A new initiative has been launched to benchmark carbon emissions from hotels and meetings and events venues.

Called Carepar, it will provide business and leisure travellers, along with meetings and events organisers, with the ability to understand the emissions produced from participating hotels or venues – whether for accommodation, conferences or events – so that they can make a more informed choice of where to book.

Carepar was launched by The Hotel Carbon Index Company under the directorship of Peter Ducker, executive director of the Hotel Booking Agents Association.

“The Hotel Carbon Index Company will take fixed and variable data from hotels and internationally recognised values for energy related emissions,” explained Ducker. “It will be used to calculate specific carbon dioxide values for each room type and named meeting rooms. This information will then be downloaded onto the agent’s database, where it can be used to inform choices and to provide a value for clients hotel and venue usage over time.”

The initiative has received the support of major hotel booking agency Inntel. “We are very conscious of the impact of travel upon the environment and, therefore, jumped at the chance to be involved in the roll out of this socially responsible new benchmarking system,” said Inntel’s managing director Douglas O’Neill. “Carepar will allow us to provide an emission rating for every booking our clients make, which is a great way of highlighting the individual carbon footprint of travel and encouraging clients to minimise it. We hope that in backing Carepar, we will also influence our industry counterparts to place greater emphasis on the environmental impact of their travel solutions.”

Commenting on Inntel’s involvement, Ducker said: “We are delighted that Inntel is backing this new industry standard. Its introduction will enable travel bookers to understand the impact their bookings have on the environment. Carepar will also help hoteliers and venues as there will be one recognised industry benchmark, allowing all venues to be compared using the same criteria – giving them a tool to better manage their individual ratings and in the long-term reduce their emissions.”