To the 100,000 people who check into it every year, the four-star Marriott hotel in Edinburgh is a byword for luxury from its spa bath and 24-hour room service to its 300-thread white Egyptian cotton sheets and feather down duvets. But alongside this high-end comfort are green initiatives that ensure your stay doesn't have to literally cost the earth. As well as having the option not to have your sheets washed every day during your stay, there are low-energy light bulbs in all room lamps and, outside each of the 245 bedrooms, 20-watt bulb welcome lights have been replaced by 1.5-watt light-emitting diodes.

"Being green is part of what we do on a daily basis," says general manager Peter Dornom. The hotel, which underwent a £2.5m refurbishment last year, recycles as much waste as it can and provides green meeting rooms, where heating and ventilation are set to the meeting planner's timetable. Paper, pens and flipcharts are made from recycled material. An impressive 70% of employees come to work by bus and some also cycle, taking advantage of the hotel's shower and changing facilities (with an 81% positive green score for this question). Workers agree that the environment is an everyday consideration at work, earning the company an 82% positive green score in our staff survey.

Marriott believes being green is a business imperative as more and more guests expect it, and more and more employees value it. Ten years ago initiatives such as the towel and linen reuse programmes may have been misinterpreted as a reduction in standards of service but, as more customers realise the impact of their activities on the environment, they have become more willing to do their bit.

"For more than 20 years Marriott has had an environmental conscience and has developed programmes in its hotels," says Dornom. "It is fair to say that because of global costs of energy and the increasing public awareness and support of the public to save the environment we have been able to do a lot more in the past three to five years."

Marriott's strategy to reduce its carbon footprint by 25% by 2017 includes using solar power at up to 40 hotels, expanding its reduce, reuse, recycle programmes to include guest and meeting rooms, working with its top 40 suppliers to buy greener products across its $10 billion (£6.6 billion) supply chain — from the purchase of 47m recycled plastic pens to 1m "room ready" towels, which don't have to be washed before first use, and recyclable carpets.

To help offset its carbon footprint, Marriott has also committed $2m to help protect the Juma rainforest in Brazil. Its headquarters, along with its timeshare division based in Florida, have also replaced more than 2.5m pieces of Styrofoam and plastic utensils with tableware made of potato, sugar cane and cornstarch.

While it will do all it can to be as green as it can be, balancing the needs of customers with the needs of the environment is a delicate one. The Edinburgh Marriott is trialling water-saving showerheads in some rooms and, while the early results are good, they will only be rolled out to all rooms if customers are happy with them. Many of Marriott's guests return week after week. Some even spend up to 75 nights a year there, so upsetting them is not an option. "It is no good fitting these water reducers in the showers if guests are complaining," says operations manager Robert Melrose. "It is about finding something that is of benefit to the guests, the environment and us."

Marriott believes that influencing people's behaviour as well as financial investment can contribute to important energy savings and so posters and notice boards are used to remind people to switch off lights and taps. In addition, regular information on the firm's intranet ensures workers know what progress is being made against the organisation's environmental policy, winning the company a green score of 81%.

The firm encourages staff to take part in its community programme (86%, a top five score). Sandra Gilhooley, executive secretary at the Edinburgh Marriott, who sits on the hotel's energy conservation committee, says the group is never short of volunteers for environmental projects which have included cleaning up Blackness beach. Her boss, who is also involved in green initiatives near his home, leads by example, says Gilhooley. This seems to be the case at Marriott's other hotels too (evidenced by the 82% green score for involvement in community initiatives).

Workers give an impressive 91% green score for having plenty of facilities for those who choose to walk or cycle to work, and employees feel they have a lot of power to influence Marriott's energy use (78%, a score bettered by just five other firms).

"Marriott is very green," says Melrose. "It does make me proud that the company I work for cares as much about the environment as it does about making money."