Developing a Sustainability Measurement Framework for Hotels: Toward an Industry-wide Reporting Structure
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Taking a historical context for sustainability measurement within the industry and globally, this report presents a conceptual framework for developing sustainability performance indicators to address present stakeholder requests, as well as others that may arise. The framework developed and tested in this report is designed to provide an avenue for industry collaboration and discussion toward a uniform set of metrics that are highly practical in application. The framework is tested using actual 2010 data from 20 hotels operated by InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, or Wyndham Worldwide, all of which assisted with data collection. The study applied the framework seeking to evaluate the boundaries, quantification methods, and metrics for performance indicators of carbon, energy, water, and waste derived from hotel stays, which currently are the most common requests from external stakeholders. In addition, the practicality of data collection was considered as currently practiced. Based on the study’s methods and results as an example, standard metrics are certainly feasible, yet several issues required for collaborative industry agreement remain. Hotels will need to agree on boundary specifications such as addressing differences in laundry wash handling, the quantification of values such as which emission factors to use and how to allocate rooms versus function space footprints, and the metrics utilized such as per occupied room or per available room.