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Green Key Global announces the launch of a Carbon Calculator developed specifically for the lodging industry. The new Carbon Calculator will assist hotels in determining their annual carbon footprint based on a set of key sources and activities.
Developed jointly by the Hotel Association of Canada and the Greater Toronto Hotel Association the Green Key Carbon Calculator was created to meet the growing demand for an industry-specific carbon management tool.
Carbon management reaps great environmental benefits but can also be beneficial from an economic and reputational perspective as well. The Green Key Calculator allows hotel owners on a global scale to capture these benefits at the individual, portfolio and industry level by measuring, reporting and ultimately reducing the carbon footprint of their operations.
The Green Key Carbon Calculator measures all carbon emissions attributable to a set of carbon-emitting activities or sources applicable to a lodging facility from an annual perspective. As the hotel enters their “source data” (e.g. electricity consumption or vehicle kilometres travelled) the calculator will compute the corresponding carbon emissions by applying appropriate “emission factors” (a number describing the carbon intensity of the source).
“The Carbon Calculator is the newest addition to the tools Green Key offers the lodging industry,” says Tony Pollard, Managing Director of Green Key Global. “We believe it will be a valuable resource to program members as they endeavour to further their sustainable initiatives.
“The Carbon Calculator will allow individual hotels to monitor emissions and take strategic action to reduce their carbon footprint,” says Terry Mundell, President & CEO of the Greater Toronto Hotel Association. “This program is in addition to other environmental initiatives that hotels undertake as part of their commitment to environmental sustainability.”
The Green Key Carbon Calculator follows the World Resources Institute (WRI) “Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard” and ISO-14064-1-06 “Greenhouse Gases – Part 1: Specification with Guidance at the Organizational Level for Quantification and Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals”; these documents are considered the two leading international standards for quantifying carbon emissions.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.