The hospitality and tourism task force from global sustainability forum The Sustainable Markets Initiative recently announced its founding members and new partnerships, which include 14 global hospitality companies and three leading sustainability and inter-governmental development organisations.
The task force is aligned with the forum’s Terra Carta, which provides a roadmap for the private sector to accelerate the industry’s transition to a sustainable future, harnessing the power of nature combined with the private sector’s transformative power, innovation and resources.
Task force members will work collectively in pursuing opportunities to reduce the industry’s carbon and environmental footprint. They aim to deliver standardised measurement tools enabling hotels to understand the impact and prioritise action on carbon emissions, water, waste and biodiversity, and natural capital.
In the pursuit of tangible, scalable and practical sustainable solutions, the task force will support efforts to create leadership and collaboration in the hospitality and tourism industry. It will also leverage existing infrastructure to discover and learn how the industry can accelerate pathways to sustainability.
Task Force Co-Chair, Xenia zu Hohenlohe said: “The hospitality and tourism industry can play a pivotal role, given its crossover with so many other sectors, such as aviation, asset management, shipping, buildings, to mention but a few, in this process. Hence this task force is also key to ensuring maximum alignment in our efforts to overcoming the common challenges our societies and companies face when it comes to climate change.”
