Hotel Companies
Are global hotel companies prioritizing meat and dairy reduction as part of their animal welfare and climate action goals?
Our food systems are broken. Factory farming is the biggest cause of animal suffering worldwide, fuels the climate crisis and drives biodiversity loss. In order to tackle these pivotal global issues, the food industry – including the hotel sector – has to take on its share of responsibility to urgently prioritize sustainability which highlights animal welfare and mitigates the climate crisis.
The FOUR PAWS Hotel Challenge – which is part of the Atlas Challenge food industry ranking series – looked at the objectives and measures of ten of the biggest hotel companies with a presence in the United States, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and South Africa on their meat and dairy reduction strategies, emission reduction goals, animal welfare policies, plant-based product portfolio and marketing strategies. Due to their global influential position, the selected hotel companies can drive positive change amongst not only their guests but within the hotel industry itself. The ranking shows who is on the way to taking responsibility and who is falling behind.
In addition to FOUR PAWS’ research which was based on publicly available information online including assessing the hotels’ Corporate Sustainability Report, Environmental, Social & Corporate Governance and animal welfare policies, a questionnaire was sent out which also asked whether they are aware of the impact of meat and dairy on animal welfare and the climate, and whether they have measures and goals in place to reduce it.
How Do the Companies of the Most Prominent Hotels Compare?
Disclaimer: FOUR PAWS conducted the research based on publicly available online information between June and September 2023. Any changes that were implemented by the selected hotel companies after this set time frame were not considered. As part of the research and analysis, FOUR PAWS sent a questionnaire to the selected hotel companies for their input, which was only answered by Accor. Hilton and Choice provided some information via e-mail. All the other companies were evaluated solely by FOUR PAWS’ research on publicly available online information.
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The FOUR PAWS Hotel Challenge
A ranking of leading hotels’ strategies for meat and dairy reduction towards animal welfare and climate mitigation
Did You Know?
- Food and beverage accounts for 10% of the carbon footprint of global tourism1.
- The hotel industry must reduce its carbon emissions by 66% by 2030 and 90% by 2050 to stay within the 2˚C threshold agreed at COP212.
- Plant-rich diets result in 75% less climate-heating emissions, water pollution and land use than meat-rich diets3.
- Doubling the proportion of vegetarian meals offered increases vegetarian sales by between 41% and 79%4.
- Animal agriculture is one of the leading contributors to the world’s anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with at least 16.5%5 of all emissions originating from it.
- GHG emissions of meat and dairy giants are rising by 3% annually6.
Source
2. UNFCCC. UN Works with Global Hotel Industry to Reduce Emissions. 2018 Jan 31 [accessed 2023 Sep 15].
3. Scarborough P, Clark M, Cobiac L, Papier K, Knuppel A, Lynch J, Harrington R, Key T, Springmann M. Vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters in the UK show discrepant environmental impacts. Nature Food. 2023 [accessed 2023 Sep 19];4(7):565–574. https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00795-w. doi:10.1038/s43016-023-00795-w
4. Garnett EE, Balmford A, Sandbrook C, Pilling MA, Marteau TM. Impact of increasing vegetarian availability on meal selection and sales in cafeterias. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2019 [accessed 2023 Sep 21];116(42):20923–20929. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1907207116. doi:10.1073/pnas.1907207116
5. Twine R. Emissions from Animal Agriculture—16.5% Is the New Minimum Figure. Sustainability. 2021 [accessed 2023 May 31];13(11):6276. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/6276. doi:10.3390/su13116276
6. FAIRR-Protein-Index zeigt, dass die Treibhausgasemissionen von Fleisch- und Molkereiriesen jährlich um über 3 % steigen - vegconomist: Das vegane Wirtschaftsmagazin. 2023 [accessed 2023 Nov 8]. https://vegconomist.de/studien-und-zahlen/fairr-index-zeigt-steigende-treibhausgasemissionen/