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In This Issue
Editor's Note
Sustainability in the Hospitality Sector
At a time of year when many of us are thinking about (or actually taking) a vacation, we decided to look at an innovative sustainability program in the hospitality and tourism sector.
Hilton Worldwide—which includes 10 brands and 3,600 properties in 81 countries—recently launched its LightStay program to analyze the environmental impacts of its global operations.
We spoke with Hilton's vice president of sustainability, Christopher Corpuel, about how this program works at the ground level and what it means for his industry as a whole, which he said can be a catalyst for innovation. "Hospitality and tourism is a multitrillion-dollar industry, and as we begin to further elevate sustainability as a business discipline, we can continue to systematically alter for the positive the natural systems we use to sustain our planet," he told us.
Also this week, we respond to a Washington Post columnist's attack on CSR, and we share an update on the World Economic Forum's work on life-cycle metrics for sustainable consumption.
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In Depth
Branding Sustainability in Hospitality and Tourism: A Q&A on Hilton’s LightStay Program
Interview with Christopher Corpuel, Vice President, Sustainability, Hilton Worldwide, by Eva Dienel, Communications Manager, BSR
Hilton's new LightStay program has saved enough energy to power 5,700 homes for a year, enough water to fill more than 650 Olympic-size swimming pools, and the carbon emissions equivalent of taking 34,865 cars off the road. Learn how the company made tracking sustainability impacts a priority across its 3,600 global properties.
Read more →
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Spotlight
How Can Companies Use Life-Cycle Metrics for Sustainable Consumption?
Virginia Terry, Manager, Advisory Services
Now in its third year, the World Economic Forum's (WEF) sustainable consumption work is moving toward tangible actions in three different work streams: engaging consumers, exchanging innovation, and life-cycle metrics.
In preparation for the January 2011 Davos meeting, BSR joined business leaders and NGOs to refine the objectives for the life-cycle work stream to move it from the realm of operations and into strategic decision-making.
WEF will use case studies, interviews, research, and workshops to address three key questions:
- How can policy enable and support the use of life-cycle metrics to move business toward sustainability?
- How can life-cycle thinking be embedded throughout a firm?
- How can we encourage companies to share strategies and technologies along their value chains in order to multiply the benefits of sustainability and resource efficiency?
For more information about BSR's work on sustainable consumption, read our latest report or contact Virginia Terry.
On the Record
The ‘Cult’ of CSR?
In a column last week on the BP oil spill and the financial crisis, the Washington Post's Chrystia Freeland had no shortage of epithets for corporate social responsibility (CSR), calling it a cult, a fetish, and the result of a "communitarian philosophy."
In the end, she concludes:
"Corporate social responsibility sounds as unobjectionable as motherhood and apple pie … But we shouldn't let that distract us from the fact that the chief social responsibility of business is to make a buck."
In response to her editorial, BSR's Faris Natour argues that in conflating CSR with philanthropy, Freeland misses the main point of CSR: to help companies perform their core responsibilities in a way that benefits society and the planet.
Natour counters:
"The oil spill and the financial crisis happened despite CSR not because of it, so we need more—and more effective—CSR, not less."
Agree? Disagree? Leave your comments on our blog.
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The U.S. financial reform legislation signed into law on July 21 includes a provision requiring publicly traded companies to report on their use of "conflict minerals"—including gold, tin, tantalum, and tungsten—whose trade helps fund armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.