BT4Europe joins development of hospitality sustainability reporting standard

Hotels’ corporate customers are to be represented by travel buyer advocacy
body BT4Europe in the creation of a new hospitality sustainability reporting standard.
Angela Lille, Austria-based chair of BT4E’s sustainability working group, has
joined a taskforce for the standard that is being developed by the Energy and
Environment Alliance (EEA), a global coalition of hospitality and lodging investors,
developers, operators and asset managers.

The EEA is creating its standard specifically to conform with the the International
Financial Reporting Standards Foundation’s S1 and S2 sustainability standards,
which are important for investors, but also with the European Union’s Corporate
Sustainability Reporting Directive.

CSRD, which will eventually apply to an
estimated 50,000 companies worldwide, includes a requirement to report on business travel emissions. The
EEA has committed to working with EFRAG, the organisation that provides
technical advice on the standards used for CSRD.

The taskforce will launch a public consultation for its proposed standard
in May 2025, and Lille hopes travel managers will participate. The EEA aims to
launch the standard by the end of 2025.

“I am very happy that the voice of the customer is considered at this
early stage to make sure the transparency we need for sustainable business
travel can be improved and that we try to reduce effort in the reporting
process,” Lille told BTN Europe.

“For the hospitality sector this is Scope 1
and 2, but for me as the customer it is Scope 3. It’s a new approach in really
thinking through the entire stakeholder value chain.

“It is also important to have a standard which can
be integrated into regulations and is designed by the industry.”