Photo: Depositphotos

While World Wildlife Day – which took place at the beginning of this month – should be a day to celebrate our rich and thriving ecosystems across the world, the current state of biodiversity makes for a more sombre occasion. Wildlife populations have declined by 69% since 1970, and up to one million species are facing extinction due to human activity.

One report, endorsed by the World Travel & Tourism Council and the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, found more than 80% of the value of all goods and services in travel and tourism are dependent on nature’s resources and ecosystems – so it is clear the sector must act.

The good news is that increasing awareness that much of our economy is dependent on biodiversity and its services – such as healthy soil and clean water – means the challenge is rising rapidly up corporate agendas, and the hospitality sector has an important role to play.

Biodiversity springs into life

Biodiversity has historically been overlooked compared to the climate challenge. The 2015 Paris Agreement spurred governments to action on climate, but biodiversity’s ‘Paris’ moment didn’t arrive until last year with the Global Biodiversity Framework – committing more than 190 countries to restoring and conserving 30% of ecosystems by 2030.

Further, unlike carbon emissions, which can be neatly boiled down to the amount of gas released into the atmosphere and plotted on a linear graph showing a (hopefully) downward trend in emissions, impacts on biodiversity are harder to measure and communicate.

However, we know that biodiversity is inextricably linked with the climate – as rich ecosystems can act as carbon sinks while a warming world is a direct cause of loss of life – so we can’t solve one without the other. And we’re seeing a wave of supportive regulation and frameworks, such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN), helping companies work towards both a net-zero and a nature-positive future.

With international agreement on how to measure, protect and restore the complexity of life, action on biodiversity is coming to the fore.

Extending hospitality to nature

The Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) approach was recently introduced in the UK, meaning new building projects must achieve at least 10% biodiversity net gain. Defra’s BNG Metric, used to evaluate habitats, may have started many arguments among technical experts around its prioritisation of habitats over species, yet it at least provides a common language to start conversations about biodiversity at all levels – something that has to date been a real hindrance to progress.

Building on BNG, a starting point for hotels – and a first step for TNFD reporting – is to evaluate their ‘biodiversity footprint’ – understanding a site’s impact on species’ variety, populations and stability. Whitbread has geo-mapped the habitats of a substantial part of its 864-hotel estate to better understand impact and interactions with nature – an important step before target-setting and estate-wide action.

Action can be low cost too – from planting native species to leaving grass long enough for pollinators – small steps make a difference. We find third parties, who bring insight and expertise, particularly helpful. Two examples are Whitbread’s partnership with the RSPB to trial wildlife-friendly pub gardens, and work with Buglife to identify opportunities to enhance biodiversity on unused pieces of land within our estate. Such work, together with a baseline to measure against, will inform our thinking as we develop our overall approach to biodiversity.

Supply chains have an outsized impact

Arguably more critical is to look beyond hotels themselves and shine a light on supply chains – all activities from producing raw materials through to distribution – that are often hidden yet where most impacts lie. For a hotel, each supplier is an important part of a large and complex puzzle. But for suppliers, particularly those operating on a smaller scale, changes in approach towards supporting biodiversity can mean changing their whole operation.

We must work with our suppliers and bring them on the journey with us. This can range from simply asking the right questions, such as whether they have a biodiversity policy in place, to supporting them towards new and better ways to work. Taking cotton as an example, for Whitbread this has meant working with laundry suppliers and the Better Cotton initiative to rent linen and source cotton responsibly.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn

As a first step and in line with evolving regulation, hotels should work to gain a better understanding of their impact and dependency on biodiversity. That way they can change practices accordingly, reducing risk and seizing the opportunity that nature can offer. Building understanding by joining organisations such as the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance can be a good starting point.

The statistics on accelerating biodiversity loss paint a bleak picture, but the winds of change are blowing. In an increasingly biodiversity-focused policy landscape, and with hard work, collaboration, and investment towards a more sustainable and profitable future, the hospitality industry can and must play its part.