The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (SHA) have a new co-operation agreement to consolidate best practices in sustainable hospitality and tourism.
This new partnership will bring together SHA’s hospitality industry reach and measurement expertise, with GSTC’s experience in sustainability standards and assurance, to enhance the industry’s understanding of sustainability criteria and the need to capture robust sustainability data.
Over recent years, greenwashing has become a widespread issue globally and across every industry, with companies using sustainability language to present a positive image but without evidence of any real impact. What’s more, within the hospitality industry, the current vast number of ways in which companies are required to report ESG data for different stakeholders and countries, is not only inefficient but can also lead to difficulties in benchmarking companies and therefore establishing best practice.
For the hospitality industry to have lasting positive change and continue momentum towards Net Positive Hospitality, it is vital to have solid standards and effective tools to verify legitimate claims of sustainable business in the hospitality sector. This collaboration will combine the GSTC Criteria, accreditation programme and training opportunities with SHA’s industry leadership and bank of pioneering tools and initiatives.
GSTC’s CEO, Randy Durband, shared how the organisation supports the development of universal measurement tools for sustainability to facilitate businesses assessing, benchmarking, and improving performance within the GSTC Criteria, and that “the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance’s work on sustainable measurement in hospitality is critical to that effort”.
Glenn Mandziuk, CEO, SHA said: “Now is the time to unite our expertise, embedding sustainability criteria across the industry and ensuring every hotel has the tools and guidance needed to become a more regenerative business, that gives back more than it takes.”
