Hilton continues momentum of soap recycling in India to mark Global Handwashing Day

New Delhi, INDIA - October 15, 2019 - To mark Global Handwashing Day, Hilton announced the expansion of its soap-recycling program, totalling 5,300 properties in more than 70 countries and territories around the globe. Hilton’s decade-long soap recycling program, which is already the largest in the hospitality industry, helps fight the hygiene epidemic plaguing underserved communities where tens of thousands of children die needlessly due to lack of access to basic sanitation. The initiative also contributes to reducing Hilton’s overall environmental impact, which the company has set a goal to cut in half by 2030.

As a part of the program, Hilton properties in India have successfully recycled more than 20,000 new bars of soap in 2019 to date. It has also expanded its soap distribution locations including schools and villages in Pune and Palghar, saving children from hygiene-related illnesses as well as keeping the soap bars away from the landfills. One of Hilton’s longest soap recycling partners in India, Sundara, a non-profit organization, employs local women on a full-time basis for soap recycling. These women also act as the hygiene ambassadors to educate children on handwashing in their communities.

“Countless childhood deaths could be prevented with access to basic hygiene, yet millions of bars of soap are thrown away every day. By making the soap more available to underserved communities in India, we can help minimize hygiene-related epidemics, and positively impact the health of children and families,” said Navjit Ahluwalia, senior vice president and country head, Hilton, India. “Additionally, we are committed to eliminating all soap to landfills as part of our Travel with Purpose 2030 goal of cutting our environmental footprint in half by 2030.”

Since 2016, Hilton hotels in the country have been collecting and sending used pieces of soap to Sundara on a monthly basis. The used soap is recycled – washed, dried, scraped, compacted and repackaged – into brand new bars, which are then distributed to schools and families. Every month, Sundara delivers soap to more than 4,000 children and families in Maharashtra and conducts training on how to maintain proper personal hygiene.

Aside from reducing soap waste, this initiative has contributed to employment opportunities in secondary cities and improved community health. During the last 10 years, Hilton properties around the world have diverted more than 18 lakh kilograms of waste from landfills. Over 500

a thousand kilograms of soap waste from Hilton’s hotels across the Asia Pacific have been diverted from landfill to date.

To learn more about Hilton's Travel with Purpose corporate responsibility mission, visit cr.hilton.com. To see the positive impact Hilton’s soap recycling efforts has had in India, view this film.

About Hilton

Hilton (NYSE: HLT) is a leading global hospitality company with a portfolio of 17 world-class brands comprising nearly 5,900 properties with more than 939,000 rooms, in 114 countries and territories. Dedicated to fulfilling its mission to be the world’s most hospitable company, Hilton earned a spot on the 2018 world’s best workplaces list and has welcomed more than 3 billion guests in its 100-year history. Through the award-winning guest loyalty program Hilton Honors, more than 94 million members who book directly with Hilton can earn Points for hotel stays and experiences money can’t buy, plus enjoy instant benefits, including digital check-in with room selection, Digital Key, and Connected Room. Visit newsroom.hilton.com for more information, and connect with Hilton on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

About Travel with Purpose

Travel with Purpose is Hilton’s corporate responsibility strategy to redefine and advance sustainable travel globally. By 2030, the company plans to double its social impact investment and cut its environmental footprint by half. Hilton tracks analyzes and reports its environmental and social impact at each of the nearly 5,900 hotels through LightStay, an award-winning performance measurement system. Travel with Purpose capitalizes on Hilton’s global scale to catalyze local economic growth; promote human rights; invest in people and local communities, and preserve our planet by reducing the company’s impact on natural resources. The Travel With Purpose strategy aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Visit cr.hilton.com to learn more.

About Sundara India

Started as a small-scale project for soap recycling, Sundara India is an independent trust in India which operates from Mumbai. Driven by the vision of providing better sanitation and health care awareness to reduce preventable hygiene-related diseases and deaths, Sundara focuses on recycling old hotel soap into new bars, giving them a second life. Sundara’s mission concentrates on supporting the communities it serves by hiring and training local women to do this work, lifting them from poverty with fair wage livelihoods and distributing the soap to those communities, all while providing free hygiene education classes for vulnerable populations. The NGO currently has partnerships with 55 hotels across India.