Greening Your Hotel Program

The hospitality industry is getting serious about sustainability. In late August, the World Travel & Tourism Council and International Tourism Partnership jointly announced that 12 of the globe’s largest hotel groups had formed a working party to establish a standard for calculating and reporting hotel carbon emissions. Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, Premier Inn and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide are among the big names participating, and the first standards are expected in time for the 2013 request for proposal season.

Sean Curley, director of consulting for BCD Travel’s consultancy wing Advito, welcomes the news. “A lot of clients ask green questions in their hotel RFPs, but they don’t always get an answer,” he says. “It is very encouraging that this group is approaching the issue as a collaborative effort. From a global perspective, they are the leaders.”

Under the plan, hotels will not only give buyers more green data, but that data will be consistent, allowing buyers to more accurately compare hotels’ environmental records. It won’t solve all of the verification problems that have made environmental credentials a contentious issue within the industry. But just having a single standard will be an improvement. Right now, numerous green accreditation schemes operate on regional, national or even local levels — all using different reporting criteria and methods of measurement.

While standardizing hotel carbon emissions is a move in the right direction, it’s just one step, Curley says. A carbon assessment shows consumption of electricity and other forms of energy, but that’s only one component of a comprehensive green evaluation that looks at the sustainability of materials used in construction; water conservation; food disposal; the use of environmentally friendly cleaning products; and more. He cautions that broadening the assessment will raise additional questions for travel buyers. For example, is it fair to evaluate a new property built with the latest low-carbon construction techniques against one that dates from the 19^th century?

Collecting environmental information is a challenge, and that may explain why it has taken years for the big hotels to put their heads together on this issue. Another reason for slow movement may be found in the numbers themselves. According to the Hotel Carbon Index Co., another organization that has tried to create an industry standard measurement, average carbon consumption per hotel room night is 30 kilograms (about 66 pounds). That is minuscule compared with a return flight from, say, Atlanta to Frankfurt, which the TRX Airline Carbon Emissions Calculator computes at 1,169 kg in economy class and 2,151 kg in business class (roughly 2,500 and 4,700 pounds, respectively).

Defenders of hotel carbon reporting say the collective hotel-related carbon output is significant. Plus, with many companies committed — in some cases legally — to reporting their emissions, buyers need a figure.

This leads to the final challenge regarding carbon hotel reporting: Is there any point in producing numbers if they do not lead to action? “For many companies, hotel carbon emissions is a metric in the record, but not a decision-making criterion,” Curley says.

So far, initiatives to influence traveler booking choices based on a hotel’s environmental record have mainly been in the public sector. California operates a Green Lodging Program and urges state employees to use hotels listed in the program. Similarly, the Scottish government encourages staff to use accommodation included in the United Kingdom-based Green Tourism Business Scheme, if the room rate is comparable to a hotel that is not listed.

Curley contends part of the reason businesses have not made buying choices based on hotel carbon emissions is because of the limited data. “Once the information really starts to filter through, things may change,” he says. “If this new initiative is a success, hotel carbon emissions could be a much hotter topic next year.”

GREENING YOUR HOTEL PROGRAM
Sourcing accommodation with a good environmental record is an important aspect of green hotel management, but travel buyers also can reduce environmental impacts in other ways:

• Short transfers — Choose preferred hotels that are close to locations your travelers visit regularly.
• Transport — Select hotels near good public transport and encourage staff to use it when appropriate.
• Traveler behavior — Use travel policies to reinforce environmentally friendly practices such as switching off lights and air conditioning when leaving hotel rooms.
• Conferences — Reduce paper use, avoid condiment packets at meal times, arrange for unused food to be donated and recycle paper and food and beverage containers.
• Travel avoidance — Create policies and processes that ensure employees only travel when necessary.