Dive Brief:

• On Wednesday, Marriott International released its 2023 Serve 360 Report, highlighting sustainability efforts made in the last year as well as future goals. Marriott plans to source a minimum of 30% of its overall electricity from renewable energy by year-end 2025.
• Marriott also aims to reduce the amount of waste it sends to landfills by 45% along the same timeline, the report details. 
• Additional efforts include installing electric vehicle charging stations at Marriott hotels and eliminating single-use plastic toiletry bottles. Marriott’s actions align with others being taken in the hospitality space to bring EV charging stations to hotels and reduce reliance on single-use plastic products. 

Dive Insight:

As of year-end 2022, Marriott had installed 5,500 EV chargers at properties worldwide; 60 were installed at its headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.  

In May of this year, the company partnered with EV charging provider LNG Electric, which plans to deploy charging stations to more than 13,000 U.S. hotels. The rollout started with Marriott and Hilton properties in Ohio, Florida and Illinois. Choice Hotels made a similar deal last year with EV charging provider EOS Linx to bring stations to the company’s hotels in Atlanta and Chattanooga and Nashville, Tennessee. 

Marriott is also exploring electric options for company vehicles it operates and has ordered a select number of EVs to try, according to the report. 

Additionally, Marriott is working to eliminate single-use plastic toiletry bottles at its hotels through its Residential-Sized Bath Amenities Program, the report details. 

The program has been ongoing since 2019 when Marriott made an initial commitment to reduce single-use plastic toiletry bottles from its properties. At the time, the company claimed the program could prevent about 1.7 million pounds of plastic annually from going to landfills. 

By year-end, Marriott anticipates “the vast majority” of its brands will have switched from single-use plastic bottles to larger pump-topped bottles of shampoo and the like, the report said. And in H2, the company is rolling out “more responsibly sourced” shaving kits, dental kits, laundry bags, razors and make-up-remover cloths for its properties to purchase. 

All hotels in Washington, regardless of brand, will soon be subject to state legislation passed in April that forbids lodging establishments from providing personal health or beauty products like shampoo in small plastic containers, plastic wrappers or other single-use plastic packaging. Similar legislation is already in effect in California.