The London Marathon, set to attract 50,000 runners on Sunday, took several steps to lower its carbon footprint, including charging foreign entrants who had to travel to the city a $32 fee (26 pounds) as part of their entry applications.
A 2013 photo of Britain’s Prince Harry (left) and Richard Branson (right), the CEO of Virgin, posing on the podium with London Marathon winners on the Mall in central London.Source: Reuters
“I’d say absolutely, (sustainability) is something that has become much more important, whether it’s the participants, to sponsors, to partners,” said Kate Chapman, the London Marathon’s sustainability adviser, according to a Reuters story.
Travel has the largest environmental impact on large gatherings such as marathons, the story said.
In another environmentally friendly step, 2,500 runners chose to have trees planted instead of accepting an official race T-short.
However, the Reuters story said the medals that the London Marathon will be handing out to the thousands of runners will not be recyclable.
France’s Accor is to work with Jin Jiang International Hotels on developing sustainable practices that cover construction, operations and even financing.
An agreement was formalized this week in Beijing, during the Council of China-France Entrepreneurs.
The memorandum of understanding signing coincided with French president Emmanuel Macron’s visit this week. The leader was also joined by Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury.
The strategic partnership with Jin Jiang is expected to last until 2033, with the “primary ambition” to promote and drive sustainable transformations across the hospitality industry, and reduce the sector’s carbon emissions. They want to reduce utility costs such as water and electricity by 10 percent, and food waste by 30 percent, across both groups by 2030.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority may not be around for long. Last week, the state legislature’s House committee approved a Senate bill that would repeal the Hawaii Tourism Authority and create a government office dedicated solely to destination management, leaving the island without a tourism marketing agency. The bill now has to face two hearings before leaving the House, bringing it closer to passage.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority has had a strained relationship with the legislature. Lawmakers have questioned its necessity, slashed its budget, removed its state procurement exemption and took away its transient accommodation tax fund source.
Hawaiian residents have been frustrated with overtourism. Feeling their quality of life and environment has suffered, they have asserted themselves and are no longer spectators in how tourism is managed. “What I’m cognizant of now is that communities are intently watching the visitor industry,” Hawaii Tourism Authority CEO De Fries told Skift.
The agency’s recent failure to award a two-year destination marketing and management contract was the last straw for the legislature. It repeatedly redid the procurement process and endured legal troubles and delays. It mostly recently had to split the contract between marketing and destination marketing and put both out to bid after a senior government official canceled minutes before his departure.
For the last few years, the Hawaii Tourism Authority has tried to pursue a sustainable approach. This has involved listening to residents, taking on more destination management responsibilities and pivoting away from mass tourism marketing.
CitizenM raised $500 million (€480 million) from HSBC UK, HSBC Continental Europe, ABN AMRO Bank N.V., and Aareal Bank with a sustainability-linked loan, becoming one of the first European hospitality companies to adopt such financing arrangements.
The new funding incorporates specific environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals as part of the push for greener travel. For CitizenM, this will target reducing operating carbon emissions and improving green building certifications for its European-owned hotel assets.
“We’re very proud to have completed this deal with citizenM,” said Elizabeth Davies, head of hotels at HSBC UK. “With its high profile in the hospitality sector, we expect that CitizenM’s relatively early adoption of the sustainability linked loan will help to drive further market adoption, as hospitality groups seek to demonstrate a serious commitment to creating positive impacts on the environment.”
Accor announced a similar refinancing arrangement in November 2021 with a bond issue indexed to the group’s sustainable development goals.
Many large hotel companies have set or submitted plans for improving sustainability by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Hotel investors are increasingly turning their attention to climate risks and carbon-reduction efforts in their portfolios.
Premium, business or first-class seat are regarded as more harmful to the environment, because the passenger is taking up more space on the aircraft. Most countries tax them more, too.
But according to a new study, allocating passenger aircraft emissions using airfares rather than travel class gives a more accurate idea of individual contributions, prompting calls for a tax rethink.
Researchers at the UK’s University College London describe how including airfares in calculations shows which passengers contribute the most revenue to the airline operating the aircraft, thereby allowing the plane to fly.
Although premium seats are more expensive than economy, they found many late bookings in economy class, often made for business trips or by high income travelers, cost as much as, or more than, premium seats.
“The paper shows we should follow the money when calculating emissions of individual travelers, as it is revenue that decides whether an airline can operate a plane or not,” said lead author Dr. Stijn van Ewijk.
“Someone who has paid twice as much as a fellow traveler contributes twice as much to the revenue of the airline and should be allocated twice the emissions. The seat size of each travel class, which is currently used to allocate emissions, is only a rough approximation of how much passengers pay,” he said.
Implementing a tax that is proportionate to the price of the ticket could make the total costs of flying fairer, the study suggests. People buying the most expensive tickets would pay the highest tax, encouraging them to seek alternatives. It could increase estimates of corporate emissions because it allocates more to expensive late bookings, which are often made for business purposes.
The study used data from the Airline Origin Survey database.
Lyft is introducing a new sustainability dashboard for companies in the Lyft Business Portal.
Lyft Business is the app’s travel management solution that streamlines ground transportation for organizations. Business customers starting Wednesday can access rideshare greenhouse gas emissions data for their company on the platform.
That information reflects the usage of Lyft Business solutions on the organizational level and can be broken down by several metrics.
Specifically, the dashboard will feature the following:
Total Emissions (MTCO2e): This includes the volume of carbon emissions emitted across all business rides under the company in a particular time frame, measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Emissions by Fuel Type: Business partners can filter for ride emission data by gas, hybrid, or electric vehicles (EVs).
Emissions by Program: Business partners can also filter for emission by different company rideshare initiatives. This includes different office locations, departments or customer transportation programs.
Downloadable Data: Data from the portal can be downloaded in CSV format for companies’ sustainability analyses or reporting.
This new addition follows previous moves by the rideshare company to increase the platform’s integration of sustainability measures. Back in 2020, Lyft made a commitment to transition to 100% EVs by the end of 2030.
“The first step in helping our business partners achieve their climate goals is arming them with data to see their carbon footprint on Lyft,” said Lyft Director of Sustainability Paul Augustine, in its company blog announcing the dashboard debut. “The second is helping them reduce their emissions by transitioning to low-carbon forms of transportation.”
Scope 3 emissions, which capture effects from indirect activities from assets not owned or controlled by an organization, are increasingly becoming a part of companies’ ESG [environmental, social, and governance] reporting. Lyft’s new reporting tool for GHG emissions from employee rides contributes to helping its business partners more accurately track their impact.
Actor (and travel tech investor) Ashton Kutcher is at it again, as his Sound Ventures venture capital firm has co-led a $15 million investment in climate tech company Chooose.
It’s the latest in a long chapter of travel investing for Kutcher, revealed on Friday, with previous deals including Affirm, Airbnb, Hipmunk and Citymaps, which was bought by TripAdvisor .
Norway-based Chooose, which offers climate solutions such as carbon offsetting, carbon removals and sustainable aviation fuel, already works with global companies and airlines including British Airways, Air Canada and Japan Airlines. It also works with Booking.com, Trip.com and SAP Concur.
Startups like this have fast emerged out of the need to give companies better insight into their carbon footprints when flying. This extra capital will go towards scaling up its platform, and further “embed climate action solutions into customer experiences.” It also plans to expand into new geographies, thanks to the funding provided by Soundwaves, which is the sustainability-focused vehicle of Kutcher’s fund.
GenZero, a decarbonisation-focused investment company owned by Singapore’s Temasek, also co-led the investment round. Existing investors Shell Ventures and Vinyl Capital also participated in the strategic capital round. Other current investors include travel technology giant Amadeus and Contrarian VC.
UPDATE: This article was amended to remove the series B mention, which had originally been provided.
The Hawaiian government this week rescinded the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s U.S. tourism contract with the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, a community non-profit, providing a potential setback for the authority’s sustainable tourism efforts. The reason for the government’s rescission was that the contract needed to be separated into two, one for marketing and the other for visitor management and community relations.
Former Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT) Director Mike McCartney made the decision minutes before his term ended at noon on Monday. The Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) sits under the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.
In a letter, McCartney said there needs to be one contract for marketing and another for destination brand management, communication, education, and community-based economic development. “A single contract would not only put us at a competitive disadvantage in the market but also in dealing with the community,” the former director wrote.
The contract award also represented a significant step toward HTA implementing a “locals-first” approach. The authority wants to attract a more high-spending but mindful visitor, one that will embrace Hawaii’s cultural heritage and be respectful of sacred sites and the natural environment.
Since the June contract award, HTA has repeatedly extended its current contract with the HVCB due to protests by the bureau. Its most recent extension was up to March 31, 2023.
With the June contracted canceled, HVCB could very well end up oversee marketing to the U.S. for the next few years. In a statement, CNHA CEO Kūhiō Lewis called McCartney’s recession “unlawful” and said his organization will protest it.
HTA President and CEO John De Fries said the organization is willing to work on a settlement with all the parties involved or start a new procurement process, according to Hawaii News Now.
Either way, the Hawaii Tourism Authority will have to get to work, starting with an upcoming emergency meeting. “My staff and I look forward to discussing this rescission and cancellation at our board meeting on Wednesday and we will work with our board, new DBEDT Director Chris Sadayasu, the State Procurement Office, and Governor Josh Green to explore viable options and align our direction going forward,” said De Fries.
The Shanghai-based company will use three-year dual-tranche term loan facility to refinance some of its debt, and the rest for general corporate purposes.
Climate-related risk is on investors’ minds as they look at their portfolios. For travel in general, the sustainability-linked bond may provide more flexibility for investors worried about this issue, said Leslie Samuelrich, president of Boston-based Green Century Capital Management. Sustainability-linked bonds are different from green bonds.They set macro targets for a company, while green bonds commit to specific projects.
The investment concept is growing fast, Samuelrich said. Last year, lenders issued $103 billion in sustainability-linked bonds to companies across various industries. The year before that, it was about $12 billion.
In April, Ascott Residence Trust issued a sustainability-linked bond — apparently the first in the hotel sector — worth about $143 million ($200 million Singaporean). Ascott Residence Trust has committed to a sustainability performance target of greening half of its total portfolio by 2025, and its interest rates would essentially rise on the loan facility if it fails to meet the target.
The process remains murky and slow burn, though. There’s a debate about measuring the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to the climate emergency. IFRS Foundation, the international accounting standards-setting body, has this year been working on setting standards for emissions-focused reporting. Their work, and the work of other organizations, will adjust how investors evaluate climate risk — a knotty task inviting skepticism from some critics.
Side note: Trip.com’s chief commercial officer Schubert Lou will talk about the international division of Trip.com Group at Skift Global Forum East in Dubai on Dec. 14.
Movie actor Ed Norton is working with the former president of Six Senses on developing a new eco-resort in Kenya.
“There’s going to be an announcement in the spring, about a new, global luxury brand,” he revealed on stage at the World Travel and Tourism Council Global Summit, held in Saudi Arabia this week.
“A good friend of mine who ran Six Senses from its inception, up to when InterContinental Group bought it, and my friends at the Discovery Land Development Corporation, they have a big announcement in the spring. And we’re working with them to build state-of-the-art sustainable camps in Kenya, that will come over the next couple of years.”
According to reports, Bernhard Bohnenberger, former president of Six Senses and now CEO of Discover Collection, has worked with Norton on selecting three safari lodges and one beach resort.
Norton shared the news while speaking with Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO of the Saudi Tourism Authority, about which resorts were taking sustainability seriously.
He revealed that the camps in Kenya would fully electrified and features electric vehicles, while water would be sustainably sourced and only locals would be employed. Norton said he wanted the camps to act as a model for what can be done.
The “Fight Club” actor, who has spent many years as an environmental activist and social entrepreneur, also acts as ambassador to the Kenya Tourism Board.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated the Six Senses founder was involved. This updated version includes a report on Bohnenberger.
