The Athenaeum, a Mayfair icon, stands out for many reasons. There’s an artist-designed foliage wall on the hotel’s exterior, the views over to Green Park from the upper levels are simply stunning, and, for no reason that the doorman could provide, there’s an antique penny farthing bicycle (or Ordinary, to accuracy aficionados) chained outside the entrance.
But, for the increasing number of guests who prize such things, the luxury hotel’s most prominent feature is its eco-awareness. Last month, The Athenaeum won the Best Sustainable Achievement category at the Boutique Hotelier Awards partly because this 5-star hotel has a sustainability manager and is therefore one of only a handful of hospitality businesses with a dedicated ESG staffer.
ESG—Environmental, Social, and Governance—is a set of standards measuring a business’s impact on society and the environment and how transparent and accountable it is.
“I joined in May 2023,” says The Athenaeum’s first sustainability manager, Kai Parfitt. “It was a purpose-built ESG role.”
Parfitt was appointed by the hotel’s general manager Joanne Taylor-Stagg. Her Linkedin profile—with one of the platform’s most joyous profile photos—says she has a “keen interest in ESG.”
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So keen that she cycles to work on a high-end road bike.
When I turned up at The Athenaeum with a muddy bike in tow, it didn’t faze doorman Daniel Essex; he swiftly had it securely tucked away downstairs. “It’ll be safe down there,” he said, “there are loads of other bikes; a lot of staff cycle to work here.”
The hotel’s cycle commuters are keeping themselves fit and healthy, and by not driving or taking public transit, they are also saving money. Despite ESG’s portrayal in some quarters as virtue signaling, going green through carbon reduction, waste management, green energy procurement, and more makes sound economic sense.
“The way that Joanne got my role signed off by the ownership group was by saying it would pay for itself within the first year,” said Parfitt, “and it has.”
High energy
Sustainability is being incorporated into the wider hospitality industry’s overarching strategies and day-to-day operations. And well it might because hotels—most especially luxury hotels—are significant users of finite resources, and those hotels that go green often quickly see financial returns.
According to Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark data, hotels have the highest energy intensity at 293 kWh/sqm compared to sectors such as office (181 kWh/sqm), retail (152 kWh/sqm) and residential (124 kWh/sqm).
Most industries, organizations, and investors are committing to sustainability not out of supposed “wokeness” but because it can generate significant cost savings and lead to a greater longer-term valuation of assets.
Travelers are also increasingly seeking sustainable practices and expect hotels to pay more than lip service to environmental factors. Tiny shampoo bottles are no longer seen as cute freebies by many travelers but as profligate waste when refillable larger containers make more environmental sense. (The Athenaeum’s Molton Brown smellies are decanted into stay-in-the-room bottles with a polite bathroom note spelling out the hotel’s policy on waste.)
When planning trips, more and more travelers prioritize ESG factors. A recent Virtuoso survey found that nearly 60% of tourists are willing to pay more for hotels that have sustainability goals. But with a sector flooded with messages such as “certified green” and “climate positive,” how can travelers discern which hotels are genuinely committed to responsible practices?
Benchmarking, that’s how. But there are many competing schemes, and it’s tough to know which ones are independently audited and which are self-certified greenwashing.
Benchmarking
Hotels are businesses, and the biggest are usually owned—or operated—by groups. Traditionally, hotel management agreements, or HMAs, lead on financial performance, but hotel owners and operators increasingly use new, greener HMAs to hold each other accountable to ESG targets.
Some of these targets are set internationally via legislation. For instance, starting next year, the European Union’s new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will require travel-related businesses of a certain size operating within the EU to publish environmental and social impact reports.
These will unlikely be consumer-friendly so hotels will prefer to use benchmarking badges in their front-of-house promotions. (The Athenaeum uploads sustainability reports to its website, but it’s unlikely prospective guests frequently devour these.)
To increase access to consistent sustainability data and support the certifications industry, Travalyst, a new non-profit founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, has a list of 49 certifications, standards, and schemes that it says will make the sustainability certifications space more straightforward to navigate.
Internal and third-party green benchmarking schemes have increased in recent years, with some offering little more than pretty website badges and wall plaques. Others are more stringent, providing trustable certifications. Many online booking platforms now highlight those hotels certified for sustainable tourism. However, some of these paid-for eco-labels are tougher to pass than others.
Selected schemes
Green Globe and Biosphere Sustainable stress that businesses—and regions—in their schemes must meet the environmental and social standards aligned with frameworks like the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 specific targets outlined by the UN. Green Globe’s standards—measured on 44 criteria and 380 indicators—also align with international frameworks such as those curated by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).
Membership-based Beyond Green steers eco-minded travelers towards high-end hotels that have undergone third-party audits and can demonstrate measurable and positive impact, with hotels vetted for their preservation of natural and cultural heritage, and their impact on the economic and social well-being of local communities, as well as alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
B Corp measures a company’s social and environmental footprint. To become certified, companies are scored on categories including employee treatment and “stewardship of its customers.” Businesses must achieve an assessment score of at least 80 out of 200 points to be approved; most companies fail to reach even a score of 51.
Green Key Global—primarily a North American initiative—also aligns with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and emphasizes land use, water conservation, indoor air quality, and building infrastructure.
Regenerative Travel certifies hotels with a deep commitment to sustainability, continuous improvement, environmental stewardship, and community and economic resilience. A certain percentage of staff must be local, and there’s a target for energy generated from clean sources.
EarthCheck says it is “the world’s leading certification, consulting and advisory group for sustainable destinations and tourism organizations” and delivers “science-backed, strategic and sustainable outcomes.”
EarthCheck is also strong on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, supporting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Athenaeum works with EarthCheck. “We chose EarthCheck because it’s one of the few accreditations that will give you intelligent insights as well as benchmarking,” said Parfitt.
Greenwashing
Greenwashing is a risk with any ESG benchmarking scheme, according to Dr Susanne Becken, a professor of sustainable tourism at Griffith University, Australia.
“Real improvements, including the measurement of footprints, require effort. The more credible schemes demand quite a bit of commitment,” she told me by email.
For those hotels that show such commitment, there will be tangible benefits. However, Dr Becken warned, “you [only] get what you put in.”
Benchmarking schemes, she says, are “tools that help the company to get to a better place and improve all-round performance—the real change is within and long-term.”
And benchmarking is no guarantee of soundness. “You could also find absolutely amazing companies, including social enterprises, that do not have formal certification,” countered Dr Becken.
Nevertheless, benchmarking is helpful, and working with trustworthy schemes is increasingly becoming a sign of business acumen.
“Research shows that companies that engage in sustainability—ESG or otherwise—are often higher performing companies,” says Dr Becken.
“They have better strategies and operational efficiency and are better positioned for the future,” she said.
Dr Becken welcomed—with caveats—that The Athenaeum had a dedicated sustainability manager.
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“Ultimately, resource efficiency and wider sustainability—for example, how staff is treated—should be hard-wired into any company, whether there is an ESG manager or not. This change could also come from the top through a motivated executive. Or it could come from the bottom up via ‘green teams.’”
She added, however, that “an environmental manager-type role can accelerate progress and help mainstream it.”
“But,” she stressed, “it depends on how this role is resourced and executed. If it becomes a compliance, box-ticking role, then real change is not happening.”
Sue Williams agrees with that. The former general manager of multi-green-award-winning Whatley Manor Hotel of Wiltshire is now an independent consultant with her business Positive Hospitality and advises clients on how going green saves money in the long run.
During her time at Whatley Manor, her ESG initiatives reduced energy consumption by 38% and waste by 33%.
“Those are good savings to the bottom line,” she told me on a Zoom call. “It’s a no-brainer.”
Benchmarking can be a key way of getting ahead. She recommends those schemes that require external audits and align themselves with Europe’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
“[CSRD] is such robust legislation that it’s going to subsume everybody,” she said, with hotels worldwide aiming to meet or exceed these standards.
“Hotels need to find the right benchmarking partner,” she advised. That might come with fees, but the outlay will pay for itself.
“Some hotels might look for cheap [benchmarking schemes] or slightly less rigorous ones, but this isn’t going to protect [the business] in the long run. Businesses need to put [ESG] processes in place ahead of legislation.”
And businesses shouldn’t cut corners, she added.
“Some of the [benchmarking] schemes are self-assessed, with a box to tick, or requiring the provision of basic information. But if it’s not audited and not requiring year-on-year improvements, you’re not going in the right direction.”
Williams applauds the fact The Athenaeum has a dedicated ESG manager.
“A full-time sustainability manager can devote the time to [benchmarking audits],” she said.
“Ethical, sustainable travel is a growth market,” she added.
“Why wouldn’t you want a chunk of that?”
