Marriott Welcomes Launch of Standardized Approach to Carbon Measurement

Green Hotels Global helps travel planners calculate and communicate carbon impact.

Bethesda, Md., -- Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE:MAR) today announced its collaborative involvement with the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) on a groundbreaking initiative to unite hotel industry efforts to calculate and communicate carbon impact by agreeing on a standardized methodology and metrics. Marriott has partnered with Green Hotels Global, a carbon calculator and sustainability metrics tool, to help travel and meeting planners determine the environmental impact of their travel and meetings and events with ease and efficiency.

The International Tourism Partnership (ITP) and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), in collaboration with 23 leading global hospitality companies, have just launched a methodology to calculate and communicate the carbon footprint of hotel stays and meetings in a consistent and transparent way.

The group saw an opportunity to improve how the hotel industry communicates its impacts. Currently, approaches to measuring and reporting on carbon emissions vary widely. This can lead to confusion amongst consumers, particularly corporate clients, looking to understand their own potential carbon footprint and meet their own goals/targets in this area. In addition, the number of methodologies and tools in use make transparency of reporting within the hotel industry difficult to achieve.

The Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI) Working Group, comprising of hotel members within ITP and WTTC, was formed in early 2011 at the request of member companies to address inconsistencies in hotel companies’ approaches and to devise a unified methodology based on available data. The methodology named ‘HCMI 1.0’ launched on 12 June, is a consolidated move, led by the hotel industry, to establish a global standardized approach to this common problem for the hotel sector and its corporate customer base.

The methodology, informed by the GHG Protocol Standards, was first developed in 2011 and has since been tested in hotels of different style and size in different geographical locations and refined through a stakeholder engagement process, with input from consultants KPMG. It has also been reviewed by the World Resources Institute.

HCMI demonstrates how effective collaboration can provide solutions which benefit customers, individual companies, and wider industry. Through common measurement and language, stakeholders will now be able to greater understand their footprints and impacts.
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• The Carbon Accounting Company (TCAC) provides sector-specific environmental sustainability programs and other corporate climate change strategies such as greenhouse gas inventory quantification, reporting and management. Two of TCAC’s innovative programs are Green Hotels Global and Green Ride Global. Green Hotels Global is a comprehensive, interactive, environmental sustainability calculation and benchmarking tool for the global hotel industry. Green Ride Global is a leading environmental sustainability program for businesses in the transportation industry. For more information please visit www.thecarbonaccountingcompany.com.

For further information, please contact:
info@hotelcarboninitiative.org