Striving for a greener future, Brigitta Witt aims to cut Hyatt's consumption of both water and energy.
But now we’re just raising it up one more level and making sure our divisional officers have an equal amount of responsibility.” She adds: “We do things fast in this company, so I think it will only take a few months for everybody to sort out their roles.”
This is one of the steps being taken to make sure Hyatt reaches its targets for reducing its energy, water and carbon emissions. By 2015, it aims to reduce water usage by 20%, and energy and carbon emissions by 25%.
These figures seem high but, Witt explains, some hotels in the region are already cutting their waste. Grand Hyatt Dubai uses solar panels which have reduced diesel consumption by 50%. It also has its own reverse osmosis water purifying system that saves 100,000 gallons of water a day. It’s “truly amazing,” says Witt.
The Hyatt Regency — not a super modern, newly-built hotel, but instead a 27-year-old building — is saving 9000 gallons of water a day with a similar system and has recently replaced more than 2000 light bulbs with more energy efficient lighting.
One key factor to the success of Hyatt’s environmental plans is not going to be these large-scale schemes, however. Instead it is going to be the “passion and enthusiasm” from hotel employees. “Without their engagement and support, it is actually very difficult for us to try and implement anything,” Witt explains. “Beyond our green teams in each hotel, I think we have some of our biggest opportunities to make an exponential change by engaging and educating our 85,000 people around the world.”
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