INTERNATIONAL REPORT—Greenview has just released its 2024 Green Lodging Trends Report (GLTR). There were 20,000 participating hotels across 50 countries. There were two data collection methods; direct participation by responding to the GLTR on the Greenview Portal, the sustainability data management platform, or via bulk data set received from companies. Among the companies participating: Hilton Worldwide and Marriott International. Greenview assessed 80 best practices in the 2024 GLTR, including hotel profiles (geographic location, service type, STR chain scale and hotel type). The hotel profiles enabled further data dissections by each of the breakdowns.
The report includes roadmaps which offer tangible steps that hotels of all sizes can implement to make progress on various sustainability themes, as well as data on hotels’ water usage, energy consumption and carbon emissions from the Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index (CHSB) 2024. Also included are relevant policies and trends to offer hotels contextual insights for their sustainability planning.
Launched in 2016, the initiative seeks to assess and catalyze sustainability innovation and best practices and promote awareness of the state of sustainability across hotels worldwide. GLTR originally began as an annual exercise with reports published for three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018. After the 2018 report, GLTR shifted to a biennial exercise in order to capture trends over a two-year period.
A Benchmarking Report
By participating in the GLTR, hotels receive a confidential, bespoke benchmarking report that includes a comparison of performance against peers based on the data available per hotel profile. Participating hotels also stand a chance to be featured in the GLTR for outstanding sustainability best practices. In fact, the report is filled with best practice examples.
The GLTR groups sustainability practices into themes (e.g., single-use plastic, climate action, community, etc.) with each chapter providing a summary of findings with deeper analytics and visual charts per best practice. All best practices are further grouped into the following four categories based on their adoption rates: Common practices (75 percent and above), Established practices (50 percent to 74 percent), Emerging practices (25 percent to 49 percent), and Innovative practices (less than 25 percent).
The best practices incorporate the Hotel Sustainability Basics Initiative (“The Basics”), developed by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) together with its partners. Of the 80 best practices covered in the report, 17 align with The Basics. The best practices also aligned with some of the key criteria included in the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) certification. The GLTR serves to not only catalyze the uptake of common best practices, but also accelerate the adoption of innovative and emerging best practices so that they become more established and common.
Common practices identified in the report:
96.4 percent of all hotels have implemented initiatives to reduce inequalities.
95.9 percent of all hotels have implemented a linen reuse program.
93.2 percent of all hotels are tracking carbon emissions, typically at least once a month.
91.7 percent of all hotels have replaced plastic mini toiletry bottles with alternatives like refillable amenity dispensers for shampoo, conditioner, soap and lotion. Canada, Colombia, the Maldives, Mexico, and Taiwan jointly lead with an impressive 100 percent adoption rate in replacing mini toiletry bottles.
90.9 percent of all hotels have an action plan to reduce carbon emissions.
83.1 percent of all hotels track their energy consumption, most of whom do so on a monthly basis.
82.0 percent of all hotels track water consumption, typically at least once a month.
81.8 percent of all hotels have an action plan to reduce waste.
79.6 percent of all hotels use green cleaning products.
77.6 percent of all hotels offer vegetarian menu options.
77.4 percent of all hotels have an action plan in place to reduce energy use.
Established practices:
67.3 percent of all hotels have adopted alternatives to single-use plastic (SUP) water bottles.
63.2 percent of all hotels have eliminated the use of plastic straws.
51.0 percent of all hotels offer guests opportunities to contribute to environmental and social initiatives.
57.6 percent of all hotels have eliminated the use of plastic stirrers.
Emerging practices:
44.8 percent of all hotels have an action plan to reduce water use.
32.6 percent of all hotels have conducted a solid waste assessment within the past three years.
The above are just some examples of the areas covered in the report. Also of interest: one in three hotels has a sustainability champion. Luxury hotels are most likely to have one (50.3 percent). Nearly one in two hotels has achieved third-party sustainability certifications. Full-Service hotels have a much higher rate of certifications (52.8 percent) than Limited-Service hotels (39.6 percent). Ninety-four percent of all hotels offer staff the opportunity to partake in volunteering activities during working hours. A total of 94.7 percent of all hotels give staff recognition for outstanding contributions to sustainability.
Additional highlights:
82.2 percent of all hotels implement initiatives to support the local community.
76.6 percent of all hotels show preference for local suppliers in their purchasing policy.
About half of all hotels have sustainability requirements integrated into their procurement processes.
About two-thirds (67.3 percent) of all hotels work with suppliers to minimize waste.
Only 7.1 percent of all hotels report tracking the amount of recyclables collected on their premises, with adoption rates consistently low across the industry.
The top countries whose hotels have successful recycling programs include Belgium (100 percent), Switzerland (96.3 percent) and Canada and Greece (both at 95.7 percent).
6.8 percent of all hotels have installed rainwater capture systems.
Among Full-Service hotels, the three best-performing countries with the lowest water usage per occupied room are Germany (277.9 L), France (309.8 L), and Austria (327.5 L).
18.3 percent of all hotels equip guestrooms with sensors or key card switches to optimize energy efficiency when they are not occupied.
93.2 percent of all hotels are tracking carbon emissions, typically at least once a month.
26.8 percent of all hotels offer EV charging stations.
Only 6.1 percent of all hotels use renewable sources for their energy needs.
Only 3.7 percent of all hotels have achieved full electrification of their facilities, indicating this is still a nascent trend in the industry.
About Greenview:
Founded in 2008 as one of the leading sustainability services providers for hospitality and tourism and having served over 100 clients to-date, Greenview supports organizations with their corporate responsibility and sustainability platforms to drive profitability, streamline data management, keep up with trends and provide effective communications for their stakeholders by leveraging the power of data, standardized guidelines, best practices, and innovation.
With offices in Singapore and Washington, D.C. and a fulltime team of 30, Greenview absorbs global trends and best practices through a constant lens of relevance and application to its clientele. Having played a key role in developing many of the hotel industry’s sustainability methodologies and frameworks, as well as managing its largest collaborative sustainability initiatives, Greenview leverages its existing network and resources to enhance value for its clients during each engagement across its services, including Greenview Portal, leading hotel sustainability software, advisory and implementation services, data analytics and intelligence, and industry-wide initiatives.
The full report can be downloaded here.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at greenlodgingnews@gmail.com.
