Water | Stage 1
Corporate Office
Kick-start action your journey to becoming a good water steward
Outcomes
By the end of this stage you will have achieved the following outcomes from the Pathway Framework:
Policy is in place, initial measurements done and data collected.
- Water consumption is measured and regular benchmarking is established.
- Possible sources of pollution are assessed.
- Initial water reduction targets have been set.
- Possible water-related solutions and initiatives have been investigated, a long-term plan created and immediate solutions / initiatives have been implemented.
- A linen reuse policy that requires hotel operators to develop and implement a linen reuse programme is in place [WTTC Hotel Sustainability Basics]
Setting up for success
Take ownership
Designate a lead person or team for each activity and ensure other relevant employees are aware of their roles
- Departments that are likely to be engaged:
- HR
- procurement
- legal
- engineering/maintenance
- housekeeping
- leisure facility teams
- operations
- food and beverage
- sustainability team
Review environmental legislation related to the portfolio
- e.g. required reporting etc.
- This can be incorporated into existing hotel legal management processes.
- Local or country-level governments should make information about relevant regulations accessible. There may also be local services which track requirements.
Include senior leadership to make sure there is ownership and buy-in from the top-level
- You may want to consider creating a council or other formal structure for their involvement, including regular meetings.
- Share information with senior leaders, including:
- why issues are important on the global level
- what impact hotels can have on them
- regulatory requirements related to them
- potential benefits to be achieved by improving performance related to them
Raise awareness among internal stakeholders by introducing environmental and social sustainability training
- Keep a record of levels and which courses have been taken.
Training should include why the issues are important on the global level, how hotels impact the issue and ideas of simple actions that employees can put into practice
Review the possibility for a monitoring system to track all environmental and social data in one location and monitor progress
- Review the potential to establish a holistic Sustainability Management System (SMS) if you don’t have one already.
- There are various off-the-shelf options which can be purchased or subscribed to.
- Simple excel trackers can also work well to track the data.
- Questions to consider when selecting an SMS:
- What data do you want to track? e.g. metrics (energy consumed, number of young people employed), and/or tracking progress on projects or initiatives.
- Who will have access to the SMS? e.g. sustainability teams, one key person per hotel, or anyone in the company.
- Do you want to have visibility of overall company performance in the system, or is it just for individual hotel use?
- Do you want hotels to be able to share performance/case studies/best practice with each other using the SMS?
- What format of feedback do you want to get? Do you want it to produce reports?
- Does it need to connect into other systems/company intranet?
- How up-to-date do you want the information to be? e.g. updated once a month, or taking real-time data inputs.
- What budget do you have to spend on the SMS?
- How can you incentivise its use? e.g. making it a brand standard, linking to bonuses/performance, setting up competitions between different hotels.
Review and update governance procedures
- They should include:
-
- Integrating sustainability considerations into the business risk management approach.
- Sharing sustainability performance updates in regular (e.g. monthly) leadership and team meetings.
- Evaluating sustainability performance during employee reviews.
- Maintaining an up to date list of applicable legal requirements.
Engage stakeholders
Conduct a stakeholder mapping to identify relevant stakeholders, and engage key stakeholders to understand their priorities
- These may include:
-
- Municipal governments
- NGOs
- Conservation groups
- Indigenous groups
- Community groups
- Partners
- Coalitions
- Destination groups
- Suppliers
- Other local businesses
- Customers
- Employees
- Think about which stakeholders should be engaged immediately, and any which you intend to engage in the future.
- When engaging stakeholders, consider asking questions such as:
- What element of [topic] is the most important or relevant to you/the local area?
- What element of [topic] is the highest priority to address? Are there any elements of [topic] which have become worse recently?
- What are the main challenges preventing action being taken on [topic]? What is needed to overcome these?
- Do you have any strong examples of how others are taking action on [topic]?
Find other brands and management companies you can learn from
- Connect through organisations such as the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).
- Review what cross-sector sustainability events are available for you to attend.
Set up a process to regularly engage with hotels, to understand challenges, identify priorities, inform them of central programmes and share solutions
Understand impact & dependencies
1. Review water impacts including consumption and potential sources of pollution from runoff and contaminants
2. Review dependencies relating to water
- Examples include availability of freshwater, or access to unpolluted water sources for guests to enjoy (e.g. beaches, lakes).
- Remember that your impacts may have an effect on dependencies. For example, if your properties consume a large amount of water, this may impact on the availability of water for the local area, including to your hotels.
3. Gather available data for water consumption for all sites
- This can be tracked in a simple Excel tracker.
- Request and track water data for individual hotels – meter readings or invoices can be a good source of this data.
- If you centrally manage water contracts, you may be able to get consumption data from your supplier(s).
4. Check water data quality and engage stakeholders to make improvements
- Review data for gaps and any figures which are much higher or lower than normal.
- Cross-check unusual figures against other data sources e.g. meter readings, invoices, utility provider.
- Engage with individual hotels to identify and improve areas with weak data reporting.
- Engage with franchise partners to improve data access and quality.
5. Use HWMI to calculate and establish a baseline for water
- If accurate data isn’t available use CHSB to estimate water.
- Incorporate the HWMI methodology into corporate sustainability systems (where relevant) or use the free tool.
- Record the current performance KPIs.
6. Use CHSB to compare water performance of hotels to relevant benchmarks
- Set up a process to ensure this is done on a regular basis e.g. at least once a year.
7. Take stock of the initiatives you are currently doing/have done for water
- You should consider:
- How successful they are
- If any challenges have emerged
- Any learnings which might be useful for future initiatives
- Opportunities to scale up/replicate the initiatives
- Review what you have currently done for any gaps/ different areas which you might want to focus on.
Set targets
8. Set company targets, property-level targets for managed hotels, and suggest targets for franchised hotels, to reduce water consumption and pollution
Tips for setting targets:
- Ensure they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART).
- Consider what indicators you will use to measure your performance towards your targets. They can be qualitative or quantitative e.g. litres of water per occupied room
- Ensure your objectives align with the key impacts you have identified.
- Use existing best-case examples to help define short-term goals. E.g. practices within individual departments that could become standard for all.
- Remember to consider baseline performance as a starting point and use benchmarking indexes (such as CHSB) to help determine achievable targets.
- Where relevant, collaborate with individual hotels to ensure their targets align with brand objectives.
- Think long-term targets but include interim milestones. Longer-term reduction targets (e.g. targets spanning 5 or 10 years) provide an overarching sense of direction. However, it’s important that regular (e.g. annual) milestones are set to help gauge continual progress.
Take action
9. Review available guidance to identify relevant actions which increase water efficiency and reduce pollution of water. This should consist of simple behavioural activities and low-cost technical options to be executed in the short-term (e.g. payback in 1 year or less) and a headline plan for longer-term initiatives. You should include a linen reuse programme offering guests the option to reuse linens rather than cleaning each day [WTTC Hotel Sustainability Basics]
- Support branded hotels to develop their own action plans and inform them of any central programmes that they can participate in.
- The Environmental Action Planner can help guide plans.
- Criteria for brand-wide environmental certifications can also be useful and, if achieved, certifications can be used in communications with stakeholders.
Resource: Excel Utilities Tracker
10. Where held centrally, review contracts with water suppliers to see if a requirement to provide water data can be added
11. Review management and franchise contracts to see if a requirement to provide water data can be added
Resource: Environmental Management for Hotels (Section 2.5)
12. Determine financial and non-financial resources needed, create a business case and gather required resources
- Calculate employee time (corporate and hotel-level) and funding needed for actions.
- Find and cost further support in areas where your current team and external partners lack experience.
- Review options for funding, including internal budgets and external investors/funding schemes. Consider allocating savings made through environmental initiatives to fund future initiatives.
- Create a business case for actions and share with decision makers for approval. Section 2.5 of Environmental Management for Hotels can help to evaluate capital investment.
- Achieve internal sign-off from executive board/equivalent senior authority.
- Include time and funding in relevant budgets. Ensure CapEx and OpEx budgets and planning include fully costed measures.
- The business case should include:
- Financial investment
- Expected savings
- Payback period
- Other potential benefits (e.g. guest satisfaction improvements, compliance with legislation).
13. Review procurement policies and make them more responsible by giving preference to items which are more water efficient
- This could include things like:
- Requirements for environmental criteria to be considered when selecting items to purchase.
- Requirements for suppliers to meet certain environmental standards.
Resource: Environmental Management for Hotels (Section 1.6)
14. Inform employees about your water-related objectives and their role in achieving your targets
- Include information such as what the issue is, what role the industry has and what actions they can take to help achieve objectives.
- Create brand-appropriate education material to keep hotel teams engaged and informed.
- Record evidence of staff involvement in the SMS (where applicable).
Reviewing & Reporting Progress
Monitor & Report
Review progress by comparing against previous performance and industry benchmarks where available (such as CHSB). Repeat on a regular basis (e.g. monthly/quarterly)
- Review progress against the Pathway outcomes
- Update KPI figures and compare them with the baseline to understand progress against previous performance.
- Liaise with properties for alignment on indicators and progress reporting
- Keep indicators few, simple, and easily collectable, leaving time and resources for properties to develop and collect more detailed and location specific indicators
- A simple excel file, secured within the company’s online system, can work well.
- Map impacts:
- Assess which planned impacts have been achieved.
- Consider unintended impacts from actions taken – often there will be impacts (positive or negative) at individual or department levels that were not in the plan or not reflected in data. Track these through staff survey or 1-1 or focused group interviews.
- Take part in Green Lodgings Trend survey to benchmark implementation of initiatives. Liaise with hotels to avoid duplication.
Useful resources:
Review benefits seen through actions
- e.g. financial savings, increased customer/staff satisfaction, attractiveness of brand to franchisees etc, increased staff retention, reduction in human rights violations.
Review challenges encountered along the way and plan solutions to implement
- Include how to work more collaboratively with other stakeholders.
Update leadership on progress
- Report to leadership on progress and impact.
- Share progress and impact with all staff.
- Share company benchmark and impact report with regional leads and all properties (managed and franchised).
Inform corporate customers and investors of performance and activities by including information in communications and meetings
- Ensure communications are accurate and transparent to avoid greenwashing.
- Include information like KPIs, percentage reductions and key environmental initiatives implemented.
Useful resources:
More from the Pathway
View our accompanying factsheets
Stage 2
Move on to Stage 2
Once you have completed Stage 1, you are ready to move on to Stage 2.
