Google is now helping travellers go green

A Booking.com global survey released in June laid bare the new expectations of travellers: Some 83 per cent of 29,000 respondents said they found sustainable travel to be vital, with 61 per cent noting the pandemic has increased their interest in travelling sustainably.

Half added that finding a hotel with actual eco credibility isn’t easy — and they’re right. Hotels that take sustainability seriously don’t shout from the rooftops, while others tout themselves as green just for offering an option to skip daily laundering of linen.

The most significant new tool comes courtesy of Google. Starting on September 22, it will label hotels as “Ecocertified” in global search results, with a leaf-shaped icon next to the hotel’s name. Clicking on the “About” tab will detail the property’s specific sustainability practices, such as having water use audited by an independent organisation or using energy from carbon-free sources.

The new feature relies on 29 certification programmes to do the hard work of establishing a hotel’s green credibility; the property must have an array of sustainability measures audited by third-party experts. It’ll be up to hotel staff, rather than the search engine, to update hotel listings, using the free Google My Business Profile.