World’s largest hotel chains collaborate over carbon emissions

The hospitality industry has issued an update of its programme enabling hotels to calculate and communicate the carbon footprint of stays and meetings consistently and transparently.

The new version of the programme, already adopted by more than 15,000 hotels worldwide, is claimed to give greater clarity on reporting emissions and to be easier to use, partly because it has simple emissions factor tables.

The programme, called the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative, was devised by the International Tourism Partnership (ITP), the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and 23 global hospitality companies.

The organisers say it meets global carbon reporting standards and is practical enough for all establishments to implement, from huge casino hotels to small bed-and-breakfast guest-houses.

Former US President Bill Clinton welcomed the programme at the WTTC global summit in Abu Dhabi.

David Scowsill, the WTTC president and chief executive, told delegates: “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.”

Stephen Farrant, the ITP director, said: “The industry’s willingness and ability to come together to make sense of the carbon issue, for the benefit of the customer, is a significant achievement and a great example of practical, effective collaboration on a critical environmental concern.”

** In Britain, Best Western, the largest independent hotel group in Britain, has set up the world’s first network of electric car charging stations. In the car parks at 50 of its hotels guests can now plug in their electric car batteries.

Best Western intends eventually to offer the service at all its 270 hotels, half of them by September.

Angela Burns, Best Western’s chairman and a longstanding electric car driver, said: “There are currently some 10,000 electric car users on UK roads, but that really is the tip of the iceberg. There will, according to the latest Department of Transport figures, be 1.2m e-cars on UK roads by 2020.

“Those cars will each require a charging station, which means there will need to be 1.2m charging stations by 2020, of which 10% must be publicly accessible, like our charging stations.”

Charles Roberts, a spokesman for Zero Carbon World, a green charity committed to reducing Britain’s carbon footprint, with which the group has worked closely on the project, said: “Best Western’s initiative is a massive thumbs-up for electric cars.”