The nuances of carbon footprinting for hotels
From the Blog, The Good, the Bad, and the Funky, by Yvette Jong, for HOTELSmag.com
Being proactive and measuring your hotel’s carbon footprint in one form or another is commendable. But regardless of how you measure it, who you do it for or why you do it at all, be transparent about your methodology and overall CSR strategy. Written clearly and concisely, a CSR report can speak volumes.
After attending CSR and carbon footprinting workshops and having great dialogues with some of the movers and shakers in hotel sustainability, I came to the following conclusions:
The more we learn, the more we realize how little we know.
There’s no right or wrong way to measure your carbon footprint.
Widening your scope, boundaries and factors included doesn’t necessarily make your calculation more accurate than someone else’s.
When you start calculating the carbon footprint of employees, guests and the supply chain, there are always possibilities of double accounting.
To be frank, when scientists have difficulty correctly measuring a carbon footprint, it should make us in the hospitality industry feel a little bit better.
So what’s the solution?
Being proactive and measuring your hotel’s carbon footprint in one form or another is commendable. But regardless of how you measure it, who you do it for or why you do it at all, be transparent about your methodology and overall CSR strategy. Written clearly and concisely, a CSR report can speak volumes.
Craft House Founder and Director, Yvette Jong, contributes regularly to her HOTELS Magazine Blog titled, "The Good, the Bad and the Funky." Topics of discussion include all aspects of hospitality development, operations, branding, marketing, human resources, sustainability and much more.