Leading global distribution system (GDS) provider Travelport GDS has announced a global marketing alliance with The Hotel Carbon Index Company Limited, creator of CarePar. CarePar is the industry standard system for measuring carbon emissions within the hotel and lodging industry. Through the agreement, Travelport leads the way in the hotel industry by helping to answer the demand, particularly among corporate travellers, for a means to calculate the carbon cost of hotel stays. The announcement was made here today at the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association (HEDNA) Conference.

As part of the agreement, Travelport will include CarePar hotel carbon emission data in Travelport GDS products, including Travelport Carbon Tracker. The integration of CarePar hotel data into Carbon Tracker in the future will give corporations and their travellers an even more complete view of their emissions per trip. Carbon Tracker enables corporations to compare CO2 analyses for travel itineraries and obtain emission data across multiple travel types (air, rail and car), using the latest developments in emissions calculation.

“This landmark agreement within the GDS industry comes at a time when hotels, corporations and travellers the world over are looking to industry leaders to get behind programs that are better for the environment,” said Peter Ducker, founder of The Hotel Carbon Index Company. “This is another bold initiative by Travelport that will lead the hotel sector into a regime of benchmarking and measuring emissions, and help hotels and their guests calculate their true carbon footprints.”

“Travelport has spearheaded a number of initiatives in carbon emissions measurement and reporting for the travel industry,” said Flo Lugli, senior vice president, Commercial, for Travelport GDS. “Our relationship with The Hotel Carbon Index is a vital next step, following our launch of Carbon Tracker earlier this year. We will continue to build on our strong track record of helping travel companies, corporations and travellers measure and reduce their carbon footprints.”

CarePar (“carbon emissions per available room”) is the travel industry’s first method of establishing, calculating, managing and disseminating usable data on carbon emissions per hotel and venue usage – representing either carbon emissions per available room per day, or function room per half day. CarePar was developed in response to demand for a hotel industry standard solution that effectively and accurately measures carbon emissions.

CarePar offers a strong differentiator to Travelport’s 83,000 participating hotel properties worldwide, and a criterion of choice for travellers when their itineraries are booked through two of the world’s leading GDSs, Galileo by Travelport and Worldspan by Travelport. By providing travel buyers with emission data on individual properties, CarePar will help travellers make informed travel decisions.

Corporations are also looking to use greener venues. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) sections are becoming increasingly common in request for proposal (RFP) programs, evidence that carbon emission measurement is a growing factor for today’s corporations when arranging preferred hotel programs.