Tool helps hotels to deal with water stress

A tool to help hotels to deal with water stress. Adequate water stress management in the hospitality sector is aiding some of Europe’s major hotel companies to be at the forefront of current and future water challenges. According to the World Resources Institute Cyprus, San Marino, Belgium and Greece suffer from extreme water stress in Europe.

Aglobal Destination Water Risk Index, developed by the Sustainability Hospitality Alliance in collaboration with Greenview, and with support for Smith Travel Research (STR, a CoStar Group Company) and Ecolab, has been put in place to assess and deliver solutions. Countries forecast with the highest water stress in the coming years are also amongst those with the greatest tourism growth.

National water stress ranking

The approach chimes with that of the national water stress rankings compiled by the World Resources Institute (WRI). In last year’s report this found that four European countries are subject to ‘extreme water stress’ every year among 25 states worldwide. Cyprus came second overall in WRI’s national water stress, behind Bahrain. In the report, the WRI also detailed that San Marino, Belgium and Greece suffer from extreme water stress. Spain, Andorra, Albania, Italy, Portugal and Macedonia are among 21 countries facing ‘high water stress’ as they use between 40% and 80% of their water supply. Luxembourg and Germany are listed as being subject to ‘medium to high water stress’ with a 20%-40% usage of their supply. And of 34 countries that use 10%-20% of their water supply and experience a ‘low to medium water stress’ there are 13 in Europe, including France, Poland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

Calculate water use

Building on the Sustainability Hospitality Alliance’s findings from the first edition of the Destination Water Risk Index, the report now includes a total of 379 destinations across 63 countries. The report incorporates nine risk metrics, including baseline water stress, future water stress, incoming risk likelihood, water intensity litres per occupied room, hotel pipeline % of supply, and tourism contribution as a % of GDP.

Take action

The index has been developed to help hotel companies prioritise action on water scarcity in risk destinations and implement water stewardship strategies in their hotel developments and operation. It also encourages the industry to take collective action in high-risk destinations, to address current and future local water scarcity in their properties and within the communities in which they operate. Importantly, it is a call to the wider tourism industry and its stakeholders, including national and local governments, of the need to take proactive and collective action to avoid many more water crisis situations

Hotel Water Measurement Initiative

The alliance has also developed a tool for hotels to calculate the water use in their properties. Called the Hotel Water Measurement Initiative (HWMI) this methodology can be used for free by any hotel anywhere in the world, and includes those with no previous experience in water reporting. It applies to individual hotels, large and small, regardless of the type of amenities offered.