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Bob W spearheads campaign to reveal actual carbon footprint

Challenging the hospitality industry to reveal its actual carbon footprint, climate-neutral short-term rental operator Bob W has launched a campaign to share its sustainability report.

Bob W has launched the ‘Show Us Your Numbers’ campaign and shared its greenhouse gas emissions per guest night to create a benchmark in environmental reporting. As part of the campaign, the hospitality provider has called the hospitality sector to also reveal their “naked numbers.”

In its recently released sustainability report, Bob W revealed that it emitted 29 kg (CO2-eq/guest night) of carbon emission per guest night in 2022. This figure outperforms the average hotel’s emission of 40 kg (CO2-eq/guest night) in 2021.

The latest figure is also less than the 41 kg reported by the company in 2021 when it had surged due to an expansion that saw Bob W’s apartment portfolio expanding eight times within a year.

By making its sustainability report transparent, Bob W aims to encourage partnerships to share the best practices in the industry and collectively improve the environmental impact of hospitality, it said in a statement.

Bob W has launched the ‘Show Us Your Numbers’ campaign and shared its greenhouse gas emissions per guest night.

Bob W is a climate-neutral organization, which means that it offsets emissions with South Pole action projects, a foundation that works to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

For the past few years, the company has been working on lowering its emissions and has reached impressive sustainability scores for its properties in Europe. This includes the highest EED score for design for the Bob W Koti Katajanokka in Helsinki and a BREEAM excellent rating of 72.4% for London’s Tower Hill property.

Some of the sustainable measures taken by the company include local roasters providing coffee, furniture designed in partnership with local creatives or sourced from second-hand suppliers, eco-friendly toiletries in rooms and encouraging guests to manage resources to ensure minimal impact during their stay. Bob W supports local communities as the company’s ‘local marketplace’ and recommends gyms and cafes 500 meters from each property.

Bob W is also promoting a ‘per guest night’ measurement. Similar to nutrition scores on food items, Bob W said this metric is less open to manipulation and easy to understand. Bob W has incorporated the per-guest night metric into its website to help guests make more sustainable choices.

Many hospitality providers depend on “vague reports and sustainability certificates,” but a more meaningful approach is required now, said Niko Karstikko, co-founder and CEO of Bob W.

“We know we’re not the greenest accommodation provider, but we are determined to be the most honest, and we’re working really hard to help our guests make informed decisions. That’s why when they book, guests can see the emissions associated with each night of their stay. For example, one night in an ‘Epic Studio’ in Tartu, Estonia, equates to 28.7kg CO2, all totally offset by us,” Karstikko said.

“This is not a stunt. This is a race we all have to win, and we are totally open to hearing what other providers think the industry’s standardized sustainability metric should be. In fact, that would be the perfect start.”

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