Workmates clean up Brighton beach for the afternoon

The volunteers, who work for American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), a travel management company part owned by American Express, took to the pebbles to collect rubbish along the stretch of coastline between Brighton Marina and the Hilton Metropole hotel.

The initiative was aimed at reducing litter pollution and its impact on the environment and wildlife as part of both companies’ commitment to supporting communities and the environment.

Jason Geall, vice president for Northern Europe at American Express GBT, said: “This is a great opportunity for our staff to give back to communities. We work with Hilton every day as strategic partners and suppliers, but this is the first time we have been able to come together on an initiative like this.

“We have global initiatives, but I’m so proud of this type of grassroots action we are seeing here today.

“This has been organised by a group of passionate UK employees who had an idea and turned it into action.

“That embodies everything that we stand for. Coming together, taking action and seeing great results.”

The rubbish collected was recorded and will be reported back to Brighton and Hove City Council to provide insights for its environmental initiatives.

All participants in the beach clean enjoyed refreshments at the Hilton afterwards. Claire Whitely, senior manager corporate responsibility at Hilton, said: “Through ‘travel with purpose’, our corporate responsibility strategy, Hilton is committed to preserve our planet for future generations and we’re thrilled to be able to work with key partners of ours, like American Express GBT, to build on the positive impacts we each have on our own."

Sally Higgs, an account manager at GBT, said: “We set up our sustainability and social impact group, which is an employee-led initiative, this year and this is our first activity we’ve brought everyone together for.

“We have got rid of single-use plastics from our offices and push sustainable travel to our clients.”