Google has announced that it has created a new team of engineers, designers and researchers who will focus on highlighting the sustainability impacts of trips that you plan. Their work will cover many areas in the coming months and years but today the firm is rolling out sustainability information about hotels. It has also joined the Travalyst coalition to begin standardising how to measure air travel emissions.
With the latest update to Google Hotel Search, users will be able to see hotels that take sustainability seriously as they will carry an eco-certified badge next to their name. These certifications are issued by independent organisations including Green Key and EarthCheck. If you’d like to find out a bit more about what exactly it is that the hotels do in terms of sustainability then click on the About tab to see a list of their activities including waste reduction efforts, energy efficiency, water conservation and the use of sustainably sourced materials.
To gather this information, Google said that it’s working with independent hotels as well as chains such as Hilton and Accor. It is asking hotel owners with eco-certifications or who use sustainability practices to sign in to Google My Business to add the attributes to their Business Profile. If you run a hotel but can’t figure out how to add the attributes you can also contact Google My Business support.
Finally, the firm said it has joined the Travalyst coalition. As part of this group, it will develop a standardised way to calculate carbon emissions for air travel. It said this free and open impact model will provide an industry framework so it can be used by other firms. Going forward, Google said it will post more updates about any other innovations its travel sustainability team deliver.
