Hotel Management Group Establishes Partnership with Clean the World to Fight Hygiene-Related Deaths

Hersha Hospitality Management, an operator of branded and independent hotels in major metropolitan markets, announces that the company will partner with Clean the World, an Orlando, Fla.-based non-profit organization, to help fight the spread of preventable diseases around the world. Hershas partnership with Clean the World plans to annually provide more than 1 million bars of recycled soap and 500,000 bottles of recycled shampoo, gels and lotions for distribution to children and families worldwide. Hersha will be the largest hospitality management company to partner with Clean the World since its founding.

Through this partnership, Hersha plans to annually provide approximately 9,000 children with soap for an entire year and 4,500 children with bottled amenities for an entire year. In addition to preventing countless deaths due to poor hygiene, Hershas partnership with Clean the World plans to divert approximately 90 tons of waste from landfills annually.

The program will be implemented by Hersha Hospitality Management, and plans to include a portfolio encompassing more than 10,000 rooms. Rollout of the program began in the fall of 2010, and full adoption by the remaining properties is expected over the coming year.

"Hersha developed EarthView, our sustainable hospitality program, because stewardship of our local and global communities is one of the guiding values we embrace as a company," says Naveen P. Kakarla, president and CEO of Hersha Hospitality Management. "Our new partnership with Clean the World complements the mission and goals of EarthView. We understand the global demand for soap and other hotel hygiene products, and we want to leverage our resources to help save the lives of people who are suffering from poor hygiene and improper sanitation."

"Hersha Hospitality Management understands the value of the Clean the World program and its essential role in our goal to advance a global hygiene revolution," says Shawn Seipler, executive director at Clean the World. "By expanding this program throughout their entire portfolio, Hersha and EarthView will solidify their reputations as industry leaders for environmental sustainability, and serve as an inspiration for other hotel partners to follow with their own green initiatives."

Clean the World is the largest global recycler of hotel amenities. Since its founding, Clean the World has distributed more than seven million bars of soap to children and families in the United States and more than 40 developing countries worldwide. Clean the World continues to play a major role in helping Haiti recover from a January 2010 earthquake, providing more than 1.5 million bars to combat sanitation-related diseases such as cholera. By repurposing discarded soap and bottled amenities, the program has diverted an estimated 550 tons of hotel waste from landfills in the United States and Canada.