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Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative - 15,000 Hotels and Rising by Scott parisi
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Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative - 15,000 Hotels and Rising |
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Business
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Over the past several years the hospitality industry has experienced an uprising in awareness regarding environmental concerns. Whether you are the Chief Engineer focused on reducing your utility bills, a sales manager answering an environmental questions asked on today’s RFP’s (Request For Proposal) or a GM wondering how we just lost that meeting to a competing hotel we are all responsible to know our impact on the environment.
Two extremely credible organizations The International Tourism Partnership (ITP), founded in 1992, bringing together the world’s leading international hotel companies to provide a voice for environmental and social responsibility and The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) the global authority on the economic and social contribution of Travel & Tourism have been driving a solution that will allow the hospitality industry to look at carbon measurement on an even playing field.
Over 15,000 hotels around the world have so far adopted the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI) methodology that allows them, for the first time, to calculate and communicate the carbon footprint of hotel stays and meetings in a consistent and transparent way.
This huge achievement is the result of months of hard work by the working group of International Tourism Partnership (ITP), the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and 23 leading global hospitality companies to roll out the methodology to their properties and to communicate the initiative to a wide range of stakeholders –including industry associations, certification bodies and corporate customers.
Version 1.1 of the methodology was issued June 5th 2013 to mark World Environment Day. This latest version gives greater clarity on reporting emissions and has been streamlined to make it more user-friendly, including easy-reference emissions factor tables.
HCMI, a voluntary and free methodology, has been developed to be robust enough to meet global carbon reporting standards but also practical enough for any hotel to implement, from huge casino hotels to small bed and breakfasts.
worldAt the recent WTTC Global Summit in Abu Dhabi, Bill Clinton acknowledged the importance of HCMI in his keynote address, stating that the travel industry has already started to take on the environmental agenda and that he was delighted to see the development of HCMI, thanking all companies involved for their collective efforts on it.
David Scowsill, President & CEO of WTTC said, “The Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative is a fantastic example of the world’s largest hotels putting their competitive differences to one side to work together in the interests of the industry overall. It is fitting that we mark World Environment Day with the release of the next version and I hope that even more hotels will sign-up to use what is rapidly becoming a new industry standard”.
Stephen Farrant, Director of ITP says, “The industry’s willingness and ability to come together to make sense of the carbon issue, for the benefit of the customer, is a significant achievement and a great example of practical, effective collaboration on a critical environmental concern. With such a high volume of hotels globally now measuring their carbon footprint in a consistent way, and with corporate customers increasingly hungry for this information, this is a great step forward on World Environment Day.”
The Working Group responsible for the creation of HCMI comprises of leading international hotel companies such as Accor, Beijing Tourism Group, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, Diamond Resorts International, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Worldwide, Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels, Hyatt Corporation, Inter Continental Hotels Group, Jumeirah Group, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Marriott International Inc, Meliá Hotels International, MGM Resorts International, NH Hotel’s, Orient-Express Hotels Ltd, Pan Pacific Hotel Group, Premier Inn – Whit bread Group, Star wood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, The Red Carnation Hotel Collection, TUI AG, Wyndham Worldwide.
Every green hotel should have a plan in place to benchmark their current energy, water and waste. Once a benchmark is identified goals to reduce their environmental impact must be developed and executed on. Probably most important is to measure results into the future to ensure your sustainable strategies are making the expected impact on reduction. There are properties that are loosing business because they are unable to quantify their carbon footprint to prospective corporate travel or meeting planners. It is refreshing to see so many properties adapt HCMI.
For further information, please contact: info@hotelcarboninitiative.org or see www.tourismpartnership.org
About the Author
Scott Parisi is President of EcoGreenHotel, a firm that develops energy and sustainability projects for commercial buildings with a large focus on the hospitality sector. As President of EGH, Scott’s day to day responsibilities include developing and implementation of energy and sustainability strategies into hotels, leveraging federal state and local utility incentives to subsidies projects and building partnerships with like minded companies that add value to EGH’s client base. Additionally, Scott develops and hosts educational workshops, staff trainings and has spoke at national and regional events including AAHOA’s National Convention, Green Lodging & Hospitality Conference, Boston Green Tourism Events, Philagreen Hospitality Association Events, GF Management University Sessions, National Purchasing Network Annual Expo and the Global Renewable Energy Networking Summit.For more details visit www.ecogreenhotel.com
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Green hotel, Green hotel products, hotel product supplier, hotel product suppliers, Green hotel consulting, Green hotel management, Environmental hotel,
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