Sustainability Data - Why This Is Hospitality’s Next Competitive Advantage (powered by BeCause)
Summary
This panel session from ITB Berlin 2026, powered by BeCause — a Copenhagen-born startup — examines why sustainability data represents the travel industry's next major competitive advantage. Moderated by Isabel Lissner, the panel featured Peter Andrews (Senior Director, World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, standing in for CEO Glenn Mandziuk), Dr. Renee Nicole Wagner (Director of ESG, ORASCOM), Danielle D'Silva (Director of Sustainability, Booking.com), and Sara Digiesi (CEO Italy and Southeast Europe, BW Hotels).
Jahanzeeb Ahmed, CCO and co-founder of BeCause, opened with the provocation: 'We don't have a sustainability problem. We actually have a data problem.' He argued that despite industry-wide investment, sustainability progress fails to translate into commercial performance because data is unstructured, unverified, and incomparable. The BeCause hub currently connects more than 50,000 hospitality providers, 140 marketplaces, 70 certifications, and 20+ tourism frameworks. Ahmed cited Booking.com research showing 84% of travelers say traveling sustainably remains important — framing this not as a niche but as the mainstream market. His core framework for activating sustainability data commercially is three words: Credible, Visible, Comparable.
Sara Digiesi of BW Hotels described their ambitious strategy to certify all 4,000 hotels globally by 2027. She explained certifications serve a dual purpose: creating a standardized language for consumer-facing trust and driving internal operational change — standardizing procedures, engaging staff, and building supplier alignment. She noted certifications are increasingly used by corporations and tour operators as a filter in hotel programs to support their own ESG goals.
Dr. Renee Wagner of ORASCOM, operating properties in Egypt, Oman, Montenegro, and Switzerland — four different regulatory regimes — shared that they began their data journey by focusing on three KPIs: water, waste, and energy, starting with historical data from 2023. After roughly two-and-a-half to three years of consistent reporting, they are now identifying action plans from trend data. She acknowledged the process is time-consuming and that Excel sheets remain part of the workflow during transitions.
Danielle D'Silva of Booking.com, a two-sided marketplace, explained the platform's philosophy: clarity on which commercial value is being targeted. She distinguished between satisfying regulators/investors (technical climate data) versus driving traveler demand (sustainability filters at point of sale) versus supporting accommodation partners. Booking.com displays hotels with third-party certifications via a dedicated search filter and provides certified pathways for accommodation partners through its extranet. She referenced a 2025 research collaboration with the University of Surrey to understand traveler engagement with sustainability information throughout the booking journey — including when travelers feel 'patronized' by sustainability messaging. She also flagged the EU's 'Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition' directive, coming into effect in Europe in September, which mandates substantiation of sustainability claims.
Peter Andrews of the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (WSHA) outlined the alliance's five-principle framework for industry-wide data alignment: (1) align on what metrics to measure universally, (2) underpin metrics with robust methodologies, (3) build a credibility ladder from self-reported to third-party verified data, (4) design for interoperability so data is collected once and used for multiple purposes, and (5) establish benchmarking discipline. He announced that at COP 29 in 2024, the alliance launched 'Universal Sustainability KPIs' starting with four environmental metrics: carbon, water, waste, and energy. A joint WSHA-BeCause initiative called 'Vera FY' (Verify) was created as a central hub for collection, verification, analysis, and benchmarking of this data. Andrews also confirmed that an update to the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI) incorporating Scope 3 emissions is heading to public consultation in 2025 and will be finalized this year. Future KPI expansions will cover nature, biodiversity, and social dimensions.
Key Takeaways
- •Jahanzeeb Ahmed of BeCause reframed the industry's challenge: 'We don't have a sustainability problem. We actually have a data problem.' The BeCause hub already aggregates data from 50,000+ hospitality providers, 140 marketplaces, and 70 certifications, but the core bottleneck is that sustainability data remains unstructured, untrusted, and non-comparable — making it impossible to monetize even when intent exists.
- •Booking.com research found 84% of travelers say traveling more sustainably remains important. Ahmed characterized this as 'not a niche segment — that's the market,' yet at the moment of booking, sustainability data is often invisible, inconsistent, or impossible to compare, meaning this latent demand is not being captured commercially.
- •Ahmed's three-word framework — Credible, Visible, Comparable — is the operating model for turning sustainability data into a competitive asset. Credible requires standards alignment and third-party verification. Visible requires sustainability data to appear in RFPs, procurement systems, and booking platforms. Comparable requires interoperability so hotels can benchmark against peers and prioritize investment.
- •BW Hotels (Sara Digiesi) is targeting certification for all 4,000 global properties by 2027, treating certifications not just as consumer-facing trust signals but as operational management tools that standardize procedures, engage staff at every level, and influence behavior outside the workplace. Corporations and tour operators are already filtering hotel programs to favor certified properties to support their own ESG reporting.
- •ORASCOM (Dr. Renee Wagner) operates across four jurisdictions — Egypt, Oman, Montenegro, and Switzerland — each with different regulations and invoice formats, making data comparability extremely difficult before adopting a structured platform. Starting with three KPIs (water, waste, energy) from 2023 data, they now have two-and-a-half to three years of baseline data and can begin identifying trends and action plans. Wagner's practical advice: 'Figure out what are your two or three main pillars you want to track and then start moving on while always having your Excel sheet next to you because it gives you a safety.'
- •Danielle D'Silva of Booking.com warned against trying to drive all commercial value simultaneously: 'We're not always clear on what commercial value we're trying to drive... trying to do all of those at once and not optimizing for one specific commercial value area is a big risk.' Booking.com segments its sustainability data strategy by stakeholder — travelers, accommodation partners, investors, and regulators — and optimizes separately for each.
Transcript
So this is still about hospitality. It's about creating value. It's about sustainability. So it's a nice story line that will be continued in the next session and there is a great panel prepared and I would like to give the floor to Ahmed. um take the stage and introduce your uh valuable guests and audience enjoy. Hello. Hello. Can you hear me? Perfect. I'd like to start with a bold statement. We don't have a sustainability problem. We actually have a data problem. And before anyone calls securi...
