About Business Case for Sustainable Hotels

The Business Case for Sustainable Hotels provides a thorough analysis of the business benefits of building sustainable hotels and offers tangible recommendations tailored for investors, owners and developers, operators, and franchisees.

The report explores how sustainable hotels can:

  • boost profit margins through utility savings
  • increase revenue through satisfying consumer preference
  • future-proof investment strategies
  • safeguard against regulatory risk and benefit from incentives
  • increase value and validation through certification
  • ensure long-term energy supply

The case studies provide examples of best practice from our members and demonstrate the resource-use reductions, utility savings and return on investment that are possible when hotels are built and operated sustainably.

The recommendations provide tangible actions, often simple and low cost, to ensure every stakeholder considers sustainability integral and increases efficiencies by working together, in order to achieve maximum benefits and address the scale of the changes required.

Who is it for?

All stakeholders in the hotel property value chain can use this business case to support conversations with their business partners to create a more joined up approach to building, refurbishing and operating sustainable hotels and make sustainability integral to all development decisions.

How was the report created?

This report was created in collaboration with IFC – a sister organisation of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group. IFC have provided insight based on their extensive experience in resourcing sustainable building projects and developing their free software (EDGE) to support the design of resource-efficient buildings.

“This research fills a major knowledge gap with focused and quantitative analysis. It shows that the costs are lower than previously thought while the benefits are high, with actionable recommendations for each stakeholder group. The collaboration between IFC and ITP has the capacity to move the entire hospitality industry onto a greener path.”

Shamsah Fatima Dhala, IFC’s Global Sector Lead for Tourism.