Eco host badge?

[A65]

A green ECO HOST badge, similar to the Superhost badge would allow guests who want to travel with minimum impact on the planet to choose to stay with someone who shares their concerns. 

I think Airbnb would be the first company to have such a thing? The coronavirus cleaning badge was a great idea – now let’s deal with the climate emergency too. It was here first! 

An eco host badge could be awarded to hosts who can tick a certain proportion of boxes. Some ideas below and people have shared many other ideas on here already. The main thing would be to encourage hosts and guests to think about their impact on the planet and enjoy a break in a more sustainable way.

What do you think? 

Energy: Sign up to a 100% renewable and/or carbon neutral energy company.

Discuss heating/ air conditioning requirements with guests so energy isn’t wasted. Have low energy light bulbs, A rated appliances etc.

Recycling: Provide clear information about local recycling, with separate bins for recyclable and general waste. Avoid plastic bags in bins – bins can be washed. Work towards being a plastic free zone.

Cleaning: Minimise the use of cleaning products and/or use for example Ecover products which can be refilled locally.

Info: Tell guests about vegetarian and vegan restaurants, organic stores etc. and any local environmental initiatives such as food shares, plastic free shops. Ask guests for ideas about how you can improve your ‘green credentials’!

Travel: Use the guide book section to list ways to enjoy the area without a car. Include where to find local public transport information, bike hire etc.

Perhaps offer a discount, reward or incentive to those arriving by public transport or by bike/on foot. 

Provide safe, covered bike storage if possible.

Bedroom: Wash linen at lower temperatures if possible (apart from when there’s a pandemic on!) and in less harmful washing liquids.

Save laundry by having one pillow per guest with others available if they require them.

Bathroom: Tell guests where to find extra towels if needed but don’t leave loads out so that they all have to be washed. Recycled toilet paper.

Provide soap and shampoo soap, or refillable shower gel and shampoo bottles. Don’t use tiny individual plastic bottles.

Breakfast

Offer vegetarian and vegan breakfasts. Use washable containers for butter, jam etc. instead of plastic sachets. Avoid teabags containing plastic. Cereals in glass jars, rather than plastic sachets. Buy local or offer home grown produce where possible.

Any more ideas?

[Anonymous]

@Emma-and-Mark0  In its earliest days, Airbnb had a Keyword search filter that was occasionally useful for finding listings that catered to particular interests. It probably didn't work all that well, as such a feature requires some advanced sensitivity to the broad range of descriptors that might be used for any particular thing.  But the current list of options in the Amenities checklist has some hilariously arcane things in it - I love how a host in London can declare "ski in / ski out" as one of their access options just on the off chance a guest has unconventional ideas about how the tube works.

That same format - selectable amenity options that can convert into search filters - would make much more sense than littering a listing with all these dorky badges. Perhaps a "Special Interests" category might include tickboxes for stuff like Vegan, LGBT, Clothing-Optional, 420-friendly, or whatever other quirks have a specialty market. Perhaps a "Design" category reflecting different types of home style (Boutique, Rustic, Minimalist, Chaotic, etc) And a "Health & Sustainability" category could include tickboxes highlighting the cleaning, waste management, and ecological practices chosen by the host. This way, guests have more ways to find places that suit their preferences, and hosts can continue managing their homes as they see fit without having to shoehorn their expertise into some cringeworthy standards cooked up by staffers in an office in San Francisco to unlock more stupid achievement points. 

This gamified badge stuff is demeaning to the fine quality of work that hosts like you are doing, and it adds nothing to Airbnb's appeal to guests that have gotten past puberty.

[Lenore22]

I love the idea of eco friendly hosting and make every effort to choose eco-friendly when it comes to our listing.

The trick is, "eco-friendly" really depends on what's available and where you live. Some parts of the world live remarkably eco-friendly, but wouldn't qualify for the badge because of narrowly defined terms like "sustainably-sourced energy." (Most communities don't have a choice as to where their energy comes from, but a hut with a single lightbulb is clearly using less energy and therefore eco-friendly in comparison to a villa with a solar farm on its roof).

The devil, as they say, would be in the details. And considering the one-size-fits-all approach they've taken with the enhanced cleaning for covid-19, which is wildly inappropriate in places like New Zealand, I'm not confident that Airbnb cultivates the fully-informed context to address the diversity of listings across the world.

[A65]

Yes, maybe a different set of criteria to choose from for each country, with help from hosts? 

[Sarah977]

Certainly a lower world population would go a long way towards reducing the human footprint, but the problem, as I tell people who advocate for this, is that if the educated, intelligent, relatively well-off people (the very people who can see the wisdom of it) stop reproducing, leaving only the uneducated masses to reproduce like crazy, the planet will be in even more trouble than it is now.

@Anonymous

[Anonymous]

@Sarah977  Undeniably, educated and affluent people in rich have a vastly more destructive impact on the planet as consumers. Thinking about that 1 short-haul flight for a weekend city break in Europe or North America: the average family in a developing country would take a whole year generating as much CO2 in everything they consume as that well-to-do Airbnb guest does in one fun-filled weekend, but are far likelier to suffer the long-term consequences of its impact. So I can't get on board with the elitist view that these supposedly good-intentioned western consumers are naturally going to produce the superior offspring - I'll leave that argument to the Eugenicists, of which I don't believe either of us is.

In my opinion, the world doesn't need to keep cranking out more consumers among the small minority of people in whom its wealth is currently disproportionately concentrated, as some kind of competitive breeding strategy. Birth rates naturally lower to manageable levels when societies reduce inequality, invest in women's education and career opportunities, and maximize affordable access to health care and contraception. The human development goals need not be any contradiction to environmental goals, but we do the cause no favors by seeming to portray women in the Third World as boorish baby factories while imagining ourselves to be more intelligent or environmentally aware because we recycled our quinoa box.

[Carla1336]

Has anyone looked at the model that Ecobnb uses? It's self-reporting and I think hosts have to offer at least half of the 10 green criteria to be able to list on the site.

ecobnb.com

Some version of those criteria may work - either as amenities or some other way that is searchable by a guest if there's not enough interest in a "badge."

[A65]

@Carla1336 Hmmm, that looks good. Nice and simple. Airbnb said ages ago that they were looking into an eco host badge internationally. I wish they'd hurry up. Good job there isn't a climate emergency.  

Oh wait - there IS!!! Let's pile the pressure on. 

[Luzmi4]

@Luzmi4

Sí exactamente! Claro que hay que hacer presión y hay que hablar de modelos de vida sostenible… no es una moda, no, es una vida para ser de servicio a la Tierra, a nuestra familia y a nuestra comunidad. Esa es la sabiduría ancestral para la definición de salud preventiva!!!

[Luzmi4]

@Luzmi4 

No hay porque complicarse la vida con el asunto de la etiqueta Eco o Verde por favor. Si yo tengo una bomba de agua solar, un calentador de agua solar, si mi agua de beber es agua de lluvia recolectada y filtrada, si tengo un baño seco que no contamina ninguna agua, si manejo mi basura y enseño a mis huéspedes a reusar, reciclar y reducir o se lleva su basura consigo, si no uso insecticidas, practico conservación de agua con terrazas, siembro mi propia comida de forma orgánica y produzco buena parte de mi abono natural, tengo abejas y mi lugar es un santuario de pájaros, si uso tecnologías ancestrales y protejo semillas nativas, si mis materiales de construcción son locales, reciclados o de producción local o regional y son biodegradables, y con todo ello creó un espacio lleno de Naturaleza, buena energía y solidaridad y lo presento como un modelo de vida sostenible y la mayoría de huéspedes viene a hospedarse para vivir la experiencia. Porque no puedo tener un Eco Banderín o un Banderín Verde? 

[A65]

Booking.com reckon that 71% of 25-40 year olds, 50% globally are saying that a factor in their booking choice is the efforts of accommodation providers to offer more sustainable hosting, so come on Airbnb, don't miss out on this!