Sustainability: good practice or for the greater good?
The government has set ambitious targets to accelerate the expansion of low carbon energy to reduce reliance on natural gas. Every individual and every business should be doing their bit to tackle climate change, however, is the responsibility of hospitality businesses split equally? The operators within the hospitality industry that are open to scrutiny due to being more in the public eye, may feel additional pressure to reduce their carbon emissions. Innovation has seen a variety of strategies implemented to reduce carbon emissions; but are they equally meaningful? Do we need another channel that can bring about change from the smaller and medium sized businesses within the industry?
With the greenhouse gas protocol identifying three different scopes to calculate a business’s emissions, business intentions are being called into question. Scope 3 emissions being indirect, not owned and typically equating to between 60-90% of emissions, are not mandatory to report and the hardest to monitor. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer has an official strategy to reach zero emissions by 2040, with a plan that excludes scope 3 emissions, despite the fact they make up 95% of their emissions. If most businesses’ emissions fall into scope 3, to tackle climate change should it become mandatory to report, too? Being a larger corporation, Walmart have been publicly scrutinised on their strategy now labelled as ‘greenwashing’- using a marketing strategy to convince the public that they are environmentally friendly. Do businesses implement strategies to target their emissions for good practice, or is it for the consumer? If businesses are driven by consumer expectations, is this enough of a reason for the sustainability focus to be here to stay?
Offsetting carbon sees divided opinions. Sceptics argue that some companies do business as usual and then counteract their emissions by paying a third party to plant trees. For example, BP, Shell and airlines allow customers to offset their carbon, shifting some responsibility to the consumer. Does focusing on offsetting carbon through planting trees mean businesses are less driven to reduce emissions? The hospitality industry in the UK, has positively actioned change in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions through net-zero strategies and innovation. Just Eat are being the first to try carbon labelling on their menus that uses a traffic light system to demonstrate the carbon footprint of items on the menu for the consumer to see. Does the sustainable future of hospitality include helping customers and restaurants make informed choices? Will we be seeing more carbon labelling in the future, and will it become feasible for operators to implement?
75% of the carbon emissions in the UK are from businesses with the hospitality industry being one of the bigger emitting sectors. 69.8% of the hospitality industry is made up of small and medium sized businesses that will be in the public eye less than the bigger players, amounting to less scrutiny and public pressure. After all, consumers will assume one independent having less of a detrimental impact on carbon emissions compared with the larger operators who have franchises all over the country. How can smaller and medium sized businesses be encouraged and supported to net-zero carbon emissions?
Innovation, honesty, and willingness to learn is unequivocally the way to move forward sustainably. To educate and guide others, is there space for one centre of excellence where knowledge can be shared, to encourage widespread implementation of net-zero strategies, for businesses of all sizes?
