Marriott International Inc. has launched Connect Responsibly with Marriott Bonvoy Events, a program designed to help meeting planners embed sustainability into their events at participating hotels in the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio.

Connect Responsibly plans to offer meetings and events customers access to detailed Meeting Impact Reports to measure the environmental impact of their events and select options to purchase carbon credits. The program is anticipated to go live at managed and franchised properties from participating brands globally by the end of October.

“There is nothing like connecting in person, and doing so responsibly makes it that much better,” said Erika Alexander, chief global officer, global operations, Marriott International. “With the Connect Responsibly program, we are giving our meetings and events customers options to better understand the impacts of their meetings as we collectively strive to create a more resilient future for travel.”

Available following an event, the user-friendly Meeting Impact Report is intended to capture event details, property-specific sustainability practices implemented for the event and the event’s carbon and water footprints, calculated through established hospitality industry methodologies. Marriott expects the Meeting Impact Report to be available in 11 different languages based on location.

In collaboration with South Pole, a carbon asset developer and climate consultancy, Marriott plans to offer meetings and events customers the ability to access select carbon offset projects. Through the Meeting Impact Report, these customers will have the option to utilize the South Pole online shop to choose from a range of carbon offset projects—verified by independent third-party organizations—that can be purchased as part of their event.

“Meetings and events are important business for Marriott,” said Tammy Routh, SVP, global sales, Marriott International. “Our customers are eager to participate in sustainability efforts. Connect Responsibly expands ongoing initiatives and strengthens our efforts focused on sustainability in hospitality. We are excited to build on our sustainability reporting capabilities to provide our meetings and events customers with detailed Meeting Impact Reports and offer access to a select portfolio of verified carbon offset projects, through our collaboration with South Pole.”

This program is part of Marriott’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at properties and in the supply chain. As of April 2024, Marriott is the largest global hospitality company to receive approval from the Science Based Targets initiative for both near-term and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets (SBTs), according to the company. To drive progress toward its SBTs, Marriott launched the company’s Climate Action Program (CAP), which includes property-level carbon reduction goals and actions.

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