Marriott is a multinational hospitality company headquartered in Bethesda, U.S.A., which franchises and manages a portfolio of lodging facilities and hotels. Marriott contributes to CSR in several ways, including making the communities in which they operate; better areas to visit, work, and live through investments in support and aid to enhance the vitality of their natural resources and children (CSVC, 2014). In addition, Marriott also integrates sustainability across their entire value chain. They also mitigate risks related to climate change, by engaging in responsible sourcing, designing and operating sustainable establishments, and minimizing environmental impacts.

Furthermore, the company also seeks to address under-employment and unemployment caused by lack of opportunity and inequality. This is through collaborating with non-profit organizations to enhance access to opportunity for diverse populations, youth, refugees, veterans, people with disabilities, and women. Finally, Marriott also engages in travelling in order to promote cultural understanding and peace by advocating for pro-travel government policies around the world, as well as support programs enabling individuals from around the world to understand and experience diverse cultures (CSVC, 2014). In this case, the company also works with non-profit groups to protect and advocate for human rights.

As part of their commitment to CSR, Marriott participates in various activities. The organization has particularly focused on environmental efforts, emphasizing energy and water conservation through collaborative efforts with Conservative International in order to map their carbon footprint (Marriott, 2017). In turn, these environmental efforts are geared towards implementing an environmental strategy over the long-term to ensure future sustainability. For example, the organization contributes towards climate change mitigation activities by funding re-forestation projects in Asia and Africa to protect and rejuvenate rainforests so as to achieve carbon offsets.

The company pledged $2 million in 2008 to help in protecting more than one million acres of the Brazilian rainforest. In addition, Marriott have also set out to reduce water and fuel consumption in their establishments by almost 25% for every available room in the coming decade, which will be aided by the installation of solar power in most of the company’s hotels by 2020 (Marriott, 2017). Further, the organization engages their most important vendors with the aim of ensuring that the supplied products are greener and price-neutral in various categories of products such as food and beverages.

With the aim of ensuring that, consumers know about these CSR activities and how they help society and communities in which the organization works, Marriott employs several communication strategies. To begin with, their communication strategy emphasizes CSR activities that fit into the organization’s business strategy including reduction of energy and water usage in their hotels to cut costs and achieve sustainability (CSVC, 2014). The organization’s CSR strategy also emphasizes the company’s long-term commitment to sustainability by identifying long-term goals such as the reduction of fossil fuel usage by 30% in 2030.

Further, by using external, independent sources to communicate its CSR strategy, Marriott enhances the credibility of their CSR strategy and message to stakeholders since the latter considers these sources as less controllable by the company. In addition, Marriott also encourages consumer and employee word of mouth in communicating their CSR activities by seeking stakeholder engagement and contributions in their CSR strategy (CSVC, 2014). More specifically, the organization employs workers from the surrounding community who have strong social ties in society that can be used to spread the message about CSR activities.