Hilton was founded a century ago on the noble premise that travel could make the world a better place. Since then, we have shared the light and warmth of our hospitality with three billion guests, provided career opportunities to 10 million Team Members and invested $1 trillion in our communities. We call that positive impact the “Hilton Effect.”
As I am writing this letter, travel is at a virtual standstill and our business is suffering as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic – but we are doing everything we can to keep the Hilton Effect going strong. We believe that no matter how profound our own challenges, the way that we respond to this global crisis says everything about who we are as a company and what our future will look like. That is why we took action to donate up to one million room nights to frontline medical professionals. And that is why we have hotels all over the world doing extraordinary things to help their communities weather this storm.
When we emerge from this crisis, our bold Travel with Purpose 2030 Goals will continue to guide our corporate responsibility strategy around the world. Our Goals, released in 2018, put us on a path to double our social impact and reduce by half our environmental footprint by 2030. To help us reach our 2030 Goals, we launched the Hilton Effect Foundation on our 100th Birthday in May, to support projects and partnerships that will create a better world to travel.
At the heart of our efforts are our Team Members, who volunteered over half a million hours in their local communities in 2019. They made it possible for us to expand our soap recycling program to nearly every hotel in our portfolio and to expand our food donation program to all our managed hotels in the United States and Canada. On behalf of our entire Hilton family, I am thrilled to share all we have achieved together, and the humbling recognition we have earned as a result. In 2019, Hilton was:
• Named the Global Industry Leader on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices;
• Featured in Fortune’s 2019 Change the World List for the second year in a row, the only hospitality company on the list; and
• Recognized on the 2019 CDP prestigious “A-List,” placing in the top 2% of the thousands of companies that were scored.
As proud as we are of our accomplishments, we recognize that the world needs our positive impact now more than ever – and we are in urgent need of bold, innovative solutions to tackle the challenges our global society is facing. At Hilton, we are raising our hands to lead on these solutions, so that future generations can Travel with Purpose for years to come.
Christopher J. Nassetta
President and Chief Executive Officer
Travel with Purpose is Hilton’s corporate responsibility strategy to redefine and advance sustainable travel globally. By 2030, we plan to double our investment in social impact and reduce our environmental footprint in half. We track, analyze and report our environmental and social impact at each of Hilton’s 6,100+ hotels through LightStay, our award-winning corporate responsibility management system.
Travel with Purpose unites our organization around a set of global issues that connect our business to society, concentrating our efforts where we can have the highest social and environmental impact. It also allows us to contribute in a meaningful way to help the international community reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
We are committed to cutting our environmental footprint in half and doubling our investment in social impact. These overarching commitments are underpinned by 23 sub-targets which closely align with the global Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”) adopted by the United Nations in 2015.
We are committed to transparent and accurate external reporting of our corporate responsibility performance. We follow recognized CR reporting frameworks including SASB, GRI and CDP. We receive external assurance over our environment and social impact data.
We leverage our Corporate Responsibility (CR) governance structure and our LightStay corporate responsibility management system to track and transparently report our progress as we work towards our 2030 Goals.
Our materiality assessment informs the direction of our Corporate Responsibility program. We consult with key stakeholders, including governments and our industry associations, and integrate strategic insights in support of our 2030 Goals.