2020 Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index Launched

Singapore, Singapore, December 7, 2020 / TRAVELINDEX / The latest Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking (CHSB) Index has just been released. With over 14,000 participants from 55 countries, this seventh iteration of CHSB saw an increase of 25% in participation.

Average carbon footprint of a hotel stay down 10% since 2015.

CHSB, which is undertaken by Greenview, is the hotel industry’s largest annual benchmarking of energy, water and carbon. Open to hotels and hotel companies of all sizes, CHSB serves as a peer-based reference for assessing the hotel industry worldwide. Hotels were benchmarked regarding energy, water and carbon performance against competitive sets in the same geography, segment and climate zone.

The data show that carbon emissions per square metre of hotels around the world has decreased by 10 percent since 2015. The CHSB Index contains data for over 14,000 hotels in 55 countries from 20 international chains.

The greatest reduction was across hotels in the UK, in which carbon footprint reduced on average 23.4 percent between 2015 and 2018. Hotels in India, Canada and the U.S. experienced a decrease of 14.4 percent, 13.6 percent and 12.1 percent respectively. Hotels in China showed slightly less improvement at a 7.4 percent average reduction in carbon footprint.

Of the countries contained within the index, in 2018, hotels in Switzerland had the lowest carbon intensity (20.4 kg CO₂emissions per square metre), whereas those in South Africa had the highest (209.78 kg CO₂ emissions per square metre). At city level, Montreal’s hotels are the best performing (24.63 kg CO₂ emissions / sq m) while in Abu Dhabi the average hotel emits 251.55 kg CO₂ emissions per square metre, the highest in the index.

We would like to thank the following companies which contributed data to the 2020 CHSB Index: AINA Hospitality, CPG Hospitality, DiamondRock Hospitality Company, Hilton Worldwide, Horwath HTL Asia Pacific, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Mandarin Oriental Hotels Group, Marriott International, MGM Resorts International, Park Hotel Group, Park Hotels & Resorts, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, Red Planet Hotels, Ryman Hospitality Properties, Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Xenia Hotels & Resorts.