As sustainability evolves, the market demands more information than ever. From investor surveys to regulatory disclosures, companies feel pressure from a variety of stakeholders to provide reliable information about sustainability impacts of their businesses. Hotel chain Marriott International is introducing a novel offering to those who organize events at select properties: a sustainability impact report. The report is designed to give customers detailed information about the carbon footprint and water consumption of their events. Marriott’s website describes the report stating:
“The Meeting Impact Report captures event details, the hotel’s sustainability practices implemented for the event, and displays the calculated carbon and water footprints of your event, based on industry methodologies. It also highlights property-specific sustainability practices utilized during your event.”
Marriott’s impact reports sound like they will provide real value to companies that want to track their sustainability impacts. Many professional service providers see much of their Scope 3 emissions coming from travel and lodging and, while the program is currently limited to events, perhaps more granular data will be available to customers in the future. This is just one way that companies are using the demand for sustainability information to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
However, this isn’t without risk. Whenever sustainability information is reported externally, companies should be careful to ensure that the information is accurate and disclose the appropriate methodological information to provide transparency. If the data is not accurate, then companies may face litigation risk from the end users of that data including consumer protection litigation, regulatory enforcement, and shareholder lawsuits.
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Image Credit: doganmesut – stock.adobe.com
