Hotel Sustainability Basics

The Hotel Sustainability Basics is a globally recognised and coordinated set of basic sustainability indicators that all hotels should implement as a minimum. The indicators have been developed by World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and other partners. Developed by the industry for the industry, they represent the 12 actions that are fundamental to hotel sustainability.

Green Key International is one of the verifiers of the Hotel Sustainability Basics. WTTC and Green Key are calling on hotel operators, owners, associations, and investors around the world to officially support the initiative and work across their networks to implement the criteria over the next three years

How it works

The Hotel Sustainability Basics criteria are open source and freely available for any hotel company or property to adopt. They are intended as the first step of a progressive sustainability journey, that can then be expanded to follow more ambitious pathways, such as the full Green Key certification. While the 12 criteria are simple in nature, it is important to recognise that they will still require time and effort to implement, particularly in establishments which are starting out on their sustainability journey. For this reason, only eight of the criteria are expected to be in place within the first year of implementation, and the remaining four by year three. There is some flexibility in terms of which criteria hotels may choose to prioritise during the first year.

 

Are you Green Key certified and are also interested in the Basics verification?

If you already hold the Green Key certification, read this document where you will find further instructions.

Please contact the Green Key team at greenkey-hsb@fee.global if you need more guidance.

STEP 1: Choose your level of support

In order to be verified by Green Key International as part of the Hotel Sustainability Basics programme, please complete the application form, which you will be able to access once agreed to the Terms and Conditions at the end of this page. Once obtained the access to the application form you are asked to choose your desired level of support during the verification phase from the options reported below:

*Please note that UK based entities will incur 20% VAT charge through an invoice after the initial payment has been received.

If you have doubts about whether you are able to comply with all criteria, or you think you will need additional guidance in the collection of all necessary documents, we recommend purchasing either the “Preferred” or the “Premium” package.

STEP 2: Gather all relevant information

Before getting started, please find a detailed document checklist with the evidence that must be handed in for each criterion here. In addition, in order to get started with the verification process, please follow the steps below.

After selecting your level of support, and completing all elements of Step 1, please download Template 1 (Data Template) and Template 2 (Action Plan Template). In the Hotel Sustainability Basic questionnaire, you will be asked to fill out the corresponding data within these templates and upload them in the application form.

STEP 3: Agree to the WTTC Terms and Conditions for the use of the HSB logo

In order to get access to the application from for the Hotel Sustainability Basics, please make sure that you have read and understood the Hotel Sustainability Basics Terms & Conditions.

The Terms & Conditions can be found here.

By applying for verification and subsequently displaying the Basics Logo, you are signifying that you have read and agreed to these Terms & Conditions. Once you have agreed to these Terms & Conditions by submitting the form below, you will be redirected to the application form.

STEP 4: Fill out your Hotel Sustainability Basics online application form

Once you have gathered all necessary information and agreed to the Terms and Conditions, you will be redirected to your individual application form. To facilitate the process of data collection and verification, the Green Key Application Tool offers the Draft function. This function allows you to submit a first draft of your application and come back to it, whenever all data has been collected. Please, note that the data verification by Green Key will only take place once the full application is officially submitted. No drafts will be taken into account.

Additional Links:

  • Template 1 (Data Template) can be downloaded here

  • Template 2 (Action Plan Template) can be downloaded here.

  • Optional: HWMI result (Click here if you would like to calculate your water footprint)

  • HCMI result (Click here to calculate your carbon footprint)

  • Checklist in Spanish here

  • Materials in French:
    - data template
    - action template