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Tourism is the third socio-economic activity in Europe and a major driver for jobs and growth. With 1.9 million
businesses active in Europe providing 11.5 million jobs, hospitality is the main constituency of the tourism sector,
representing 80% of the total EU tourism workforce. Tourism is furthermore one of the economic sectors which
contribute the most to advancing entrepreneurial and digital innovation. This economic and transformative
dimension gives the sector the social responsibility and real opportunity to respond to climate change and
reduce tourism’s environmental footprint. While the sector already engaged in reducing food waste together with
the European Federation of Food Banks, and in accelerating the rate of large scale renovations of existing hotels
into Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) through the European initiative Nearly Zero Energy Hotels (neZEH), it
today takes another step ahead in favour of the use of energy efficient products and of sustainable energy.
Through the signature of the present Charter, HOTREC
i
, UNWTO
ii
, the European Travel Commission (ETC)
iii
,
the European Alliance of Companies for Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EuroACE)
iv
, EuroCommerce
v
,
METRO AG
vi
, NECSTouR
vii
, SMEunited
viii
, the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE)
ix
and the European
Tourism Association
x
intend to take this societal commitment one step further and to implement the voluntary
commitments set-out below for the benefit of the broader tourism value chain and of society.
In particular, the signatories undertake to coordinate their efforts to promote the use of sustainable energy, to
cooperate with the view to share best-practices on how to improve energy efficiency, and use renewable energy
sources efficiently, with the overall objective of significantly reducing the industry’s environmental footprint.
HOTREC commits to:
• Inform its member associations of existing actions developed by ETC, EuroACE, EuroCommerce, METRO
AG, NECSTouR, SMEunited, EU-ASE and the European Tourism Association in order for them to evaluate the
possibility to either join them on a voluntary basis or to develop similar actions at local level which will help to
improve energy efficiency in local businesses and therefore reduce greenhouse gas emissions by generating
energy savings (and costs savings);
• Exchange with ETC, EuroACE, EuroCommerce, METRO AG, NECSTouR, SMEunited, EU-ASE, the European
TourismAssociation and UNWTO existing best-practices on the implementation of sustainable energy solutions
and set-up, when possible and/or feasible on a voluntary basis, facilitate the establishment of partnerships
which will help to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in local businesses;
• Promote energy efficient products and renewable energy solutions developed by ETC, EuroACE, EuroCommerce,
METRO AG, NECSTouR, SMEunited, EU-ASE, the European Tourism Association to its members which will
allow volunteering local businesses to improve their energy efficiency, use adequate sustainable sources of
energy and therefore reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
HOTREC SUSTAINABILITY CHARTER:
PROMOTING THE USE OF SUSTAINABLE
ENERGY AND IMPROVING ENERGY
EFFICIENCY IN THE HOSPITALITY SECTOR
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Making tourism more resource efficient: guidance and solutions to raise energy efficiency in the european hospitality industry