Engineering is the invisible backbone of every great hotel stay, and in this episode, we’re giving it the spotlight it deserves.
Host Radhika Arapally hears from Ram Prabhu, Multi Property Director of Engineering at Marriott Abu Dhabi. He doesn’t run a sustainability department. He runs the building. He’s the one deciding which capex projects live or die — and his team just won GITB 2025, ranking #1 globally across 8,000+ Marriott properties. We talk chiller bases vs heat pumps, why he only gets 7 out of 10 approvals, and what ESCOs look like when occupancy drops to 14%.
Ram talks about Marriott’s internal GITB (“Get in the Box”) initiative — a gamified, continuous engineering performance framework that tracks safety, energy, maintenance, compliance, and staff training across all properties globally. His team at Marriott Abu Dhabi claimed the #1 GITB ranking worldwide in 2025, a result he attributes entirely to team consistency: completing inspections a day ahead of schedule, planning seven days out, and treating engineering performance as a team sport where one missed round can cost a property its ranking for the entire year.
- What GITB actually is, and the two basics his team did to win it
- The chiller bases vs heat pump decision — and why the better ROI doesn’t always win
- Why Ram gets 7 out of 10 owner approvals, not 9
- How he translates carbon into a language chefs and finance directors will actually act on (hint: it’s not tCO₂e)
- What he tells engineers during the current downturn — and where ESCOs work, where they don’t, and why baselines are now the hardest conversation in the room
- The sustainability projects that get quietly paused when occupancy drops, and which ones survive
His approach to getting projects approved is methodical: start with low-hanging fruit to build credibility, prioritise projects that tick multiple boxes at once, and let a track record of delivery do the talking in every meeting that follows.
Supporting Hotels on Their Sustainability Journey
At Sustainability Kiosk, we help hotels embed sustainability into daily operations so it becomes a shared effort across teams. From training to solution sourcing, we support hotels in making sustainability practical and impactful.
Reach out to us to find out how we can support your hotel.
Explore more episodes on the Sustainability Stories podcast, for insights on practical sustainability tips and how hospitality can balance people, planet and profits.
