“Facing sustainability deprioritization?”

I think the concern is justified since a large section of the hospitality sector has traditionally operated on a ‘compliance-first’ approach when it comes down to sustainability commitments. Without regulatory pressure, we face a clear risk of sustainability deprioritization which means that with one step forward we are making two steps backwards by treating sustainability as – once again – a ‘nice-to-have’ and not a business and societal imperative.

So, the delay raises uncomfortable questions about the industry's true commitment to sustainability. Are hotels pursuing environmental goals because they understand the importance to their business success and thus believe in them, or because they have to report on them? Therefore, any postponement of mandatory reporting provides an interesting experiment: We get to see who maintains momentum when the regulatory spotlight dims.

In any case, those hospitality businesses that have a strong commitment to sustainability have done so before any reporting requirements or other regulatory pressure. Let’s remember that out of the 35 planetary vital signs tracked annually 25 are at record levels ^[1] – so reporting is nice, but action is what determines the future we hope to have. And the very properties that might benefit most from delaying sustainability investments, including those in vulnerable locations or with aging infrastructure, are the ones that face the greatest long-term risks from the polycrisis.

John Holdren (Barack Obama’s former science advisor) summarized it best:

We basically have three choices: mitigation, adaptation and suffering. We’re going to do some of each. The question is what the mix is going to be. The more mitigation we do, the less adaptation will be required and the less suffering there will be. ^[2]

References:

^[1] Ripple, W.J., Wolf, C., Gregg, J.W., Rockström, J., Mann, M.E., Oreskes, N., Lenton, T.M., Rahmstorf, S., Newsome, T.M., Xu, C., Svenning, J.-C-, Cardoso Pereira, C., Law, B.E., & Crowther, T.W. (2024). The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth, BioScience, biae087, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biae087

^[2] The New York Times (30 January, 2007). World Scientists Near Consensus on Warming. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/world/30climate.html