Kick-off Technical Secretariat

On 8 February 2024 the Technical Secretariat (TS) for the Hotel Accommodation PEFCR development started their work with the official kick-off meeting. The TS is the governing body that will develop the PEFCR for Hotel Accommodation for the EU Single Market within the next 2.5 years.  

The newly-established TS is comprised of various stakeholders from the hotel accommodation sector: From industry-side, HOTREC – the umbrella Association of Hotels, Restaurants, Pubs and Cafes and similar establishments in Europe – co-chairs the TS. Moreover, well-known hotel chains as well as hotels of different sizes and regions contribute their expertise: The Alpissima Hotels Group (Italy), B&B Hotels (Germany, Austria, CZ, Poland, Denmark, Netherlands), the Comfort Hotel Solna – Strawberry Hotel Chain (Sweden), the Continental Hotel Chain (Romania), the Corinthia Group (Malta), IHG Hotels and Resorts (United Kingdom), Hotel Luise (Germany), the Radisson Hotel Group (Belgium), Hotel Thermana Park Wellness and Medico Resort (Slovenia), the Solar Hotel (France). As the initiator of the process, the European Commission is a member of the TS in an observer role. WWF Germany participates as an NGO representative. Studio Fieschi & soci (Co-Lead) and maki Consulting are part of the TS as technical experts. adelphi consult moderates and coordinates the work of the TS. The TS members were selected by the project consortium (Studio Fieschi & soci, maki Consulting, adelphi) from a broad number of qualified applicants. The aim was to cover a broad geographical spectrum as well as different profiles. 

The kick-off meeting on 8 February 2024 was opened by the European Commission, which emphasised the relevance of the PEF-method in the context of a wide range of EU legislative initiatives, including the Green Claims Directive. HOTREC as co-chair pointed out that the initiative is a great opportunity to create comparability for the hotel companies with regard to their environmental footprints. In the further course of the meeting, the TS Members defined internal working procedures and already started initial discussions on substantive issues such as system boundaries as well as the Representative Product. Within the next 2.5 years the members will meet periodically to make technical decisions, discuss the progress made by the technical experts, and organise hotel industry testing of the draft PEFCR. After the final adoption by the Commission, the final PEFCR can be applied by the hotel accommodation sector in form of PEF studies. It is also foreseen to be a blueprint for subsequent PEFCR developments on other tourism services.