Tourism accounts for about 8% of the world’s carbon emissions – but if you’re wealthy, and like to travel, it probably accounts for a much higher percentage of your individual carbon emissions.

We don’t like the words “sustainable” or “green” to describe climate change impact, because both words defy measurement. These words are abused in the travel industry – among many other industries; used as marketing gimmicks. More often than not, sussy chatter signifies a hotel is doing something, but often it’s a token, and not much more. We hope to nudge the greenwashers. We’ll celebrate the hotels who are serious about sustainability.

What is Swank doing about it?

We buy carbon offsets for all our travel – not just for flights – also for hotel, ground transport etc. It’s not that expensive. If you can afford a nice hotel, you can afford to buy carbon offsets for travel. If you want to learn more about that, read our pithy blog on how to travel carbon neutral. Rant over.

We also evaluate sustainability practices, and provide a sustainability ratings, for each hotel we review. Admittedly, it’s not as scientific as it should be – at least not yet. We aim to improve our metrics here. Hopefully, we are at least raising people’s awareness of the issue and making a small contribution.