SUSTAINABILITY
GREEN ROOMS
Understanding, tracking and then reducing the environmental impact of accommodation programmes is far from straightforward
By Felicity Cousins (Published 31 October 2023)
Question after question rolled in for the speakers appearing on an accommodation-themed panel debate at the Institute of Travel Management’s recent autumn conference in London, and there was a lot of heat around one particular topic – sustainable hotel programmes.
When will the hotel industry agree, in terms of defined standards, what a “green” hotel looks like, asked one buyer. When considering RFPs, should accommodation providers with certified sustainability credentials take priority over others, asked another attendee. The questions continued: What plans are there from suppliers and intermediaries to report on environmental impact post-stay? Should RFPs focus on hotel sustainability audits given impending sustainability reporting directives?
Buyers were concerned about the accuracy of data and if sustainability is not the top priority – falling behind price, location and facilities – then at what level should their accommodation programmes be pitched when it comes to sustainability?
There was palpable enthusiasm for the topic, but also a sense in the room that buyers were feeling the pressure to understand their responsibility and how to even start creating a programme that meets ESG goals and priorities and fosters compliance.
The pressure for some is due to the EU's forthcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and a growing focus on the sustainability of accommodation, which has often fallen in the shadow of air travel's considerable environmental impact.
According to HRS, some 30 per cent of emissions from an average business trip are accounted for by hotels, and it’s widely reported that hotels account for one per cent of all global carbon emissions. Airlines account for two to four per cent, according to most sources.
Michael Hill, director, global travel services and procurement indirects, at Kantar says that while hotel emissions are important “we are nowhere near receiving usable data as far as I am concerned when we compare to what we receive on air [travel] data.
“To be fair, even the air data is not clean, but it does give a corporate something to work on. Better data and discussions around what hotels can – as much as possible – accurately reflect will go a long way to helping create awareness over and beyond just reusing your towels.”
Kerry Douglas, head of programme at the UK's Institute of Travel Management says its travel buyer members are absolutely committed to hotel sustainability and need specific, consistent and auditable actions and information. “Our buyer members want and need transparent and comparable data from hotels to understand, manage and report on the impact of their business travel. Gone are the days when the focus was just on emissions from air travel.”
TakeTwo Travel Solutions has also seen an increase in clients asking about hotels' environmental footprint. Julie Cope, the TMC's chief operating officer, says: “We are definitely seeing that more clients want to understand the carbon footprint of their hotel programmes, not just their emissions from air travel.”
HOTELS TAKING ACTION
With everyone racing towards achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the pressure is on, and hotels have not been complacent. Although the biggest emissions for the hotel sector comes from their construction and embodied carbon (which must also be considered when looking at emissions data), it’s the operational side that most focus on.
Hotels can actively and transparently reduce their carbon emissions by taking measures such as changing lights to LED, banning single-use plastic and installing solar panels. Hotels can also adopt energy management systems which monitor when people are in the room and adjust the air con and lighting accordingly, and can control water usage with low-flow showers and even help minimise food waste.
Several hotel groups have introduced AI to monitor food waste with technology such as Winnow and Orbisk calculating waste and carbon emissions. Accor is aiming for a 50 per cent reduction in food waste across its hotels by 2030 and has set up 200 pilot programmes to tackle the issue. Meanwhile, at the other end of the kitchen, Hilton has just announced new low impact menus at 30 hotels across the UK, developed in partnership with sustainability experts Klimato.
And then there is scope 3 emissions, which has always been regarded as the mountain to climb because it relies on the entire supply chain also being sustainable. Enter the Hospitality Alliance for Responsible Procurement (HARP), which was announced in October, co-founded by Accor, Marriott, Hilton, IHG Hotels & Resorts and the Radisson Hotel Group. The partnership was created alongside two global hospitality purchasing organisations – Avendra and Entegra – and sustainability rating agency EcoVadis.
HARP will help all hotels in each group worldwide with their sustainable procurement, which will be critical if the hospitality sector is going to achieve scope 3 carbon emissions reduction targets.
MISSING NUMBERS
But, as influential management consultant and thought leader Peter Druker famously said, ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure’. Moreover, if hotels can’t share that data in a useful way it won’t marry up with what corporate travel buyers need.
The problem for both parties is that there is no standardisation of the type and depth of data that hotels need to provide. The Green Lodging Trends Report, which benchmarks hotels across measurable sustainable metrics, is one resource for hotels, but the way they present their data to corporates is another issue.
Some online booking tools provide hotel data at the point of search to enable companies to make decisions based on this. Claire Whitely, head of environment at the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance says: “Others have gone down the route of green icons which enable them to take more factors than just carbon into account. Different corporates have different priorities that they may want to reflect in their purchasing choices, or they may be looking for specific guest-facing activities that hotels are doing.”
For example, Whitely says businesses who have switched their staff cars to EV fleets will want information on which hotels have EV charging points.
The type of data being offered can also vary depending on the hotel's size, commitment to sustainability, and what is being asked of them. Some may have inhouse reporting tools for individual hotels, which can be very specific, while others are based simply on hotel category and size and location, which can be found through the Hotel Footprinting Tool (HFT) and Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmark (CHSB).
The lack of hotel-specific data is an issue as there is a vast difference in environmental impact depending on the age of the building, whether the hotel has procured renewable energy, and the facilities – such as swimming pools, restaurants and bars – that it has.
Whitely says: “Data for specific hotels is the best option to use but, given the fragmented nature of the industry, this can be hard to get hold of so the data from CHSB and the HFT are often the best available.”
Michael Hill agrees: “It is not easy to decipher as far as I am concerned. Are hotels/groups even willing to do this amount of in-depth analysis? I have not seen the amount of focus as there is on air.”
However, data management options for hotels have stepped up in the last few years. Weeva, for example, helps hotels adopt measurable sustainability practices to improve operational efficiency.
The digital platform captures consumption data on energy, water and waste, as well as conservation and impact data on project spend, and the number of direct and indirect beneficiaries.
BeCause is another company contributing to the upwards spiral. Since 2018 it has worked with more than 17,000 hotels to provide transparent sustainability data to their stakeholders. It helps hotels collect, coordinate and communicate their sustainability data, connecting certification entities, travel providers and distributors.
There are also industry organisations which can help hotels such as the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance with its free standardised carbon measurement methodology (HCMI), the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), Green Key, Gate 4, Thrust Carbon’s TC-HSI, Solid Source, LEED, NordicSwan, HRS and more.
Kerry Douglas says: “There has definitely been progress and more options to support transparency and comparison across a hotel programme. This is set to continue and ultimately bring greater alignment in the sector.” ITM set up a Sustainable Taskforce earlier this year to help buyers shape responsible travel programmes.
GREEN RFPs
And what about RFPs – what should buyers be asking of their suppliers when it comes to sustainability data?
Sophie Hulgard, chief sales office Accor says: “We really are seeing buying decisions being driven by supplier sustainability performance. One corporate’s 2024 RFPs will impose a mandatory HRS Green Stay label for hotels to be accepted, with no exceptions.”
HRS’ Green Stay Initiative offers corporate programmes the option to select what it has verified as a sustainable hotel. It has attracted big brand hotels across 170 countries since it launched in 2021.
ITM’s Douglas says when it comes to the RFP process, buyers should keep it simple. “Limit questions to what is most relevant to your business, and focus on key areas such as renewable energy, sourcing of F&B, waste, looking after staff and community.”
Kantar’s Hill says he asks about “water and reusing to better effect, sustainability around D&I/child labour etc, efficiency, renewable energy, food wastage – there is so much.”
Hill adds that he is also being asked questions “by shareholders and partners on how we as a company are looking at CSRD across all categories.”
The Sustainable Hospitality Alliance’s Whitely thinks one of the biggest challenges in the industry is the lack of consistency in the data, but she remains positive.
“If hotel companies are being asked to provide the same information and metrics then this can help them to provide good quality and comparable information, while letting them focus more of their time on working on initiatives which make their hotels more sustainable and, in turn, reduce the scope 3 environmental impacts of corporate companies staying with them,” she says.
One buyer at the ITM's autumn conference asked whether accommodation providers with sustainability accreditations should be prioritised over others. If there was a standard global sustainability certification, the answer to this question would be a simple yes or no depending on where sustainability sits in your hierarchy of goals. But this is where the sector is a bit of a mess, with more than 200 hotel sustainability accreditation bodies worldwide, some of which are more trusted than others.
Accor’s Hulgard says most RFPs now include a question about certification and specifically: “Is the hotel certified by a Global Sustainable Tourism Council-recognised standard?”.
All the elements are coming together, but now more than ever it is crucial for hotels to demonstrate clear ESG strategies, communicate and share data, so corporates can see tangible evidence of a partner’s commitment to reduce its own environmental impact.
Will sustainable choices push up hotel rates?
It depends, is the somewhat unhelpful answer. According to Tripbam’s Peter Grover: “We’ve had some corporates say: ‘Don’t shout this out loud but we don’t necessarily care most about the rate. The property we are staying in must have sustainable credentials because we have an organisational target to reduce our CO2.’ If you have a hotel which can prove it is ecologically sound, then some corporates will be prepared to pay more than for a similar one down the road.”
However, HRS’s Alexander Dyskin says: “In general, hotels with a lower CO2 footprint are not more expensive.” That’s because midscale and budget hotels offer fewer of the luxurious amenities that rack up emissions, such as a spa.
Yet downgrading is not always an option for reasons of traveller comfort and buyers also need to see the big picture of their entire supplier strategy. “Making hotels more sustainable can require investment,” says Dyskin. “In general, clients would like to stay with their strategic partners. In that case, maybe they are ready to invest a little more if they see the carbon footprint is being reduced at those properties.”
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