Greenview : Carbon footprint of a hotel stay has decreased on average by 10 percent since 2015, according to 2020 Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index

Singapore, 2nd December, 2020 - The latest Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking (CHSB) Index, released today, shows  that carbon emissions per square metre of hotels around the world has decreased by 10 percent since 2015. The CHSB Index contains data for over 14,000 hotels in 55 countries  from 20 international chains.  

The greatest reduction was across hotels in the UK, in which carbon footprint reduced on  average 23.4 percent between 2015 and 2018. Hotels in India, Canada and the U.S. experienced a decrease of 14.4 percent, 13.6 percent and 12.1 percent respectively. Hotels  in China showed slightly less improvement at a 7.4 percent average reduction in carbon  footprint.  

Of the countries contained within the index, in 2018, hotels in Switzerland had the lowest  carbon intensity (20.4 kg CO2 emissions per square metre), whereas those in South Africa  had the highest (209.78 kg CO2 emissions per square metre). At city level, Montreal’s hotels  are the best performing (24.63 kg CO2 emissions / sq m) while in Abu Dhabi the average  hotel emits 251.55 kg CO2 emissions per square metre, the highest in the index.  

The 2020 report is the seventh annual CHSB index, the hotel industry’s largest annual  benchmarking of energy, water and carbon. Open to hotels and hotel companies of all sizes,  CHSB serves as a peer-based reference for assessing the hotel industry worldwide. Hotels  were benchmarked regarding energy, water and carbon performance against competitive  sets in the same geography, segment and climate zone.  

Eric Ricaurte, CEO of Greenview and the author of the CHSB Index said “We are seeing  increasing pressure from the investor community for companies to better understand their  climate risks and impacts, and put in place steps to reduce their carbon emissions. The fact  that the 2020 report has an increase of 25 percent in hotels participating compared to 2019  shows how the industry is increasingly engaged in understanding its environmental  performance. CHSB allows individual hotels, or those with significant portfolios, to  benchmark their performance against peers and gain a deeper understanding of the  opportunities to improve. In doing so CHSB also provides a common yardstick for measuring  and reporting the carbon, energy and water performance of hotels. In a fragmented and  regionally diverse industry such as hospitality, this is key to driving towards a common  ambition to increase efficiencies and reduce negative impact.” 

Linda Canina, the Dr. Michael Dang Director of the Center for Hospitality Research at  Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration said, "The Center for Hospitality  Research is delighted to publish the CHSB index to assist hotels in meeting their  sustainability goals. I encourage all hotel companies from around the world to participate in  CHSB, so that the dataset can continue to grow and improve for the benefit of the industry,  consumers, and most importantly, our environment." 

The data show that the greatest improvement in carbon intensity reduction is seen in limited  service hotels (a reduction of 16.39 percent between 2015 and 2018) compared to full  service hotels (6.19 percent improvement). 

As well as data on energy use and carbon footprint, the index also contains water  consumption data for hotels around the world. Water consumption decreased by nearly 7 percent (in terms of litres per occupied room) between 2015 and 2018.  

The CHSB Index is available to download free of charge at this link: 

https://greenview.sg/chsb-index/. CHSB data feeds the Hotel Footprinting Tool at  www.hotelfootprints.org where users can estimate the carbon footprint of a hotel stay and  meeting anywhere in the world. 

The following companies contributed data to the 2020 CHSB Index: AINA Hospitality, CPG  Hospitality, DiamondRock Hospitality Company, Hilton Worldwide, Horwath HTL Asia  Pacific, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Mandarin Oriental Hotels  Group, Marriott International, MGM Resorts International, Park Hotel Group, Park Hotels &  Resorts, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, Red Planet Hotels, Ryman Hospitality Properties, Six  Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts,  Xenia Hotels & Resorts.  

For more information please contact: 

Olivia Ruggles-Brise 

olivia@greenview.sg 

About Greenview 

Greenview is the world’s leading provider of sustainability programs and data management  for the hospitality and tourism sector. We support companies to design, implement, and  monitor their corporate responsibility and sustainability platforms to drive profitability,  streamline data, keep ahead of trends, and provide effective communication for  stakeholders. Headquartered in Singapore, with a global team of experts located in 7  countries, we manage the hospitality sector’s largest collaborative sustainability initiatives,  including the Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index, and leverage the power of  this network to synergize value to our clients across three pillars of activity: corporate  consulting and advisory, Greenview Portal software (GSTC recognized), and collaborative  industry initiatives. 

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