The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has launched the Hotel Sustainability Basics (Basics) verification scheme. 

Announced at ITB Berlin, Basics will enable tourist accommodation providers from around the world, regardless of their size, to begin their sustainability journey. 

Basics, an industry-wide supported initiative, is a globally recognized and coordinated set of criteria that all hotels should implement as a minimum to drive responsible and sustainable Travel & Tourism. 

Basics emerged as a result of a clear demand from a group of influential global hotel brands and whilst there a great number of sustainability initiatives, Basics focuses on an achievable starting point.  

It will encourage all hospitality businesses to begin their sustainability journeys and redefine the non-negotiables of sustainability in the industry. 

Made up of 12 key criteria, the Basics are achievable for all hotels to implement as a bare minimum. They serve as a stepping-stone to more complex sustainability schemes and even greater sustainability. 

Basics has also been recognized by the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance as the starting point for a net positive industry, who announced the latest version of the Pathway to Net Positive Hospitality. 

Verification Scheme 

In order to ensure the validity of the programme, WTTC partnered with Green Key and SGS to develop a simple online verification system to allow hotels to provide evidence and ensure they are following the Basics. 

The verification scheme enables hotels and other tourist accommodation to be officially verified for meeting eight of the 12 criteria in the first year and demonstrate their commitment to working toward all 12 of the criteria by year three.  

Together, the criteria ensure the sector is eco resilient and adaptive to the changing needs of the planet. 

Hotel Partners 

Six major international hotel groups, collectively representing tens of thousands of sites from around the world have now joined Basics as inaugural partners. The first hotel groups include well-known brands such as Accor, Jin Jiang International, Louvre Hotels Group, Meliá Hotels International, Meininger, and Radisson Hotel Group.

Green Lodgings Trend Report 

WTTC carried out an extensive international benchmarking exercise through the Green Lodgings Trends Report, learning from 27,000 accommodation providers on how they are currently fairing against the 12 criteria. 

Crucially, this benchmark will allow WTTC to track the progress of Basics over time.

Almost 100% of accommodation providers implement at least one initiative to reduce inequality and 96% have adopted linen reuse programmes. 

The report also showed many hoteliers are establishing sustainable practices but there is still a way to go for these to become common across the sector.  

Two-thirds of those surveyed have already begun to eliminate the use of certain single-use plastics such as straws and implementing other waste reduction initiatives. 

Emerging practices were also highlighted in the report.  

Almost half of respondents have replaced small plastic toiletry bottles with bulk dispensers and a third now provide vegetarian options for every course in their food and beverage provision. 

Sector Partners 

In addition to the Alliance, WTTC collaborated with other key leading sector figures including representatives from Greenview, WTTC’s hotel members, Expedia, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), Sustainable Hospitality Alliance and Trip.com Group, as well as the certification bodies SGS and Green Key. 

Glenn Mandziuk, CEO of the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance said “We are incredibly proud to work alongside the World Travel & Tourism Council to launch the Hotel Sustainability Basics. Basics is a key part of the Alliance’s Pathway to Net Positive Hospitality which sets ambitious targets to create a prosperous and responsible global hospitality sector that gives back to the destination more than it takes. 

Destination Partners 

A number of global tourism destinations have already recognized the strength of Hotel Sustainability Basics and demonstrated their commitment to ensure their hotels implement the Basics. 

Azerbaijan was the first Destination Partner to support the Basics, followed by other supporters such as Belize, Colombia, and Mauritius.