Hilton has partnered with social enterprise South Pole to offset the carbon footprint of meetings and events across approximately 60 hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at no extra cost to the customer.

Launched in The Netherlands in May 2021, the offer was rolled out to more properties over the summer.

The initiative complements existing efforts to deliver low environmental impact solutions that limit waste and increase the focus on local sourcing, in support of Hilton’s Travel with Purpose 2030 goals to cut its environmental footprint in half and double its social impact by 2030.

“We know our meetings and events customers share our passion for sustainability and like us, are committed to finding ways to further reduce their environmental footprint,” said Tanya Clifford, vice-president, Hilton Worldwide Sales EMEA.

The footprint of all business meetings with ten or more delegates at participating hotels is offset through carbon credits. Credits are allocated to a range of projects, including repairing and maintaining boreholes in Rwanda to increase access to safe water sources, the construction of a geothermal power plant in Turkey to generate clean, emissions-free energy, and the development and maintenance of wind farms in India and the United States.

Hilton is using its corporate responsibility performance management system, LightStay, to estimate each meeting’s energy, water, carbon, and waste consumption.

LightStay’s Meeting Impact Calculator tool gives customers the opportunity to see an estimated carbon footprint for their event using each hotel’s specific utility data. In addition to the available measures for businesses to decrease the waste and energy usage of corporate events, carbon credits are purchased from South Pole to offset any remaining environmental impact.

“Everyone has a role to play in helping to halt climate change – first and foremost through reducing carbon emissions, water use, waste, and energy output as far as possible,” said Michael Malara, senior business development manager, South Pole. “We are delighted to partner with Hilton and its customers to boost their efforts to tackle the climate crisis.”