Hilton Worldwide has revealed LightStay, a proprietary system developed to calculate and analyze environmental impact, to the public today, following two years of rigorous internal testing. In the first full-year of findings, the 2009 LightStay results show that the 1,300 Hilton Worldwide properties using the system conserved enough energy to power 5,700 homes for a year, saved enough water to fill more than 650 Olympic-size pools and reduced carbon output equivalent to taking 34,865 cars off the road. Reductions in water and energy use also translated into dollars saved for hotel owners, with estimated savings of more than $29 million in utility costs in 2009.
LightStay helped Hilton Worldwide properties using the system reduce energy use by 5 percent, carbon output by 6 percent, waste output by 10 percent, and water use by 2.4 percent in 2009 versus 2008. These results have been independently audited and are adjusted for any differences in occupancy levels and major weather events year over year.
The program takes into account energy and water use and waste and carbon outputs associated with building operations and services provided at Hilton Worldwide properties. As part of this, the system measures indicators across 200 operational practices including housekeeping, paper product use, food waste, chemical storage, air quality, and transportation.
LightStay also includes a "meeting impact calculator" that measures the environmental impact of any meeting or conference held at a Hilton Worldwide property. This enables meeting planners and corporate travel managers to consider the environmental impact of hotel stays and meetings when making purchasing decisions. In addition, it provides corporate customers with the opportunity to include meeting impact data in their own sustainability reporting.
By December 31, 2011, all 3,500 properties within Hilton Worldwides global portfolio of brands will use LightStay. To confirm the effective implementation and validity of the system, Hilton Worldwide commissioned KEMA-Registered Quality, Inc.—a management systems design company—to perform a series of third-party audits of LightStay.
