As more travel programmes incorporate sustainability goals into their supplier relationships, it’s imperative that buyers have a straightforward and open-source way to analyse the sustainability performance of hotel suppliers.
A recent webinar hosted by the GBTA Foundation and World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance delved into this topic, offering insights on how to simplify the RFP process for both buyers and suppliers. This discussion followed the June launch of the GBTA’s Sustainable Hotel Procurement Standards.
“Both buyers and suppliers are feeling really bogged down in this [sustainability] process,” said Kelsey Frenkiel, director, sustainability programme at the GBTA Foundation. “We have corporate travel buyers at a range of maturity levels in this process. We had to create a model that was open source that everyone had access to.”
Varying priorities
The new standards offer buyers a comprehensive set of 50 questions to evaluate hotels’ environmental, social, and governance policies. These include metrics on water consumption, food and beverage practices, and the use of electric vehicles, among other sustainability factors.
“[Buyers] can choose what’s important to them and hopefully it will offer a more straightforward process,” added Frenkiel. “When you go to RFP, your hotel suppliers will already recognise the questions that you’re going to ask and be prepared to respond to them.”
This fragmentation leaves business travel buyers unsure of the right questions to ask, while hotel suppliers are overwhelmed with sustainability questions.Glenn Mandziuk, CEO, World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance
Glenn Mandziuk, CEO of World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance said that one of the critical challenges facing the hospitality sector is the lack of harmonisation with regards to sustainability.
“This fragmentation leaves business travel buyers unsure of the right questions to ask, while hotel suppliers are overwhelmed with sustainability questions,” he said. “Our industry’s true downfall lies not in speaking in the same language, but in hindering our collective progress for sustainability.”
For buyers without dedicated support teams, analysing hotel suppliers’ sustainability can be daunting.
“Sustainability is ever evolving with many terminologies – it’s definitely a learning curve for buyers who might not be climate experts, or who do not have the bandwidth or scale of a support team,” said Mark Cuschieri, president, GBTA and global head of travel at UBS.
Read the full article at meetings-conventions-asia.com
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