Meliá Hotels International adopts standardized approach to carbon measurement
17 July 2012
Meliá Hotels International has announced the adoption of the system recently standardized by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) for calculating its carbon footprint. From now on, the company will also adopt the HCMI 1.0 methodology to measure and report carbon emissions in order to improve its performance in mitigating the impact of its activities on climate change, one of the fundamental principles of its sustainability policy.
The initiative has been supported by 23 leading hotel companies worldwide including Meliá and marks the launch of a common methodology to calculate and report in a clear and transparent way the carbon emissions generated by a hotel stay or a meeting or event.
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 devise a unified methodology based on available data and to address inconsistencies in hotel companies’ approaches. The methodology, named ‘HCMI 1.0’, launched today 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.
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