Marriott Helps 'Clean the World'

BETHESDA, Md., Feb. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Global hospitality leader Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE: MAR) has become an official hotel partner of Clean the World, a non-profit that collects, recycles and distributes discarded soaps and other hygiene amenities to communities in need.  With nearly 47,000 rooms (more than 200 hotels) already participating, Marriott is the number one hotel chain in the Clean the World portfolio, having collected nearly 1 million soap bars and amenity bottles and diverting more than 120 tons of waste from landfills since 2009.

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"We are guests on this planet, and conservation ensures our resources are sustained for generations to come," said Denise Naguib, Marriott International's Vice President, Sustainability and Supplier Diversity.  "Our new partnership will help support our global environmental strategy while helping provide a basic need to people in our local communities and around the world."

Clean the World aligns with Marriott's Green Hotels Global program, a comprehensive online environmental sustainability dashboard. Through Green Hotels Global, Marriott calculates each hotel's water footprint and waste diversion rate and maintains a comprehensive list of each hotel's environmental practices.

Currently, Marriott hotels across North America can participate in the program.  The company plans to expand its partnership globally by 2014.  "Marriott and Clean the World's goals are similar, with our shared values of sustainability and social responsibility," said Jeff Wolff, Vice President, Guest Experience and Rooms Operations – Americas, Marriott International.  "We can engage hotel associates and guests in recycling a valuable resource that can help save lives around the world."

Each day 9,000 children around the world die from diseases such as acute respiratory illness and diarrheal diseases that can be prevented by washing with bar soap. Clean the World has a mission to put soap in the hands of people who need it most to improve hygiene and sanitation conditions and to lessen the impact of disease and promote better hygiene and living conditions worldwide.

"Thanks to partnerships with community-minded companies such as Marriott International, we have distributed more than 12 million soap bars in more than 65 countries since 2009," said Shawn Seipler, CEO and co-founder of Clean the World. "And the partnership does more than save lives. It also reduces the burden on landfills by diverting waste that otherwise would be disposed locally by each participating hotel."

Marriott is committed to protecting the environment inside and beyond its hotels.  The company's Spirit To Preserve® environmental strategy calls for:  greening our multi-billion supply chain; further reducing energy and water consumption by 20 percent by 2020; empowering hotel development partners to build green hotels; educating and inspiring employees and guests to conserve and preserve the environment; and addressing environmental challenges through innovative conservation initiatives.   For more information about our sustainability efforts visit www.marriott.com/environment.

Clean the World Foundation Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization with the mission of saving millions of lives around the globe. Clean the World leads a global hygiene revolution to distribute recycled soap and hygiene products from more than 1,700 hospitality partners to children and families suffering from high death rates due to the top two killers of children worldwide – acute respiratory infection (pneumonia) and diarrheal diseases (cholera). Since 2009, Clean the World has distributed more than 12 million bars of soap. Through the "ONE project" launched in late 2012, Clean the World provides hygiene kits domestically to the homeless and families in transition. For more information visit www.cleantheworld.org.

SOURCE Marriott International, Inc.