carbon footprint

The carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide (CO²) released into the atmosphere because of the activities of an individual, organization or community. This has an impact on the environment and causing climate change. The tourism sector is also one of the contributors to climate change. Choosing accommodation with a lower carbon footprint at bookdifferent.com will help the environment.

The carbon footprint that we present is calculated by means of a mathematical formula. This formula was developed by the Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUAS) in cooperation with bookdifferent.com and the Dutch tourism sector as a part of the ‘Carbon management for tour operators’ (CARMATOP) project. There are three accommodations’ unique value that we incorporated: direct energy use of accommodation, influential accommodation attribute, and countries’ climate factor. Each part of the accommodations’ unique value part is multiplied to each other in order to get the accommodation carbon footprint score.

We use a green foot icon for all accommodations that score lower than 14,99 kg carbon per guest night, as this is the calculated average output of a hotel based on the sample. The accommodations that have a higher output than >15 kg per guest night will receive a gray foot. Validated real data is always of higher value than an algorithm. If we have enough data it will result in a higher ranking within the search results and with a distinctive icon.

Are you a hotelier? Click on the button for more information about the carbon footprint calculation for hoteliers.

Are you interested in knowing more about the scientific background behind our carbon footprint calculation? Click on the button below for more information.