These days, many corporations choose hotels for their events based partially on what their carbon footprint will be.
When they send RFPs to hotel companies, they include questions on carbon emissions. In addition to helping them choose venues, corporations also use that information as part of measuring their own carbon footprint.
But until now it has been a challenge to compare hotels because they all measure their carbon footprint differently. Therefore, 23 global hotel companies put their competition aside to develop a standard way to measure this — the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative.
With technical expertise from KPMG, a working group of the International Tourism Partnership, the World Travel & Tourism Council and the 23 hospitality companies developed the methodology. In addition to measuring carbon emissions the same way, they also developed a common language to report on them.
Over 15,000 hotels around the world have adopted the methodology so far. It is robust enough to meet global carbon reporting standards and practical enough for any hotel to implement, from huge casinos to small bed and breakfasts.
Testing by some 50 hotels shows it takes about two hours to complete from easily available data like energy bills and suppliers. After being entered into a spreadsheet, the hotel can analyze its carbon footprint for guestrooms and meeting spaces during a specified year, per night and per guest.
"The Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative is a fantastic example
of the world's largest hotels putting their competitive differences to one side to work together in the interests of the industry overall. I hope more hotels will sign-up to use what is rapidly becoming a new industry standard," says David Scowsill, World Travel & Tourism Council CEO.
80% of Fortune 500 companies now participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project, which commits them to driving down greenhouse gas emissions and water use. In 2008, just 72 Fortune 500 companies reported business travel emissions, but that number has since risen to 203, says George Favaloro, managing director of PwC.
There's more… continue reading the complete article "Hilton, Marriott, Hotel Giants Get In Bed to Count Carbon" on the Sustainable Business News website.
