The sustainability data management platform,
designed exclusively for hotels and travel, will introduce a
digitized ESRS framework and double materiality feature to
facilitate, simplify, and streamline legislative compliance,
reducing time and costs.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark,
April 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ --
BeCause, the Danish start-up transforming how the global
hospitality, travel, and tourism industries manage their
sustainability data, is gearing up to offer a new digital tool that
helps global hotel chains meet their reporting and compliance
obligations under the European Union's Corporate Sustainability
Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Starting in the second half of 2024, hotels utilizing BeCause's
enterprise solution will gain access to a digitized version of the
European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), the first-ever
mandatory and standardized sustainability framework for companies
in Europe. With this solution,
hotels can efficiently collect and create audit-ready reports on
their sustainability data.
Current BeCause users will also be able to apply any existing
data collected previously through the BeCause platform and
automatically map it to ESRS. Similarly, any data collected for
ESRS can then be reused for other purposes such as voluntary
eco-certifications, eliminating costly, time-intensive, and
redundant processes and multiple input of the same data, allowing
hotels to re-direct their resources elsewhere.
"Instead of starting from scratch, hotels will be able to
leverage the sustainability data they already have at hand and
upcycle it to the ESRS framework for CSRD compliance purposes. This
ability to reuse data is a hallmark of BeCause for a reason – not
only does it significantly reduce workload and conserve resources,
but it encourages transparency and eliminates double-accounting
errors," explains BeCause co-founder and CEO Frederik Steensgaard. "By adding the ESRS
framework to our platform, we are helping hotels minimize the risk
of non-compliance penalties as well as reputational damage," he
adds.
Simplifying Double Materiality for Hotels
Following the release of the ESRS framework on its platform,
BeCause will also launch a new feature to help hotels address the
complex issue of double materiality. This issue asks organizations
to report on climate's direct and indirect effects on their
business and how their activities affect the environment. The
feature will consist of a digitized framework based on the
guidelines released by the European Corporate Reporting Lab
(EFRAG), enabling hotels to efficiently determine the material
matters and information to be reported on.
With 1,100 data points under ESRS, creating this kind of list
would typically require large hotels to work with an outside
consultant, a process that would usually take months and require
costly upfront investment. Once BeCause implements double
materiality into its platform – the only one of its kind built
exclusively for the hotel and tourism industries – hotels can
easily see which of the data points are pertinent to their business
and independently determine the material information on
sustainability impacts, risks, and opportunities in just a few
days.
Modernizing Sustainability Data Management
The BeCause platform is a modern approach to managing hotel
sustainability. Instead of manually collecting and transmitting
data about a property's environmental impact, BeCause is a
centralized hub through which all information seamlessly flows. For
instance, hotels seeking GreenKey certification can upload all
their data into BeCause and overlay that data against the
certification's framework already in the platform.
Any updates to that framework are made automatically so hotels
can be instantly alerted when their status is threatened due to
missing data.
Travel booking websites like Booking.com also use the BeCause
platform to ascertain which sustainable certificates a hotel has
earned and automatically sync those with their database, enabling
them to present up-to-date information to the consumer – an
increasingly important factor in travelers' purchasing decisions.
According to the online travel agency's 2023 Sustainable Travel
Report, 76% of travelers want to travel more sustainably in the
near future, while 43% say they would be willing to pay extra for
travel options with a sustainable certification, representing a
potentially lucrative source of room revenue for hotels that can
meet these expectations.
"With hotels now obligated to report on their sustainability,
there is a clear opportunity for them to also capitalize on the
consumer demand for more sustainable accommodations by using
BeCause to manage their sustainability data holistically,"
Steensgaard says. "Once on the platform, the data can be used,
analyzed, and distributed in many ways. This not only gives
hospitality leaders the ability to pursue more climate-friendly
projects but also get more value for their efforts. That's a
journey we're proud to be part of."
To experience the future of sustainability data
management, visit BeCause at booth F during the
International Hotel Technology Forum (IHTF) in Barcelona from April
16-18, 2024. Frederik Rubens
Steensgaard will also discuss technology's role in fostering
ESG responsibility during the "Fostering ESG Responsibility Across
the Hotel Ecosystem" panel on April
18th at 1:25 PM.
For more information about BeCause and the digitized ESRS
framework or to speak with CEO and Co-founder Frederik Steensgaard, please contact
Vanessa Horwell
at vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com.
About BeCause
BeCause is an enterprise software company that streamlines the flow
of sustainability data and creates synergies between different
stakeholders in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries,
empowering them to make decisions that result in positive,
responsible change for people, the planet, and their profits.
BeCause works with over 25,000 hotels, including brands like
Radisson, certification entities like GreenKey, industry partners
like the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and the SHA, and
marketplaces like Booking.com. For more information, visit
because.eco.
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