How to set your baseline

Start with the biggest contributors
According to the International Tourism Partnership (ITP), the three most important factors determining a property’s environmental footprint are lighting, hot water and air conditioning/heating. That’s why measuring your carbon footprint and water usage is a good place to start when setting your baseline. There are free resources online to help you get started immediately.

• Measuring your carbon emissions
  The Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative tool helps you measure your total and per-occupied-room carbon footprint, taking into account the different energy sources in order to help you prioritise actionable changes.
• Measuring your water usage
  The Hotel Water Measurement Initiative tool outlines the data you’ll need to calculate your total water footprint, providing a methodology to calculate the water used per occupied room per night (or meeting space per hour, where applicable).

Benchmark your property
Once you’ve set your baseline, you can get a broader idea of your environmental performance by benchmarking your property against others. Key resources to do so include:

• The Cornell Sustainability Benchmark – this uses the biggest available dataset, sourced from over 15,000 properties that use the HCMI and HWMI. This tracks energy, greenhouse gas emissions and water usage.
• The Green Lodging Trends Report – this uses best practices rather than hard data to recognise and highlight innovative measures that can benefit the industry.

Start setting targets
After you’ve collected some initial data, you can start to think about setting specific targets. The ITP has set science-based sustainability targets for the hotel industry to meet by 2030. These are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the COP21 Paris Climate Agreement. They also offer guidance on setting water targets, managing water use and working with your supply chain.

Other useful resources are the Destination Water Risk Index – which can help you understand what your water risk is and set appropriate water targets and measures – and the UN Global Compact’s Science Based Targets initiative, which has resources for the broader topic of corporate climate action.