The World Travel & Tourism Council's (WTTC) launched a set of
sustainability guidelines during its 21st Global Summit in Manila,
Philippines to serve as a road map for hotels to improve their
environmental impact.
Dubbed
the Hotel Sustainability Basics, this list outlines 12 actions for
hotels to undertake, in a bid to either kick start their sustainability
journey or further enhance their green initiatives. The set of criteria
was jointly developed by WTTC and leading hospitality players, with a
focus on reducing environmental impacts in the tourism industry.
Actionable steps that hotels can take include measuring and reducing
energy, water, waste and carbon emissions. It also contains guidelines
on how to establish a linen reuse programme, eliminate single-use
plastics, and implement green cleaning products and bulk amenity
dispensers.
With the launch of these guidelines, WTTC has issued a clarion call
to all hotel operators, owners, associations, and investors around the
world to implement the criteria over the next three years across the
board.
Julia Simpson, President & CEO, WTTC, said that the launch of the
Hotel Sustainability Basics will help “ensure no hotel, however small,
is left behind in the drive to introduce basic sustainability measures
within a minimum level in the next three years.”
“Sustainability is non-negotiable but not every small hotel has
access to the science on how to make a difference,” Simpson added. “This
gives everyone access to a global standard and provides consumers to
travel with conference.”
This initiative that serves to further push the green movement in the
hospitality sector has since been backed by many tourism leaders,
including Wolfgang M. Neumann, sustainable hospitality alliance chair.
“Every industry must do its part to ensure the future of our planet
and its people,” Neumann said, with the hotels sector not being an
exception. ““This initiative acts as a stepping stone to the Sustainable
Hospitality Alliance’s Pathway to Net Positive Hospitality which will
enable every hotel to take a strategic and progressive approach to
achieving a positive environmental impact, whatever their starting
point.”
By supporting this initiative and completing the Green Lodging Trends
Survey to benchmark their performance and keep track of progress, hotel
groups, brands and operators can become recognised as WTTC supporters.