NEW YORK CITY—Sixteen of the city's major hotels are joining the NYC Carbon Challenge, pledging to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 30% or more over the next decade. The commitment by the ownership of the Waldorf-Astoria, Grand Hyatt New York and 14 other properties is projected to reduce citywide GHG emissions by an additional 32,000 metric tons.

"Whether we're talking about universities, hospitals, and offices, or large apartment buildings and hotels, all of New York City has a stake in our fight against climate change," says Mayor Bill de Blasio. "If some of New York's most iconic hotels can significantly reduce their carbon footprint, anyone can."

The mayor timed his announcement to coincide with one of the city's busiest tourism seasons, the end-of-year holidays. The Waldorf and other lodging-sector participants are joining a roster of NYC Carbon Challenge properties that total more than 250 million square feet and account for nearly 7% of building-based GHG emissions citywide.

"We launched 1 Hotels with the simple idea of creating a living platform to accelerate change towards a more sustainable future and celebrating a better way of living," says Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO at Starwood Capital Group. "Our name, '1 Hotels,' reflects that it is one world and each and every one of us can do our part to create a cleaner, more sustainable future. We are excited to be working with the NYC Mayor's Office to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and we hope that others in the industry will follow our lead."

Two 1 Hotels properties, in Brooklyn and Midtown Manhattan, are among the 16 participants announced by de Blasio on Tuesday. Along with the Waldorf and Grand Hyatt, they also include Crowne Plaza Times Square, Dream Downtown, Hotel Pennsylvania, Hudson Hotel, Loews Regency Hotel, Lotte New York Palace, the Pierre, the Peninsula New York, InterContinental New York Barclay, InterContinental New York Times Square, Roger Smith Hotel and the Westin New York at Times Square. Together, they represent almost 10 million square feet, accounting for more than 11,000 keys.