The WTTC’s Hotel Sustainability Basics programme is driving a step change in the industry. Ian Taylor reports
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) plans to launch a second phase of its expanding Hotel Sustainability Basics programme next year.
The scheme, launched in April 2023, is aimed at all sizes of hotels, with a verification programme supervised by Green Key and certification specialist SGS.
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More than 5,000 hotels in 80-plus countries had adopted the Sustainability Basics programme by last month.
Chris Imbsen, WTTC vice president for research and sustainability, revealed development of a second phase is already underway with the support of the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (WSHA) and Global Sustainable Certification Council (GSTC).
Imbsen told Travel Weekly: “We’re launching a second stage of Basics [and] the WSHA is a key partner.”
He aims to identify criteria for this next stage “by the first quarter of next year”, saying: “It has to be industry driven, but I would envisage criteria ‘pools’ because a hotel in Scotland will have different concerns to a hotel in Egypt.”
The existing Basics programme comprises 12 criteria aimed at reducing carbon emissions, energy and water use, improving waste management and ensuring local communities benefit from a hotel’s operations.
Imbsen explained: “The strength of Basics is that it is underlined by consensus. We consulted over 60 global hotel brands on what the standards should be [after] brands came to us to say, ‘We need a starting point’.
“Basics is designed to be accessible to everyone and helpful to hotel chains which want basic standards they can implement with hotel owners.”
He pointed out existing certification schemes “are great, but complex with a huge number of complicated criteria. But we made sure the Basics programme leads to these schemes.”
Imbsen added: “The WSHA and GSTC came to us to ask we continue to develop the Basics pathway.”
Take up of the programme has grown fast after a relatively slow beginning. Imbsen described the programme as growing “organically” with hotel associations, destinations and hotel chains increasingly contacting the WTTC to participate.
He said: “There was very little uptake in the first months. It picked up to around 1,300 hotels at the end of last year. Now there are more than 5,000.”
Imbsen estimates under 10% of properties signed up to date are independent hotels, with the number of hotels joining being the main measure of success up to now. But he said: “Some key interactions now are coming from destinations saying, ‘This is what we’ve been looking for.
“A few destinations have changed their systems to incorporate the Basics criteria as their national criteria. We’re talking to 10-15 destinations, and some are big.”
He insisted: “We’re not out to make a buck. We’re not here to compete. We’re here to support.
“But we’re driving global alignment and that is huge.”