ECO FRIENDLY HOTEL BOOKING: WEBSITES ASSISTING TRAVELERS BOOK GREEN HOTELS & OFFSET THEIR CARBON FOOTPRINTS
Booking an eco friendly hotel is becoming easier these days thanks to websites dedicated to listing only eco friendly hotels and assisting travelers to offset their carbon footprints if they cannot book green, as well as offsetting for flights, cars, and other transportation modes.
Equally important, certification programs help encourage constructors to implement environmentally friendly measures when building hotels. All these companies are at the forefront of promoting sustainable travel. The tourism sector produces its fair share of global greenhouse gas emissions. With this fast-growing sector, some emission levels need to be lowered down.
Book Different
Bookdifferent is one of the most reliable websites to help travelers book eco friendly hotels easily. This is one of the more established eco/green booking sites—its website states it has 1 million hotels listed.
The site aims at accelerating the transition towards a more sustainable travel sector. The website supplies travelers with green accommodations and businesses using their green data because the market and most travelers are becoming more interested in sustainable measurements.
Bookdifferent’s mission is to help people choose a better way to travel by choosing accommodations that play their role in taking care of the environment, their people, and the communities they are located in.
Bookdifferent.com consists of a professional team of motivated and enthusiastic employees, and an independent three-member Advisory Board established to validate and control green and social indicators and quality marks used in the tourism sector.
Bookdifferent helps travelers to choose accommodations with a lower carbon footprint which will enhance the environment and help to fight climate change.
The carbon footprint presented by this site is calculated using a mathematical formula developed by the Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUAS) in cooperation with bookdifferent.com and the Dutch tourism sector as a part of the ‘Carbon Management for Tour Operators’ (CARMATOP) project.
A green foot icon is used for all accommodations that score lower than 14.99 kg carbon per guest night, as this is the calculated average output of a hotel based on the sample. Accommodations with an output higher than 15kg per guest night will receive a grey foot.
Many hotels don’t see the value in being certified as yet which is why the carbon footprint was developed so that travelers can still get an idea whether the accommodation is an eco friendly hotel.
Green Indicators
Bookdifferent is aware of how hard it can be for travelers to distinguish sustainable hotels from unsustainable ones, so they developed green indicators to help travelers tell which hotels implement responsible practices in a bid to determine whether a hotel is sustainable or not. The following green indicators are used.
- Ecolabels: Ecolabeling is a voluntary method of environmental performance certification and labeling that is practiced around the world. An ecolabel identifies products or services proven to be environmentally preferable within a specific category.
- Staygreencheck: Every hotel that is certified by one of the ecolabels working with bookdifferent.com receives the staygreencheck. This makes booking green hotels easier.
- Actively Green: This is a sustainability training and certification program for businesses, including hotels and tour operators. The administration is provided by Walking Mountains Science Centre with support from Town of Vail (Colorado, US).
- Austrian Ecolabel: It is based on the international standard ISO 14024 – “environmental labels and declarations guiding principles” which requires environmental labeling specification to include criteria that are objective, reasonable, and verifiable.
Related Content: What to Consider When Choosing Green Hotels
Trip Zero
Founded in 2014, Trip Zero aims at tackling the carbon footprint of travel and tourism. The company offsets the carbon emissions generated when people stay at hotels as well as travel by plane, train, car, or bus at no cost to the traveler. The traveler just needs to book their trip on the Trip Zero website—the company will calculate the total carbon footprint, and offset it by funding projects on renewable energy and reforestation.
Trip Zero has established an online tourism platform with access to millions of hotel rooms at guaranteed low prices through a partnership with Expedia to effectively fulfill its mission.
To put a cost on the offsets, Trip zero assesses a hotel’s carbon emissions by using the impact of the local climate, the hotel’s location, and the energy required to heat or cool the hotel.
Some of the offset projects supported by Trip Zero are:
- Reforestation
- Forest preservation
- Methane capture
- Renewable energy enhancement
The offsets are certified by reputable third parties, including the Verified Carbon Standard and the Green-e Climate Standard. Some of the projects benefiting from the company are the native-species reforestation campaign in Chile, a forest protection project in Kenya, wind turbines for Indiana schools, and a methane capture project on a Pennsylvania dairy farm.
Hotels and airlines account for large amounts of carbon emissions which do not promote sustainability. To reduce these footprints, decarbonized electricity, aviation biofuels, and close to net-zero energy buildings are required. Trip zero is dedicated to this change by reaching out to eco-conscious travelers, organizations, and small businesses, to its internet-based booking platform.
Carbon Footprint
Carbon Footprint looks into the total measurement of greenhouse gas emissions that are generated by human actions. The website helps you measure your carbon footprint then offset it by planting trees or making a contribution to a Nonprofit that has environmentally friendly projects.
High levels of carbon footprint can have negative effects on the environment. The transportation industry and electricity generation contribute to more than half of the greenhouse gas emissions in most parts of the world. Greenhouse gasses include Carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor.
Since greenhouse gases can absorb longwave radiation emitted from Earth’s surface and reradiate it back, the process keeps the earth from being too cold for life; this natural process in which the earth is kept warm is the greenhouse effect.
Increased carbon footprints heavily affect climate change, resulting in global warming. Thus, long term changes to temperature on and around the Earth’s surface causes long term shifts to weather patterns—climate change.
Climate change impacts the whole globe, causing polar ice sheets and glaciers to melt; and sea levels to rise. Results can be extreme weather events such as typhoons, hurricanes, droughts, and heatwaves in various parts of the world.
Large carbon footprints also deplete resources. Off-setting the existing emissions and reducing carbon dioxide emissions will help to reduce the negative effects of carbon footprints on the environment.
What are some of the ways to reduce carbon footprints?
- Reforestation and using alternative energy methods;
- Avoiding excessive car journeys and alternating to walking, cycling or using public transports, especially trains;
- Avoiding frequent flying which is proven to be the world’s fastest-growing source of carbon dioxide emissions. If you do fly consider offsetting your emissions;
- Reducing the consumption of animal products and eating seasonal foods;
- Recycling organic waste, water preservation, and energy.
Book it green
Bookitgreen endeavors to simplify online bookings of sustainable holiday accommodations. The plan is to list green hotels worldwide but currently, most of the accommodations on bookitgreen are located in Europe (particularly Germany, Austria, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), a few in other parts of the world.
According to their website, their goal is to bring together all the accommodations that offer exactly what sustainable travelers are looking for and to welcome every traveler who wants to make the planet a little greener with every trip.
Bookitgreen believes in tree preservation as a means of contributing to a sustainable environment—trees generate the oxygen needed for breathing and further lists the ecological benefits of trees. Thus, trees reduce damage from droughts and floods, they purify the air, they fight water contamination, they provide protection and a habitat for wildlife, and trees also supply food (fruits).
To promote tree planting, Bookitgreen partnered with “Eden Project” an NGO founded in 2004 dedicated to the reforestation of most third world regions. Eden project has to date planted over 100 million new trees at its four project sites in Ethiopia, Madagascar, Haiti, and Nepal.
At Bookitgreen you can make a variety of bookings ranging from eco friendly hotels, organic farm-stays, urban flats to luxury ecolodges, and travel.
Trip Advisor
TripAdvisor is one of the world’s leading online travel websites founded in the year 2000. The company’s initial plan was merely to provide hotel websites with information. Today, the site has grown to over 100 million website visitors each month. Hotels, other types of accommodation, and related tourist attractions are listed on the website.
Eco friendly hotels and B&Bs are welcome and encouraged to join the Tripadvisor GreenLeaders Program by submitting applications. Members of the GreenLeaders program qualify for one of four of the following levels: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. The higher the level obtained, the greater the impact of a property’s green practices.
TripAdvisor launched the Trip advisor GreenLeaders program in 2013 to help travelers choose green accommodations by making available hotels that practice environmentally friendly measurements.
The Leaders program considers a property’s holistic approach to sustainable measurements and ranks them based on the above mentioned four levels. These levels will be shown on the TripAdvisor site listings. The more green practices a hotel has in place, the higher its TripAdvisor GreenLeaders level.
Travelers can browse through the site for hotels participating in the TripAdvisor GreenLeaders program and select which accommodations suit their expectations
Travelers on TripAdvisor’s community are invited to participate by commenting on a hotel’s green credentials following their experience at a participating hotel.
Statistics show that more than a third of travelers favor environmentally-friendly tourism. At the same time, global spending on sustainable tourism is increasing at a higher rate than the industry’s average growth. Therefore, the Greenleaders programme is meeting a growing demand for a more sustainable world.
Green Globe
Green Globe is an entity specialized in certifying and accessing the sustainability performance of the tourism and travel industry and its supply chain. It is certified to monitor improvements and record achievements leading to certification of the industry’s sustainable operation and management.
Green Globe has for the past 10 years been closely working with online booking sites to provide updated membership lists, which assist these booking sites to identify available sustainable hotels and other travel businesses.
Green Globe provides memberships to travel agents who in turn benefit from being recognized as supporters of sustainable tourism and give consumers the ability to make environmentally friendly booking choices.
Green Globe members profit a lot for their companies, their employees, the local community, and the environment.
The Green Globe International Standard for Sustainable Tourism developed over two decades ago in collaboration with the travel and tourism industry, communities in tourism destinations, and other stakeholders. Green Globe is an Affiliate Member of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and their standard is based on internationally accepted criteria and recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
Based in Los Angeles, Green Globe has partners in different parts of the world, providing certification, training, education, and marketing services in over 80 countries globally.
The Green Globe program originates from the United Nations Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit of 1992, where 182 heads of state from around the world endorsed the Agenda 21 principles of sustainable development. Following the Summit and after 2 years of additional development, a Green Globe membership program was established.
Since then, the Green Globe brand has yielded great results in environmental responsibility. The brand and its associated programs hold greater promises as the world further embraces the need for sustainability and response to global climate change as essential core values.
Membership: Green Globe has various members in the tourism industry who are a great tool in increasing awareness about sustainability to travelers around the world. Member agencies include Expedia, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Trivago, Orbitz, Wotif, Hotwire, AirAsiaGo, Booking.com, Bookdifferent, and Transat.
LEED
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a green building rating system established to identify buildings and contractors that attain the highest possible environmental standards. According to their interpretation, a ‘green’ building is a building that is designed, constructed, or operates in such a way that creates positive impacts and minimizes negative impacts on climate and the environment.
LEED highlights eco friendly hotels that find it imperative to maximize every resource used in a building project to attain the best environmental results for the entire life of the structure. This involves using materials designed to last longer and not give off harmful emissions during deterioration as well as using fewer fossil fuels to build the structure.
In addition to eliminating negative environmental impact with regards to construction materials, other benefits of using the LEED rating system are healthy and safe communities, financial incentives, public relations, and employee satisfaction.
According to LEED, any building can be green provided it includes the following features:
- Efficient use of energy, water, and other resources;
- Use of renewable energy;
- Recycling;
- Free indoor air quality;
- Use of non-toxic, ethical, and sustainable materials;
- Environment-friendly design and;
- Designs that enable adaptation to a changing environment.
