Asia Pacific alone, that amounts to 7 million fewer plastic straws being used annually, and a reduction of 1.6 million plastic straws year-on-year within South East Asia.

It gives me great delight to share that as of the end of July this year, all Hilton properties in South East Asia have eliminated the use of plastic straws. We have alternatives available upon request, and by and large our initiative has been met with a lot of support from our owners, partners and guests, and successful through the great leadership by our hotels’ leaders.

Moving forward, our managed properties in Asia Pacific will also transition away from plastic bottled water in meeting and event spaces. In addition, our properties in South East Asia have also eliminated 85 per cent of their use of plastic laundry bags, plastic cup covers and plastic bottles across our dining outlets.

This is, of course, just the beginning for us and we are aware there is more to be done when it comes to eliminating single-use plastic and reducing waste.

That said, we want to switch to truly sustainable solutions – not just rush to replace plastic. Every action we want to take warrants two questions to ourselves: what is the environmental impact of the alternatives? And are they commercially and operationally viable?

Through my sharing on Singapore’s national radio stations Money FM 89.3 and 938NOW I hope this helps our partners and guests get a better appreciation of how we can all do our part for the environment. It takes each and every one of us – as hotel operators, owners, guests and travelers in general – to do our part and I look forward to sharing more on our progress in the coming year.

As a final note, I’d like to encourage business owners and individuals thinking about starting, or furthering, their sustainability efforts to consider these three points:

1.     First, clarify your objectives.

Why is sustainability important to your organization, what research is required to develop a sustainability approach, and how would you go about making uncomfortable but important changes?

In the case of plastic waste, instead of rushing to completely cutting plastics out of all our operations, we want to evaluate and really understand the environmental impact of the alternatives we are putting in place to identify solutions which are commercially and operationally viable for our business, even if it takes more time.

2.     Second, foster the right culture.

At Hilton, we know that having engaged team members is critical to our success. Travel with Purpose provides our team members with a platform and a myriad of opportunities to grow in both their career and as individuals, as well as something different to look forward to and experience at work. We prioritize this because we know the team member experience is just as important as our guests’ experiences. So we place a lot of emphasis on ensuring our team members are engaged and take pride in what the company stands for and champions. This makes their journey and experience far more authentic and personal.

3.     Third, lead by example.

I took on the role of leading our Asia Pacific Plastics Taskforce because I believe deeply in the urgency of the issue, and the role that a company like ours should play.

It started with my own region, South East Asia, where we identified a list of actions that every property would undertake in a bid to reduce plastic waste. This commitment quickly grew into an Asia Pacific level effort within Hilton, and continues to trigger dialogue and developments across our local supply chains.

If you have any thoughts or feedback on what you have done to champion this cause, I’d love to hear from you.