WORLDWIDE: Corporate housing platform, AltoVita, has launched a carbon calculator for its clients after partnering with Thrust Carbon.
AltoVita EcoStats will analyse sustainability data and property specific information to calculate an estimate of carbon emissions in Kg per room per night.
The free carbon calculator has been developed to help clients get a grip on their carbon emissions for corporate housing, in line with new emissions and reporting regulations, such as the EU’s CSRD, which comes into effect in January 2024.
The idea is that EcoStats won’t just offer carbon calculations but will be a ‘sustainability suite’ for AltoVita’s clients with the aim to offer information to companies on how to reduce their C02 emissions and measure and report those emissions.
Next year it will also develop the way it calculates these emissions and in Q1 it will be able to make the calculation based on the duration of the booking and other considerations, such as the number of guests and seasonality.
The corporate housing platform also has plans to offer the option to keep traveller bookings within company sustainability policy.
AltoVita was already collecting data from its corporate housing operator network as part of its onboarding process long before CSRD was announced.
Mikhail Lortkipanidze senior product manager AltoVita spoke exclusively to Sustainable Hotel News ahead of the launch. He said: “Even before 2021 when the CSRD was first announced our clients were looking for a way to calculate their emissions, and they already had carbon reduction goals set.
“We were exploring ways of how to use this source data to calculate emissions per stay and we partnered with Thrust Carbon, because it is a specialist in CO2 emissions calculations, and we are not. We believe it will help us keep abreast of current regulations and be compliant with the way to report them, keeping our clients confident about the solutions we offer them.”
Lortkipanidze added that Thrust Carbon’s API is flexible and can consume all the data points which AltoVita collects from its housing operators. In the UK this could be the EPC certificates and Green Tourism certifications, which include data about scope 1 and 2.
Thrust Carbon analyses the data from these sources, as well as looking at renewable energy usage, carbon tracking, low energy lighting, the use of single-use plastic, recycling schemes, and responsible sourcing, and then the information goes through the API to calculate the carbon emissions.
The calculated volume of CO2 emissions per night is then made available in AltoVita’s search results (see image above).
In a new phase of the project, next year users will be able to filter their search based on carbon emissions, as well as the usual filters like size, location, amenities and length of stay.
For those looking to stay inside traveller policy, Lortkipanidze explained the next phase for EcoStats will be to implement a feature called EcoCap, which is a bit like a carbon cap sustainability policy manager.
He said: “That would help clients set out their own [sustainability] caps like they do with the budget – we have this planned for Q1 or Q2, 2024.”
AltoVita’s clients will have a couple of options on how to display the sustainability information to their travellers when booking.
One option is to enforce the EcoCap idea in the search results so that unsuitable results would be filtered out. The other way would flag up the sustainable options and let travellers choose (with education around the company policy). This will be essential for behavioural change, showing the difference in emissions, so that travellers can make more conscious choices.
So is the information ready across all seven million AltoVita offerings?
Lortkipanidze said: “When we launch the product we will have 100 per cent of the information ready, but for some markets, where their sustainability practices are not very finite yet, Thrust Carbon will show us the averages based on the data they possess for those markets.”
The carbon calculator tool will explain where an estimate has been used so that the user can understand the information shown.
Thrust Carbon primarily utilises methodologies, which focus on Scope 1 and Scope 2. Scope 3 data points will be taken from sources such as Green Tourism certification data in the UK.
As such, Scope 3 emission information will heavily depend on the data that is provided by corporate housing operators, and what AltoVita can then share with Thrust Carbon.
However, AltoVita also has a Tech Hospitality team that is focused on automating ways to collect data more seamlessly from hospitality operators. Both this team and its Hospitality Growth team aim to educate operators on why the sustainability data is essential for clients, as well as the benefits it can bring to them. This includes how to keep track of their operations and suppliers for Scope 3 reporting.
EcoStats looks set for evolution, but will that mean the free tool will end up with an evolving price tag?
Lortkipanidze said: “It’s free at the moment for all clients for the next year at least. We want to bring our clients more value through the product.”
Sarah Whiting channel solutions lead at Thrust Carbon recently spoke on a panel about sustainability data across the industry at AltoVita’s London event. STAY Camden won the award for sustainability at the evening awards known as The Altos. You can read more about that here.
In other news, Bob W recently asked the extended stay sector to get “naked with its numbers” and SilverDoor launched a carbon calculator at the end of last month.
Image supplied: AltoVita