How sustainable travel companies are helping consumers, brands understand certification

As companies seek to help travelers determine how to identify sustainable options and help businesses understand how to operate, certification has become something of an important - yet murky - area.

“There is a ton going on in certification,” said Sally Davey, CEO of Travalyst.

The lack of clarity is not new. Plenty of small and large players have taken shots at removing the haze. Startups have popped up with the intent to solve the problem once and for all. And Booking.com, which partners with Travalyst, introduced a Travel Sustainable program in 2021 and recently dropped its sustainability badges from its site after authorities in the Netherlands claimed its indicators were "misleading." Instead, Booking.com plans to lean on third-party certification.

But third-party certification isn't exactly simple either.

“In just the accommodation sector alone, there are over a hundred certification bodies that are doing amazing work to vet the efforts that hotels all over the world are undertaking to make our industry more positively impactful," said Davey. "But … that can be really confusing for consumers to see so many different labels and initiatives.”

Davey and James Lever, chief technology officer of Weeva, touched on certification and more in a wide ranging conversation on sustainability sensibilities this week in the PhocusWire studio at Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona. 

There's not one standard level of certification to meet, Lever said.

“I think it very much is a journey,” he said. “There's lots of different certifications that apply as [you grow] and as your maturity develops.”

With all that in mind, Davey explained Travalyst’s efforts to clarify the certification process for consumers. The company is working on a set of criteria to assess certification bodies in an effort to provide a list of certification bodies that adhere to those standards.

“We're driving that degree of consistency that just isn't available today,” said Davey.

The other side of the certification challenge is that some hospitality partners aren’t understanding why certification is necessary - and that’s where data comes in.

“A lot of hotels think that it's super expensive to become sustainable,” said Lever. “And, actually, in some aspects, once you have data, you can understand where the opportunities are, and so you can make savings that essentially offset. And, really, it's about building a business in a sustainable way economically as well as environmentally.”

Information, the pair agreed, is at the crux of the solution for consumer understanding and business understanding.

Watch or listen to their full discussion below.