"Travelers are increasingly aligning their journeys with their values - sustainability being foremost - with a desire for a transformative or regenerative experience."

-Hospitalitynet.org, Meaningful Guest Experience: Is Sustainability the Secret Ingredient?

"Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." -United Nations, Our Common Future, 1987

Do you have a favorite sustainability resource that is not included here?

Send it our way at [email protected].

🌎PPP 101

PPP stands for Planet, People, and Policy. By understanding company

strategy and performance in each area, people (employees, investors, consumers, governments) can decide how to interact with that company.

You may have heard these three areas referred to in other ways: environmental, social, and governance, the triple bottom line, or environment, equity, and economy.

What Is Sustainability?

The Alō algorithm is designed to assess the impact within each pillar, and none of these actions are isolated. For example, a hotel policy (Policy) to use a local supplier for eggs (People) not only puts money back into the community (People), it also lightens the hotel’s carbon footprint by avoiding long-haul transport (Planet).

Planet: How does a business interact with the natural environment? What are the impacts of the business operation? What actions is the company taking to improve negative effects?

Key Areas:

Biodiversity

Climate action

Energy

Waste

Water Stewardship

People: How do a business’s activities affect people? People include its workforce, local communities, customers, and those who work in the extended supply chain.

Key Areas:

Community and Cultural Stewardship

Human rights, justice, and wellbeing

Responsible sourcing

Policy: How does a business run? What are the policies, structures, and procedures in place? Who makes decisions, and how?

Key Areas:

Auditability

Strategy and management

Training and engagement

For more in-depth definitions and examples of each pillar and category, check out our Pillar and Category article.

📚General Hotel Sustainability Guidance

Whether you are looking to mobilize a team to begin measuring hotel impact or you are the chair of your sustainability working group, there is a resource here for you.

Global Sustainable Tourism Council

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council® (GSTC) establishes and manages global standards for sustainable travel and tourism, known as the GSTC Criteria. There are two sets: Destination Criteria for public policy-makers and destination managers, and Industry Criteria for hotels and tour operators. They are the result of a worldwide effort to develop a common language about sustainability in tourism. They are arranged in four pillars: (A) Sustainable management; (B) Socioeconomic impacts; (C) Cultural impacts; and (D) Environmental impacts. Since tourism destinations each have their own culture, environment, customs, and laws, the Criteria are designed to be adapted to local conditions and supplemented by additional criteria for the specific location and activity.

ECPAT

ECPAT is the only child rights organization that is solely focusing on ending the sexual exploitation of children.

The sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism or SECTT encompasses a broad spectrum of exploitation of children including in prostitution and pornography, for the production of online child abuse material, and in the sale and trafficking of children in all its forms. Voluntourism, orphanage tourism and mega-events are all examples where offenders can easily access and exploit children.

Through their organization the CODE, more than 2 million staff in the travel & tourism industry have been trained so that they know how to identify and report any suspicious situations to prevent child sexual exploitation.

The CODE offers resources for hotels to create a child safe environment, gain access to support and training, and mitigate risks.

World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance

World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance is the industry leader in driving collaboration, standardization, and collective action. Many of their resources are FREE! You can build a business case to present to your boss(es) for making impactful, profitable, sustainable changes in your operation, or begin to measure energy, water, and waste.