Sustainability Leadership Case Studies / Iberostar: Roadmap for Decarbonisation

Travel & Tourism takes its contributions to sustainable development and to tackling the crises of climate change and global equity seriously. The sector is both a significant contributor to global carbon emissions and especially vulnerable to the threats they pose to people, the planet and shared prosperity. It is therefore imperative that businesses and organisations from across Travel & Tourism come together to share their knowledge and to work together towards actionable sustainability efforts.

This case study describes the work of Iberostar Hotels and Resorts (Iberostar) to decarbonise, so that learning to date can be shared across the Travel & Tourism sector and beyond. It provides a scalable roadmap for decarbonisation based on the success of Iberostar’s programme. If others adopt the same approach, they will help to accelerate pro-sustainability efforts to decarbonise, to mitigate climate change, and to boost climate adaptation efforts.

In 2020, Iberostar committed publicly to achieving carbon neutrality across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2030 through its Roadmap for Decarbonisation. Its Science-based Targets (SBT) were validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in October 2022. The SBTI is a partnership between CDP, UN Global Compact, the World Resources Institute, and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Iberostar’s decarbonisation strategy is pioneering in its ambition within the accommodation sector.

This report begins by providing a detailed account of the development of Iberostar’s decarbonisation targets. It then outlines the steps Iberostar is taking towards meeting those targets, comprising both decarbonisation and carbon offsetting efforts. Finally, it extrapolates from this roadmap a generally applicable and scalable method for the development of a businesses’ decarbonisation plans, with particular reference to hotel groups, outlining major potential roadblocks.

As part of our report release we also had a webinar with Iberostar and a panel. You can watch that here.