I've enjoyed being back at my desk after a summer chasing our three boys around France on bikes, down waterslides and on surfboards in the tumbling waves of the Atlantic, while chucking croissants and brie their way to keep up morale. Spending this time with them is golden, but watching them run into school last week was also a delight.
We have a packed newsletter with a few stories from the summer, in case you missed them, and last week we brought you an exclusive interview with Fabio Fornari, product manager for sustainability HRS, talking about the latest report, the State of Sustainability in Corporate Travel, which among other findings highlighted that corporates can save money booking sustainable accommodation.
Hotel sector veteran John Wagner, co-founder and CEO of Cycas Hospitality, has joined Zeal Hotels as a non-executive director. Wagner’s appointment comes as Zeal Hotels prepares to open its first net zero carbon hotel, the voco Zeal Exeter Science Park, in January 2025.
And the EEA has launched a global consultation led by its newly established Taskforce on Hotels & Lodging Sustainability Standards. A big step towards the alignment the sector so needs. More on that below,
Until next time,
Felicity Cousins
Editor, Sustainable Hotel News
Image: Joshua Rawson-Harris on Unsplash
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Corporate lodging platform HRS has released its State of Sustainability in Corporate Travel report today, with Fabio Fornari product manager for sustainability HRS talking exclusively about the results to Sustainable Hotel News.
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The Energy & Environment Alliance (EEA) has launched a global consultation led by its newly established Taskforce on Hotels & Lodging Sustainability Standards.
The initiative will work to develop industry-wide agreements on sustainability standards, benchmarks and financial performance metrics for the hotels and lodging sector.
The Taskforce aims to focus on standards set by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), which collectively set the global benchmarks for financial and sustainability disclosures.
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Travalyst, the not-for-profit global coalition of some of the biggest brands in travel and technology, has revealed which sustainability certifications meet its new criteria.
In February Travalyst announced it would be creating the certification initiative in consultation with the GSTC to ensure alignment with industry standards.
At the time it told Sustainable Hotel News: “Travalyst maintains ongoing communication with industry organisations such as GSTC and WTTC to ensure alignment across the industry for initiatives like this one.”
The move came a month before Booking.com, a partner of Travalyst, dropped its Travel Sustainable programme, which was launched in 2021. The digital travel platform said it would introduce new labelling for properties, which have attained third-party sustainability certification.
The aim of Travalyst’s certification initiative, which is free and open to all sustainability certifications for accommodation providers globally, is to ensure certification bodies meet a set of criteria to enable industry alignment, “strengthen credibility and create consistency in which certifications are displayed on travel booking platforms.”
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Hotel sector veteran John Wagner, co-founder and CEO of Cycas Hospitality, has joined Zeal Hotels as a non-executive director.
Wagner’s appointment comes as Zeal Hotels prepares to open its first net zero carbon hotel, the voco Zeal Exeter Science Park, in January 2025.
Wagner will support the team as they develop the net zero carbon Zeal Hotel brand and help to promote ESG collaboration within the hospitality industry.
The hotel surpasses the 2050 target for energy efficiency and will create more energy that it will utilise.
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The World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Hotel Sustainability Basics programme has achieved more than 5,000 verified properties across 80 countries.
Hotels in major destinations across Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific have adopted Basics, and the programme has new partnerships in Japan, the Philippines and India.
Basics is also set to expand across India with support from WTTC Members The Indian Hotels Company Limited, Radisson India, WTTC India Initiative, Hotel Association of India, and the online travel agency MakeMyTrip.
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The UK’s first Passivhaus project is underway with the demolition of a renowned hotel in Runswick Bay, North Yorkshire.
Cliffemount Hotel was once a popular tourist destination but it closed in 2022 and was bought by the Fojt family, who have strong links to Runswick Bay.
Last year the family announced they intended to demolish the old hotel and rebuild Cliffemount as a new 20 sea-view room hotel, pub and restaurant.
Focusing on sustainability, the project will follow strict design and building regulations set by The Passivhaus Trust.
If successful, the new Cliffemount will be the first hotel in the UK to achieve Passivhaus accreditation.
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A new EV charging point operator, Zapgo, is aiming to fill the gap outside London, where hotel guests find it harder to charge their electric vehicles.
Research from the department for transport on July 1, 2024, shows an uneven geographical distribution of charging devices within the UK.
London has significantly more charging provision than other parts of the country with parts of Northern England having 50 per cent fewer charge points than the capital.
According to research from Drax EV, more than 90 per cent of city hotels outside London lack EV charging infrastructure. Analysing more than 15,000 hotels in 74 cities, the research found that only 6 per cent of city hotels provide access to EV chargers.
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Felicity Cousins, editor of Sustainable Hotel News, launched Sustainability Bites with Michael Mason-Shaw, general manager of Hyatt Place London City East, to bring together experts across the hotel and sustainability sectors. Hosted by Hyatt Place London City East, the inaugural Sustainability Bites event saw a select group of leaders from the industry invited to a round table chat about the G of ESG.
Joining Michael Mason-Shaw and Felicity Cousins were; Ufi Ibrahim CEO of the Energy and Environment Alliance, Jamie Craze senior business analyst, Omnevue, Anjana Raza head of training and development, World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, Paul Wells partner Studio Moren and Sarah Duncan ESG consultant and author.
Since we held the event and wrote this piece, Mason-Shaw has been appointed as regional director of operations Cycas hospitality UK. Pino Dispinseri takes on the role as general manager of Hyatt Place, London City East.
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