The Sustainable Hospitality Alliance has launched the Pathway to Net Positive Hospitality for the Planet. The vision of the Pathway is that every hotel around the world can, and must, aim for net positive environmental impacts, whatever their starting point.
To achieve this goal, the Pathway provides a practical, four-stage guidance framework as a free resource that supports all parts of the hospitality value chain to progress in a cohesive, strategic manner. It includes detailed action guidance for hotel operators, brands and asset owners, applicable to both single or multi-unit organizations.
The Pathway outlines increasing environmental ambitions and scope across the four stages that take account of the different levels of sustainability maturity across the industry. The accompanying resources enable users to build individualized action plans which are relevant to their specific situation and location.
Sustainability is crucially important to the sector’s long-term success and that all businesses need to evolve and innovate as stakeholder needs and expectations change. With 83% of global travelers stating that sustainable travel is vital, combined with the vulnerability of the industry to environmental impacts such as extreme weather and water scarcity, a robust sustainability strategy is now an essential element for all hospitality businesses.
Climate action failure is ranked as the top global risk in the 2022 World Economic Forum Global Risks Report,2 which also includes extreme weather, biodiversity loss, human environmental damage, and natural resource crises. The Pathway has addressed these key environmental issues in relation to the hospitality industry, and includes emissions, water, consumption, waste and biodiversity in the action planning.
The Pathway to Net Positive Hospitality has both been created in direct collaboration with the hospitality industry and its value chain, in consultation with environmental and industry experts. The vision and approach is supported by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), which represents the global Travel & Tourism private sector, and aligns with their work to provide a robust foundation for sustainability across the industry.
Wolfgang M. Neumann, Sustainable Hospitality Alliance Chair said: “Our Pathway fills the current vacuum of a coordinated and focused strategic plan across the hospitality industry to tackle the urgently needed climate actions. It is a practical tool for any hotel, no matter their starting point, to obtain guidance on how to prioritize and sequence targeted and measurable climate actions. The Alliance wants to encourage all hotels to embrace the journey all the way to net positive. We are spearheading the dialogue beyond having ‘zero’ impact and setting a vision for what we can be putting back into the natural world with a lasting ‘positive’ impact on our planet and its people.”
The final two stages of the Pathway will be released later in 2022 after further consultation to account for the changing landscape and fully explore the more complex challenges.
Anna Wolfe, Senior Editor - Restaurants
