Report

Asia Pacific Hotel Sustainability Trends 2022

Greenview and Horwath HTL are pleased to present the annual Asia Pacific Sustainability Trends 2022 report, which is published for the seventh consecutive year. This report presents results of the 2022 Horwath HTL Asia Pacific Hotel Industry survey.

For this year’s report, a total of 2,586 hotels across 15 countries participated by contributing information about their uptake in sustainability practices as well as utility data from 2021 calendar year. The data is compared against a 2019 baseline to provide insight into the average changes in energy and water consumption and costs by country and service type pre and post pandemic.

Additionally, sustainability practices undertaken by hotels were also analyzed to understand implementation status at the country level.

Continuous spreading of awareness and scaling of solutions globally will enable further advancement in this region. We are proud to support the industry’s effort to benchmark best practices in sustainability, with the results of this report contributing towards publicly available industry-wide initiatives for hoteliers to understand their properties’ sustainability standing: the Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking study, Green Lodging Trends Report and Greenview Hotel Footprinting Tool.

We would like to acknowledge and thank the Honorary Advisory Board for the Horwath HTL annual hotel industry surveys and the supporting Country Hotel Associations for their participation and strong support.

Key Insights:

Energy and Water Consumption:

The report highlights a significant decrease in energy consumption per square meter across most countries during 2020 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, followed by an increase in 2021 as operations resumed.

Despite this, limited service hotels in Singapore, Malaysia, China, and Vietnam continued to see reductions in energy consumption in 2021.

Water consumption showed varied trends, with Singapore, Maldives, and Korea having the highest average water usage per square meter, while Australia, India, and China reported lower consumption.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Costs:

While energy consumption generally decreased compared to 2019, energy costs increased in some regions like China and the Maldives, even with reduced energy use.

Water costs closely followed consumption trends, with notable increases in some areas despite decreased usage.

Sustainability Practices:

The adoption of sustainability practices is categorized into four levels: common, established, emerging, and innovative.

The report reveals a strong regional emphasis on energy tracking, with a 97.5% adoption rate across hotels. However, there is a lag in innovative practices such as the purchase of carbon offsets and the generation of renewable energy.

The Maldives leads in the adoption of best practices, while Malaysia has the lowest adoption rates among the surveyed countries.

Comparative Performance:

When compared globally, the Asia-Pacific region lags in many sustainability practices, particularly in emerging and innovative categories like food waste prevention and the purchase of renewable energy.

Conversely, the region excels in the availability of vegetarian and vegan menu options, significantly outpacing global averages.

The report concludes that while there are areas where the Asia-Pacific hotel industry is leading in sustainability, there are significant opportunities for improvement, especially in innovative practices and global benchmarking. The report serves as a vital resource for hotels aiming to enhance their sustainability efforts and align with global standards.