Marriott International's annual environmental, social and governance report shows progress is being made toward the company's 2025 sustainability and social impact goals.
The hotel brand company’s 2022 Serve 360 Report outlines its ESG efforts in 2021. The report is part of its overall sustainability and social impact platform, Serve 360: Doing Good in Every Direction, which launched in 2017.
“While the last few years have transformed our industry, the resilience of Marriott associates and their dedication to our core value to ‘Serve Our World’ has not only put us on the path to recovery but renewed our support to the communities and environments where we live and work,” Marriott CEO Tony Capuano wrote in the report. “Even during times of great challenge, including war, increasing climate crises, and the unprecedented impact of the pandemic, I am proud of Marriott’s continued dedication to its sustainability and social impact journey and commitment to our many stakeholders.”
Among its other efforts last year, Marriott committed to a science-based target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The company’s new corporate headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, achieved LEED Gold Core and Shell certification.
The company accelerated its goal by two years to achieve global gender parity in executive positions by 2023. It set a new goal to have 25% of its executive positions in the U.S. filled by people of color by 2025. Marriott worked with the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation and Howard University to establish the Marriott-Sorenson Center for Hospitality Leadership as a way to inspire Black students to join the hospitality industry.
Marriott launched its Bridging the Gap program to help historically underrepresented groups own and develop hotels in North America. It has committed up to $50 million to work toward its goal of having 3,000 diverse-owned hotels by the end of 2025.
To better educate hotel employees about human trafficking, the company launched the next iteration of its human trafficking awareness training. Its goal is to train 100% of its on-property associates by 2025 to recognize and respond to potential human trafficking situations at their hotels. It has opened, for free, its updated human trafficking awareness training to the hospitality industry to help other hotel companies and employees recognize the signs of human trafficking.
The report also mentions the company’s efforts to help associates and their families affected by the war in Ukraine as well as its support for humanitarian organizations, including providing more than $3 million in hotel-level financial and in-kind support.