This new partnership will bring together the Alliance’s hospitality industry reach and measurement expertise, with the 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, as companies all too often use sustainability language to present a positive image, 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.
If the hospitality industry is to have lasting positive change and continue momentum towards Net Positive Hospitality, it could not be more vital to have solid standards and effective tools to verify legitimate claims of sustainable business in the hospitality sector. This will be at the core of this new collaboration – combining the GSTC Criteria, accreditation programme and training opportunities with the Alliance’s industry leadership and bank of pioneering tools and initiatives.
Together, the Alliance and the GSTC share a vision of hospitality and tourism companies working to, not only meet, but exceed core sustainability criteria - using consistent tools and initiatives to produce globally comparable data.
“We’re so pleased to be working in partnership with the GSTC. Our organisations have long understood the power of the hospitality and tourism industries as a vehicle for positive lasting change and have been working to measure and monitor this positive impact,” says Glenn Mandziuk, CEO of the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance. “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.”
"GSTC is increasingly supporting the development of universal measurement tools for sustainability in order to facilitate businesses assessing, benchmarking, and improving their performance on each of the criteria within the GSTC Criteria, and the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance’s work on sustainable measurement in hospitality is critical to that effort," says Randy Durband, CEO of GSTC. "We have engaged with the Alliance for many years but are pleased to formalise and expand our partnership."
Tags: Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), Sustainable Hospitality Alliance
