In their recent annual report on their ESG practices, Marriott International Inc. detailed its extensive community work, diversity within its governance practices, and sustainability in how the business is run, as well as new goals for the future.
Marriott’s 2021 Serve 360 Report described how the company was able to still maintain its goals of giving back to communities, even in the midst of a pandemic. From hosting almost 500 blood drives for the American Red Cross to donating rooms to front-line emergency workers, Marriott found a way to continue practicing its overarching goal of serving the world.
On the environmental end, Marriott has currently reduced carbon intensity by 32% from its 2016 baseline, with a goal of 30%. The company is also well on its way to the 2025 goal of having 100% of its properties certified with a recognized sustainability standard, with 32% recognized as of 2020. Also, 245 of its 650 hotels are currently LEED, BREEAM, or Estidama certified.
Source: Marriott 2021 Serve 360 Report
Marriott is currently assessing and installing renewable energy alternatives to meet its 2025 goal of 30% renewable energy sourcing. It also has a goal of 95% responsible sourcing of its top categories, including animal proteins, bottled water, cleaning supplies, coffee, cocoa, paper products, and others. In 2020, it aligned with suppliers to establish “responsible procurement requirements for each category that each supplier will have to adhere to,” and looks to continue working towards this goal.
Within the umbrella of governance, Marriott continues to be an industry leader in diversity with 44% of global executives being women and 20.5% of executives being people of color.
“Most recently, we announced we are accelerating our goal to achieve global gender parity in company leadership to 2023 from 2025. We also set a goal to have people of color make up at least 25% of U.S. company leadership,” said Anthony Capuano, CEO of Marriott International.
Marriott not only advocates for diversity within its leadership but also works to create awareness in all of its associates; 100% of associates that worked on property received human rights training, which included training on human trafficking awareness.
ESG Investing With SPDR
The SPDR S&P 500 ESG ETF (EFIV) takes a holistic approach to ESG by not only focusing on the environmental aspect, but on sustainability across the social and governance practices of the companies it invests in as well, such as Marriott International Inc. (MAR).
The fund tracks the S&P 500 ESG Index, which selects from top companies that meet ESG criteria within the S&P 500, while also adhering to the sector weights of the S&P 500 Index.
EFIV utilizes SPDJI ESG scores to rank companies based on their sustainability. This score is derived from analyzing a thousand data points covering a variety of topics collected from companies and then asking roughly 120 questions, according to the S&P Global website.
EFIV excludes companies involved in tobacco and controversial weapons, those that derive 5% or greater of their revenues from thermal coal extraction or generate power from coal, or that score low on the United Nations Global Compact standards.
The ETF’s top three sector allocations include 30.90% in information technology, 13.99% in consumer discretionary, and 12.69% in healthcare, as well as several other smaller allocations. Marriott is a holding carried within EFIV.
EFIV has an expense ratio of 0.10%, making it one of the cheapest ESG ETFs on the market.
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