‘The Race to Net Carbon Zero’ is a term which seems to have made its way into every C-Suite in our sector over the last few months to the same extent ESG did last year.

A lot of the major hotel companies including Marriott, Hilton and IHG, to mention only a few, have recently launched their ambitions to ‘go net-zero’. And the debate on how to reach these goals ahead of COP26, kick-starting in Glasgow next week, is heating up across the tourism industry too. There will be the launch of the ‘Pathway to Net Carbon Positive’ by the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, in partnership with the UNWTO and WTTC, a much-needed collaboration which should not only ensure that we as an industry have a framework to orientate ourselves on, but also help all hospitality businesses set their targets for this important journey.

But as we all know making pledges is the easy part of this process - although even those need recognition given that a few years ago many big players in the market were still finding it difficult to define sustainability or to even recognise climate change as a challenge on their radar. So, the good news is that the denial phase has given way to a pledge phase.

However, now we need to move on to the tough work of turning pledges into actual reductions, WITHOUT relying solely on carbon offsets, of which the world does not have enough capacity given all the Net Carbon Zero commitments made by multinationals and governments globally.