Looking for Cities With the Most Sustainable Hotels? Try Most Any In Canada.

A new ranking details the top 50 cities with the most sustainable hotel options around the world, and Canada was the big winner.

Which city has the most sustainable hotel options? A new ranking released this month details the eco-friendly options across fifty cities. The rankings come by way of Uswitch, the tool that helps people find the best phone and internet service providers for their needs.

The platform says it looked at Booking.com’s sustainable filter in order to calculate the hotels per city. The team then compared the data with the total number of hotels available in each city to determine the top rankings.

“The way we live our lives and the impact we have on the environment is an ever-growing topic of conversation. Aside from our energy consumption, one major aspect is the carbon impact of our travel plans, from the emissions released on a long-haul flight to the water usage of a large resort hotel,” Ben Gallizzi, USwitch’s Senior Content Editor, Energy, wrote in a post accompanying the rankings.

The top cities with the most sustainable hotels

No U.S. cities made the list; India had the most with ten overall, but Canada was the big winner with four of the top five spots. India makes its first appearance in position 16 with Chennai at 16.5 percent.

Vancouver topped the list with more than 43 percent of its hotels noting sustainability credentials. Stockholm took the second spot with over 40 percent. But then it’s back to Canada: Toronto placed third with more than 24 percent of hotels, followed by Calgary (23.53 percent) and Edmonton (22.56 percent).

The report noted the Fairmont Waterfront hotel in Vancouver was a “stand-out”. It’s known for supporting its surrounding environment.

“Of the many hotels that were recognised for their improvements in water consumption, carbon emissions and food wastage in Vancouver, a stand-out stay is the five-star Fairmont Waterfront. Nestled on Vancouver’s harbour, the Fairmont Waterfront has stunning views of Stanley Park, coastal mountains and the unique city skyline, and it also supports the surrounding environment on the inside too. It homes 250,000 honeybees on its fourth floor as a way of supporting the habitat for hundreds of species of solitary bees. Event planners are offered organic menus, disposable-free service and carbon-neutral options, and they recycle, donate and compost as much as possible,” read the report.

South America notched eight places across Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Germany, Austria, Ireland, and Belgium were the only European countries on the list. Across Africa, Kenya, Morocco, Madagascar, Egypt, and Tanzania all made appearances as did South Africa, with five cities, including two in the top ten: Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg.

Other countries on the list include Azerbaijan, which straddles Europe and Asia, Jordan, Pakistan, Thailand, the Maldives, China, Kuwait, Bangladesh, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates.

Hotel sustainability

While the Uswitch ranking is based solely on Booking.com data, hotels around the world are making strides in sustainability. The first truly net-zero hotel opened recently in West London, noting that its footprint is 89 percent smaller than the average hotel stay.

Last year saw 25,000 leading hotels formalize sustainability efforts along with the World Travel & Tourism Council and the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance.

In December, Small Luxury Hotels of the World launched its Considerate Collection—26 boutique hotels across the globe invested in sustainability and environmental stewardship.

“It’s brilliant to see that global awareness of the importance of living more sustainably is continually growing, and there are so many easy ways to reduce our impact on the planet – from using a green energy supplier to opting for more environmentally-friendly holidays,” said Will Owen, Energy Expert at Uswitch. 

“Some of the incredible hotels in this list are great examples of how business can reduce waste, source local produce and reduce their energy consumption and if this has made you think about your carbon footprint a little bit more, use our carbon footprint calculator to find ways you can reduce and offset your household’s CO2 production.”  

The sustainable hotel rankings