WORLDWIDE: HRS, the corporate hotel booking platform, has launched technology for hotels to manage emissions data from business travel and for corporates to invest in removing those emissions.
The Emissions Compensation Programme (ECP) offers an automated process for hotels who are already members of HRS’ Green Stay initiative, to compensate for scope 3 emissions related to business travellers’ stays.
The idea is that once the emissions from a stay have been calculated there will be an investment per room per night for the amount of CO2 to be removed or invested into carbon avoidance solutions. The cost typically ends up being just one per cent of ADR.
We have written extensively about carbon removal, which needs to run alongside carbon reduction practices in order to reach net zero. Investing in a carbon removal portfolio now will further mitigate the “carbon bill” further down the line. You can read more about this here and below.
There is no cost to corporates for using the ECP and hotels don’t pay HRS anything to be part of the scheme, rather, they pay the compensation costs that go directly to the verifiable climate protection projects HRS works with (e.g. Gold Standard and Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards).
The cost that the hotel funds is calculated based on the CO2 per room night and the price of 15 Euros per carbon credit (which equals 1 tonne of CO2).
Martin Biermann, HRS’ chief product officer told Sustainable Hotel News: “The hotel gains from the inherent simplicity of automation handling the payment to a verified compensation project, and its increased standing among competing properties given its cumulative operational and compensation sustainable attributes.”
The idea that corporates can make their business travel carbon zero will be attractive with the new CSRD regulations coming into place in January. HRS’ scheme will be equally attractive to hotels who want to put themselves at the top of the “yes” list when it comes to being chosen for an accommodation programme.
The Emissions Compensation Programme model makes it easy for hoteliers to highlight their participation during the procurement and booking processes used by companies and participating hotels will be marked with a dedicated label for companies seeking reductions and compensation for emissions.
HRS CEO Tobias Ragge said: “There is a growing acknowledgement that only advanced technology can truly drive meaningful carbon emission reduction.
“This transparent solution neatly leverages technology to give hoteliers a cost-competitive avenue to enhance their sustainability attributes and support quality carbon reduction activities that can be tracked and reported by corporations.”
HRS will be offering free webinars to hoteliers about ECP across 2024 through its Knowledge Hub.
Image: Matthias Heyde Unsplash