2024 Sustainability in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Roundtable

10:00am - Session 1: Are We Building for the Past or Future? Green Financing in Hotel Development and Investment Lead. Jeanne Varney Hotel and lodging accommodations comprise a significant share of infrastructure in the travel and tourism industry, and commercial real estate accounts for nearly a fifth of energy usage, 40% of CO2 emissions, and 88% of potable water consumption in the US alone. Development and investment decisions today will determine the industry’s future success and viability, and while there has been increased recognition of the need to account for climate-related investment risks and new tools developed to assess and manage that risk, the complexity and inertia within the industry are impeding change. Is financing in the travel and tourism industry investing for climate realities? What new financial vehicles exist or are in development to incentivize climate smart hotel development and green investment to contribute to the adaptation and mitigation of climate change.

12:00pm - Session 2: How Can the Travel and Tourism Industry Catalyze a More Sustainable and Resilient Food & Beverage Supply Chain? Lead Organizer: Aaron Adalja Today’s consumers spend more than 50% of their food budget on food away from home (FAFH), making commercial foodservice operations (e.g., restaurants, etc.) a significant contributor to the food production-distribution-consumption value chain which in total accounts for 34% of all human-caused GHG emissions. To successfully combat climate change and its impacts (SDG 13), we need to develop a decarbonized food system that can sustainably feed 10 billion people by 2050. How can the travel and tourism industry catalyze changes in the food supply chain, from agriculture to procurement and distribution to post-consumer waste?

3:00pm - Session 3: Climate Action Needs to Drive Destination Planning: Why Isn’t It? Lead Organizer: Megan Epler Wood & O’Shannon Burns Destinations, the travel sector’s most valuable assets, are increasingly under threat from climate and surging traveler numbers. Few nations have directly addressed how to lower the carbon emissions related to their travel and tourism economies, even as demand for travel continues to rise. What public and private policies and investment will be needed to reduce overall carbon emissions of the sector and how will professional destination management contribute to this process?