Traveling and taking vacations are modern American pastimes. But those pastimes leave something behind — and it’s not touristy trinkets.

According to Mintel’s 2008 International Sustainable Tourism Practices Report,

“…the tourism industry emits about 5% of the world’s carbon dioxide total [and] tourism, therefore, has responsibility over a significant slice of the factors that are driving climate change – the defining human challenge of the 21st century.”

A considerable amount of that total carbon dioxide is from air travel — but what about at the tourists’ destinations? How are hotel chains going green — not just for the environment, but to gain profit?

According to our MapChange 2010 Brand Sustainability Study, hotels are going green at varying rates. The disparity between the actual sustainability of the brands and what consumers perceive to be true reveals some surprising information.

Marriot received the highest actual sustainability score in the hotel segment of 51, yet consumers gave Marriot a perceived sustainability score of 80. In other words, consumers perceive Marriot to be 29 points more green than they actually are. On one hand, this is a winning situation for Marriot. On the other hand, if Marriot hopes to maintain a real, competitive advantage in sustainability, they will need to further build upon their existing green initiatives to match not only consumer perceptions, but also future demands. As an example, some competitive chains offer smaller boutique hotels that are completely carbon neutral — meaning their increased sustainability efforts have negated their carbon output/footprint.

As consumers become less tolerant of socially irresponsible companies, the hotel industry will need to build in actual change to match those sentiments. After all, misplaced perceptions will only last so long. Once consumers become aware of the realities, they may feel they’ve been greenwashed, creating negative (and difficult to reverse) brand perceptions. The most viable route to true sustainability in any industry is through innovation: Uncovering unmet needs in the market, fulfilling them with new products, services or business models, and then (and this is very important) effectively communicating them to consumers.

The MapChange 2010 Brand Sustainability Study is only the beginning. Over the next year we will track the hotel industry’s scores to see how well the industry improves.

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