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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SOURCE BeCause