RLJ Lodging Trust : Corporate Sustainability Report 2024

Published: 2025-06-16 09:12:24 ET RLJ

Published on 06/16/2025 at 09:12

2024 CSR

CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

This is RLJ's third annual Corporate Sustainability Report. It covers all Environmental, Social, and Governance matters in the 2023 fiscal year and is limited to the hotels that RLJ wholly owned or possessed as an ownership interest in for all 12 months of 2023. Additionally, this report discloses historical environment performance data to track progress towards our commitment to lowering our carbon footprint.

INTRODUCTION

About This Report

ENVIRONMENTAL

SUSTAINABILITY

SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY

To Our Stakeholders

Environmental Strategy

Diversity and Inclusion

Company Overview

Case Study - Hurricanes Helene

Health and Well-Being

Core Pillars of Our Business Strategy

and Milton

Case Study - Analyst and

ESG Highlights

TCFD Overview

Internship Programs

ESG Approach

Energy and Water

Community Engagement

Corporate Responsibility Objectives

Efficiency Investments

and Philanthropy

Governance Strategy 11

Corporate Governance 12

Risk Management 13

Enterprise Risk Management 13

Environmental Risk Management 14

Cyber Risk Management 14

Stakeholder Engagement 15

Case Study - Storm

Impact Mitigation 20

Case Study - EV Charging Stations 21

Environmental Performance 22

Waste 23

Case Study - Giving Hotel

Furniture a New Life 24

Case Study - Clean the

World Partner 25

Case Study - Habitat For Humanity 31 Case Study - The 26co 32

Case Study - Industrial Bank 33

1 2024 Corporate Sustainability Report

TO OUR STAKEHOLDERS,

Corporate Responsibility is integral to our overall business strategy and commitment to driving long-term value for all stakeholders.

I am pleased to introduce RLJ Lodging Trust's third annual Corporate Sustainability Report, which underscores the meaningful progress we are making toward our environmental, social, and governance goals and provides measurable results for 2023. For RLJ, this was a year of achieving top operating performance relative to our peers against the backdrop of continuing industry recovery following COVID, and advancement of our sustainability efforts. This report not only underscores our deep commitment towards upholding our corporate responsibility, but also demonstrates our momentum towards achieving the carbon reduction target we first outlined in our 2022 report. We continue to believe that by being a good steward of our environment

and the communities where we live and work, we will create lasting value for our shareholders and associates.

With respect to reducing our environmental footprint, we have made great progress towards achieving our carbon reduction target thus far. Greenhouse gas emissions across the portfolio were down 22% from 2019, well on the way to our 35% target reduction by 2030 - and we continue to make progress towards devising a plan

to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Our carbon emission reduction in 2023 was supported by a $10.9 million investment in efficiency enhancing projects, including more than $2 million towards the implementation

of high efficiency LED lighting. Also evident in our success of reducing our carbon footprint are the initiatives from our in-house design and construction team, who remain instrumental in identifying upgrades that yield both environmental benefits as well as a return on investments. As we move further along our sustainability journey, we continue to coordinate our efforts with our third-party managers, industry associations as well as the industry leading brands we partner with, who remain at the forefront of leading sustainability practices.

Since our founding, we have consistently held a leadership mantle when it comes to social responsibility. Our commitment to

promoting an inclusive culture and organization remains steadfast. We remain one of the most diverse organizations in our industry, which is visible across every level of our company. At RLJ, 45% of our associates and 33% of our Board are women, and over half of both groups are from ethnically diverse backgrounds. We continue to support initiatives that promote greater representation across our industry and actively recruit for our analyst program at historically minority-focused colleges and universities.

Our social responsibility also extends to the communities in which we operate. RLJ and its associates continued to drive positive change in our communities in 2023, contributing significant volunteer hours and impactful charitable donations to organizations operating in our community and industry. We complemented our charitable giving with supporting causes such as participating in

a "Build Day" for Habitat for Humanity-a partnership that has now spanned over a decade. We also donated used furniture items from one of our properties in D.C. to "Community Forklift", which assists the underserved community with low-cost furnishings. Additionally, we continued to

extend our support to local, minority-owned businesses through maintaining deposits

with the Industrial Bank, a mission-focused financial institution that extends credit

to minority-owned and under-banked businesses and individuals.

Our associates remain integral to the success of our sustainability strategy, playing a key role in advancing our initiatives across the portfolio. We continue to prioritize associate well-being through enhancing engagement and professional development opportunities as well as providing them with a fun, productive environment that enhances their well-being. To this end, in 2023 we moved our headquarters to a LEED Platinum-certified building, which in addition to providing healthier air quality, natural lighting and improved ergonomics, also fosters higher engagement, collaboration and teamwork. The building also features a state-of-the-art fitness facility to support our associates on their wellness journey.

in 2023. Additionally, achievement of ESG goals was a factor in setting compensation targets for our executive team in 2023,

Our progress is closely monitored by our Board of Trustees, through the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, which continued to provide oversight and strategic direction for our ESG program

thereby aligning achievement of sustainability goals with financial incentives.

I am proud of the work that our team has done to uphold our corporate responsibility mission while serving our shareholders. We have worked to continue to improve our disclosures in recent years, which align with the GRI, SASB, and TCFD frameworks. This report presents our 2023 environmental data, which demonstrates the progress we have made towards our goal of reducing carbon emissions by 35% by 2030 and serves as a road map for our ongoing pursuit of sustainable growth.

I extend my appreciation to all of our stakeholders, especially our associates, who continue to drive RLJ forward on this Journey.

President and CEO

RLJ Lodging Trust is one of the largest US publicly traded lodging real estate investment trusts (REITs) in terms of both number of hotels and number of rooms. We seek to generate strong returns long term for our shareholders by acquiring, owning, and operating primarily premium-branded, rooms oriented, high margin hotels in markets that exhibit multiple demand generators and attractive long-term growth prospects.

AS OF MARCH 31, 2025

Hotels & Resorts

21K

Rooms

States & Territories

Disclaimer

RLJ Lodging Trust published this content on June 16, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on June 16, 2025 at 13:10 UTC.