Hotel Sustainability Resource Round-Up
Your sustainability sherpa.
"Travelers are increasingly aligning their journeys with their values - sustainability being foremost - with a desire for a transformative or regenerative experience."
-Hospitalitynet.org, Meaningful Guest Experience: Is Sustainability the Secret Ingredient?
"Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." -United Nations, Our Common Future, 1987
Do you have a favorite sustainability resource that is not included here?
Send it our way at hello@aloindex.com.
🌎PPP 101
PPP stands for Planet, People, and Policy. By understanding company strategy and performance in each area, people (employees, investors, consumers, governments) can decide how to interact with that company.
You may have heard these three areas referred to in other ways: environmental, social, and governance, the triple bottom line, or environment, equity, and economy.
What Is Sustainability?
The Alō algorithm is designed to assess the impact within each pillar, and none of these actions are isolated. For example, a hotel policy (Policy) to use a local supplier for eggs (People) not only puts money back into the community (People), it also lightens the hotel’s carbon footprint by avoiding long-haul transport (Planet).
Planet: How does a business interact with the natural environment? What are the impacts of the business operation? What actions is the company taking to improve negative effects?
Key Areas:
Biodiversity
Climate Action
Energy
Waste
Water Stewardship
People: How do a business’s activities affect people? People include its workforce, local communities, customers, and those who work in the extended supply chain.
Key Areas:
Accessibility
Community and Cultural Stewardship
Human Rights, Justice, and Wellbeing
Responsible Sourcing
Policy: How does a business run? What are the policies, structures, and procedures in place? Who makes decisions, and how?
Key Areas:
Auditability
Strategy and Management
Training and Engagement
📚General Hotel Sustainability Guidance
Whether you are looking to mobilize a team to begin measuring hotel impact or you are the chair of your sustainability working group, there is a resource here for you.
Global Sustainable Tourism Council
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council® (GSTC) establishes and manages global standards for sustainable travel and tourism, known as the GSTC Criteria. There are two sets: Destination Criteria for public policy-makers and destination managers, and Industry Criteria for hotels and tour operators. They are the result of a worldwide effort to develop a common language about sustainability in tourism. They are arranged in four pillars: (A) Sustainable management; (B) Socioeconomic impacts; (C) Cultural impacts; and (D) Environmental impacts. Since tourism destinations each have their own culture, environment, customs, and laws, the Criteria are designed to be adapted to local conditions and supplemented by additional criteria for the specific location and activity.
World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance
World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance is the industry leader in driving collaboration, standardization, and collective action. Many of their resources are FREE! You can build a business case to present to your boss(es) for making impactful, profitable, sustainable changes in your operation, or begin to measure energy, water, and waste.
🍒Food Waste
Operational resources, cost-free courses, and a savings calculator to help make the business case for reducing food waste.
A great place to start for any hotel looking to decrease food waste and increase profitability.
Goodr provides technology and logistics to track surplus food from pickup to donation.
🗑️ Waste
Enter Climate: Effective Methods of Waste Management in the Hotel Industry
Amenity Recycling: Clean the World
🪑Furniture Fixtures & Equipment
MindClick rates the environmental health performance of manufacturers and their products.