Green or Greenwashed? (Mix Magazine)

From bamboo villas in Bali to B Corp boutiques in London, sustainability has become a selling point for hospitality. But are eco-hotels part of the solution, or just the latest form of greenwashing? Katie Treggiden investigates.Linda Boronkay on modelling, meeting your heroes, and the importance of not resisting what life has planned for you.

Have you ever carefully sorted your recycling into the colour coded sections of a hotel room bin, only to watch housekeeping empty it all into the same bag? Or noticed those tiny plastic toiletry bottles right next to the sign asking you to reuse your towels? Until recently, sustainability in hotels has often felt performative, supporting the theory that there is no such thing as ‘eco-travel’ unless it involves a tent, a bicycle or a canal boat. But that seems to be changing with the rise of ‘eco-hotels.’ Coined in Sweden, the term ‘flygskam’ (flight shame) is gaining traction worldwide, and concerns about carbon footprints are now extending to where we stay as well as how we get there.

“There have always been eco-hotels, we just didn’t call them that,” says Juliet Kinsman, founder of ecotravel communications consultancy Bouteco. “What we are seeing is a rise in consumer demand for sustainability. Hotels are responding by communicating what they already do, doing better, or greenwashing.”

And greenwashing is rife. In an industry with such a clear demarcation between front of house and behind the scenes, it’s tempting to keep up appearances without doing the work. “It’s easy to focus on guest-facing sustainability measures, but who you buy from and how you treat your people makes a bigger impact in the long run,” says Nadira Lalji, founder of London-based Inhabit Hotels. “Travellers want to make better choices, but they’re often met with mixed signals. We’d love to see more hotels prioritising local, ethical and circular procurement, as well as fair wages and inclusive hiring practices.”

Certifications such as B Corp and Green Key (both of which Inhabit holds) measure whole-business impact and are externally verified. “B Corp is broad and holistic; covering governance, workers, community, environment and customers, so it pushes us to think beyond the environment to every layer of our business,” says Lalji. “Green Key is specifically designed for hospitality and tourism, providing a practical framework for environmental management, which is invaluable for our operational teams’ day-to-day.”

But such certifications are voluntary. The Green Claims Code, a clarification of how UK law applies to environmental messaging, came into effect in 2021. In 2023, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint against Intrepid’s claim of ‘planet-friendly small group adventures.’ Interestingly, many of their customers only found out when Intrepid published the news themselves, sharing learnings such as avoiding vague phrasing and accounting for the ‘full life cycle’ of travellers’ holidays. Crucially, the article’s headline, ‘What we’re learning about greenwashing,’ was in the present tense, signalling ongoing improvements.

Sharing imperfect progress is vital in the journey towards genuine and collective change. Because while greenwashing is problematic, the flip side is ‘greenhushing,’ environmentally responsible businesses staying quiet for fear of being called out. “The industry needs to move away from celebrating ‘perfect’ and reward transparency, progress and honesty about the journey,” says The Long Run’s Executive Director, Dr. Anne-Kathrin Zschiegner.

The Long Run recognises a role for tourism in sustaining natural and cultural heritage, if conservation, community, culture and commerce are balanced. Member resorts include Pousada Trijunção in Brazil. This protects 33,000 hectares of the Cerrado, one of the world’s most threatened ecosystems, while raising awareness of its role in climate and water security. Another member is the Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve in Chile, which recently celebrated the crossover of the endangered huemul deer into Argentina, after years of conservation work. “Genuine sustainability takes many forms, from species recovery to education and ecosystem restoration, but what unites our members is long-term commitment and local rootedness,” says Zschiegner.

Kinsman argues that this commitment must be embedded in to business models. “Most hotels are in the property business,” she says. “if you want to flip a property within five years or run a ‘human-light’ model, you are putting profit above people and planet.” But that doesn’t mean business models can’t deliver all three: “Responsible hotels can be more expensive from a capital expenditure point of view, but if you’re smart, and give yourself time, the operational costs will reward you.”

If business models support sustainability, design can play a role in creating a sense of place. “Good design should contribute to a sense of identity and belonging,” says Zschiegner. Head of Architecture at the Banyan Tree, Dharmali Kusumadi, and local architect, Gede Krensa, began work on Bali’s Buahan resort with a four month study into its likely sociological, architectural and cultural impact. Made from ulin wood reclaimed from piers and fishing boat decks combined with fast-growing bamboo, the resulting structures tread lightly. A ‘no walls, no doors’ policy (guest villas have bamboo blinds and insect nets at night) puts nature at its heart.

So far, so good, and not a tent in sight. But as to the ASA’s point about the ‘full life cycle’ of travel, many of these ecohotels are a long way from travellers in the UK and Europe, certainly too far to reach by bicycle or canal boat, so the spectre of ‘flygskam’ remains. Eco-hotels can’t remove the impact of travel, but if they support communities and protect ecosystems, they can ensure that their guests’ presence contributes more than it takes away.

All copy is reproduced here as it was supplied by Katie Treggiden to the client or publication.

Katie Treggiden is a craft, design and sustainability writer, a nature facilitator and the author of Broken: Mending and Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023).