Hyatt Hotels Corp: Sustainable Packaging Policies for Plastics

WHEREAS: Without immediate and sustained new commitments throughout the plastics value chain, annual flows of plastics into air, land and water will grow more than 120% by 2040 and cause a 75% increase in human health impacts.[1] This growing plastic pollution crisis poses increasing risks to Hyatt. Collectively, corporations could face an annual financial risk of approximately $100 billion should governments require them to cover the waste management costs of the packaging they produce.[2]

Governments are rapidly enacting such policies. One in five Americans are now covered by state laws imposing fees on corporations for single-use plastic packaging.[3] The European Union has banned ten common single-use plastic pollutants and imposed a tax on non-recycled plastic packaging waste.[4] California, New York, Washington, and Illinois ban or limit hotels from disbursing small plastic bathroom amenity bottles,[5] demonstrating a heightened need for the industry to proactively address plastic use. Consumer demand for sustainable packaging is also increasing.[6]

Approximately 20% of corporations in the global plastic packaging market have committed to quantifiable plastic action and transparency.[7] Wyndham, Hilton, Marriott, and Choice have each committed to measure, disclose, and reduce their single-use plastic usage while transitioning to refillable alternatives.[8] Pew Charitable Trusts’ 2025 update to its groundbreaking study, Breaking the Plastic Wave, concluded that return- and refill-based reuse systems for packaging are central to effectively tackling plastic packaging pollution, capable of contributing nearly two-thirds of all necessary reductions in packaging waste generated.[9]

Hyatt, however, lags its competitors and fails to disclose its principal plastics data by any metric, such as total tons of plastic used, units of plastic avoided, or the percentage that is recyclable or recycled. While Hyatt had a goal to transition to large-format bathroom amenity bottles by 2021, it has failed to report any quantifiable progress towards meeting this goal.[10]

Like its peers, our Company will benefit from calculating and reporting the overall amount of single-use plastic and plastic packaging it uses, a critical first step towards evaluating how it could set and achieve an overall plastic packaging reduction goal as its competitors have done. By adopting a comprehensive approach to plastic packaging use, Hyatt can avoid regulatory, environmental, and competitive risks.

BE IT RESOLVED: Shareholders request that the Board issue a report, at reasonable expense and excluding proprietary information, analyzing whether Hyatt could disclose its overall plastic use.

[1] https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/2025/12/breaking-the-plastic-wave-2025

[2] https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2020/10/breakingtheplasticwave_mainreport.pdf, p.9

[3] https://sustainablepackaging.org/2025/10/21/packaging-policy-news/, https://epr.sustainablepackaging.org/?_gl=1*18is6bj*_ga*NTYzMjE5MTcyLjE3NjI0NTA3NDQ.*_ga_BRZMQBSHS0*czE3NjI0NTA5NDQkbzEkZzAkdDE3NjI0NTA5NDQkajYwJGwwJGgw

[4] https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/plastics/single-use-plastics_en

[5] https://www.packworld.com/leaders-new/business-drivers-specialty/sustainability/article/22919567/illinois-bans-small-plastic-hotel-toiletries-like-shampoo

[6] https://www.shorr.com/resources/blog/the-2022-sustainable-packaging-consumer-report/

[7] https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/plastics/overview?utm_campaign=2030-plastics-agenda&utm_medium=email&utm_source=emf_public_newsletter&utm_content=FORMAT_TopicWebpage/TOPIC_Plastics&utm_term=AUD_Decisionmakers/SUBAUD_Network&mc_cid=c03b9a7c3d&mc_eid=79ea9016e1

[8] https://www.asyousow.org/press-releases/2025/7/29/wyndham-to-set-plastic-reduction-goal-following-investor-engagement

[9] https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/2025/12/breaking-the-plastic-wave-2025

[10] https://newsroom.hyatt.com/single_use_plastic_reduction

Resolution Details

Company: Hyatt Hotels Corp