Net-zero hotels realistic, but industry 'too fragmented' for global pledge: Sustainable tourism council chief
Eco-Business asked hospitality executives how the industry can tackle rising emissions from the luxury hotels sector, and why green hotel standards are used to grade corporate processes instead of sustainability metrics.
Big hotels have the ability to neutralise their carbon emissions by mid-century, but setting a global pledge covering all the players might be too difficult, according to the head of a nonprofit that sets standards for what counts as sustainable tourism.
Instead, Randy Durband, chief executive of United States-based Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), is focusing on getting corporate “power players” that control large swathes of the hospitality business to nudge hotel clients towards green certification. Durband is also looking to tweak GSTC’s own standards to raise the bar for applicants seeking endorsement.
Hotels account for 1 per cent of global emissions, and the figure is set to increase. A 2017 review found that the industry needs to slash emissions by 66 per cent per room by 2030, and 90 per cent by 2050, for future growth to not cause an increase in carbon emissions.
But emissions were down just under 7 per cent per occupied room between 2019 and 2021, research published this month showed. Not everyone is playing ball: the emissions of higher class hotels had continued climbing.
Durband sees greater adoption of GSTC’s certification as key to a more sustainable future. But there are, by rough calculation, less than 1 per cent of hotels worldwide certified by its standard.
“We’re just going to keep pounding on [getting more hotels GSTC-certified], we’re working from every angle. That is not a threat, that is just what we are doing,” he told Singapore hoteliers last week at an event hosted by hospitality group Ascott.
