Fixing Hotels’ Biggest Sustainability Blind Spot: Waste

Greg Poirier, Global Director, Hospitality Certification Programs at Audubon International, highlights that, unlike energy and water, hotel waste is still poorly measured and managed, making it a major sustainability blind spot. He argues that real progress depends on circular procurement (designing out waste from the start) and standardized tracking using tools like HWMM and tech platforms to automate data, improve diversion, cut methane and PFAS risks, and reduce hauling costs.

Hotels have started making major progress on sustainability over the past decade. Energy efficiency and water conservation are now more standard practice, from LED retrofits to low-flow fixtures and advanced HVAC systems. Yet one of the industry’s biggest sustainability challenges remains stuck in the shadows: waste.

Unlike energy and water, which benefit from smart meters, utility portals, and early-stage standardized ESG reporting, hotel waste management is fragmented and poorly tracked. Trash leaves the loading dock and, for most properties, disappears into a black hole of inconsistent data, unreliable hauler reports, and mounting climate liabilities.

Read the full article

The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

The hotel industry in 2026 finds itself at the meeting point of powerful, converging forces: rapid technological progress, climate urgency, shifting guest expectations, labour market disruption and economic realignment. This edition of The HOTEL Yearbook looks at how hotel organisations respond, not by choosing one direction over another, but by designing integrated strategies that combine digital and human, global and local, automation and empathy. A large share of this year’s contributions focuses in particular on artificial intelligence and its growing influence across almost every segment of hospitality, confirming AI as one of the defining themes of this moment. Bringing together expert voices from around the world, the publication explores strategy, technology, sustainability, finance, asset management, food and beverage, human resources, design and more, all through the lens of intentional hybridity in an age of convergence. The message is clear: in 2026, hybridity is no longer optional; it is strategic, and it will be the leaders who approach it with real intention who shape the future of our industry.
www.hotelyearbook.com/edition/2026.html