In line with Hilton’s Travel with Purpose 2030 goals to halve environmental footprint and double social impact investments, DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru is partnering with Diversey and Kechara Soup Kitchen for the Linens for Life programme.

The hotel is the first under the Hilton brand to launch the Linens for Life programme, both in Johor as well as Malaysia. Introduced in celebration of International Housekeeping Week, the initiative is designed to help local communities through the upcycling of used hotel linens with three-fold objectives: to aid with immediate disaster relief efforts; to provide livelihoods to the local community through recycling; and to help hotels reduce waste.

A typical 400-room hotel generates approximately two to three tonnes of used linens such as bed sheets, pillow cases, towels, and table cloths annually, the total  of which is the equivalent of 1,600 queen-sized bedsheets and 3,500 single-size bedsheets. These used linens are collected by the hotel’s housekeeping team, then channelled by Diversey to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local communities for recycling. For the Johor Bahru area, Kechara will be channelling the linens to their empowerment programme, which helps disadvantaged women in building sustainable livelihoods.

“Sustainability is one of our core pillars.”

Through upcycling, Linens for Life has given these items new life by repurposing them into various creative items made by women beneficiaries, such as newspaper bags, all-purpose bags, aprons, school uniforms, stuffed toys, infant sleeping bags and more. More than just a corporate partnership, the program directly engages locals within their own community to be involved, enabling them to earn a small livelihood.

“Sustainability has always been one of Hilton’s core pillars. We now partner with Diversey for this milestone collaboration, where there is both an opportunity as well as responsibility to do our part in the community we are operating in. This partnership, the first-of-its-kind for the Hilton brand in Johor and Malaysia is something we are committed to,” said Daniel Alcaraz, general manager of DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru.

Stefan Phang, global creating shared value (CSV) leader at Diversey said: “Linens for Life directly engages the local people in helping their own community. At the same time, Diversey is also helping our hotel customers on waste recycling. Through this programme, we hope to contribute to a more sustainable environment and create shared value for everyone involved – our company, our customers, and the community.”

Justin Cheah, executive director at Kechara Soup Kitchen said: “We are happy to be partners for Linens For Life and that that we can make this sustainable long term, good enough for the mothers whom we support to make good income to either supplement their respective family’s emergency or educational related expenses.”

With this commitment, Hilton will become the first major hotel company to institute science-based targets to reduce carbon emissions and waste output to landfill.