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Championing Sustainability

A longstanding guiding principle at Hostelworld is ‘Building a Better World.’ We care about our people, our customers, our partners, and our planet.

We want to ensure we operate sustainably and conduct our business in the right way, choosing the right partners and managing our own emissions, ultimately working towards net zero by 2040.

We promote the inherent sustainability characteristics of the hostelling industry, and we drive meaningful change by working to assist our supply chain in optimising how they operate. In doing so, we can help our travellers find and book the most sustainable travel options.

 

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It’s no secret that we’re on the brink of a climate emergency. Since pre-industrial times, human activity has warmed the planet, and right now we’re on track to exceed 1.5ºC within 20 years, causing permanent damage to the climate. As a company operating in the travel industry, we’re aware of the impact seeing the world can create. But we can take steps to change this, and that’s why we're acting now.

HOSCAR Awards:
Celebrating hostels that make a difference

Our annual HOSCAR awards celebrate the best-in-class hostels. In 2020 we added two new award categories: The Eco-Warrior and The Community Champion. Both are designed to highlight the importance of sustainability and community focused initiatives in hostel travel.

 

 

The Eco-Warrior

JO&JOE Largo do Boticário

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

You’ll find JO&JOE Largo do Boticário at the foot of the Corcovado Mountain in a colourful jungle setting complete with pools, terraces, DJ areas, hammocks, restaurants and bars (with the best caïpirinhas in town!). This backpacker haven is 100% plastic-free, uses clean energy and runs regular beach clean-ups ♻️

 

The Community Superhero

Wonderland Jungle Hostel

Koh Tao, Thailand

Wonderland is a hostel, charitable organisation and educational hub which tackles educational and economic challenges facing communities in Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia. So far, they’ve equipped 300 students with essential skills, including two who started with no English and have since returned as ESL teachers! 📝

 

The Culture Champion

Lagarto na Banana

Pipa, Brazil

Surround yourself with jungle, monkeys and good vibes at this much-loved hostel in northeast Brazil. With a strong focus on connection and community, Lagarto na Banana offers cultural activities like capoeira, dance classes, music, language exchange, theatre, poetry and plenty more – when you're not at the beach or in the pool! 🏖️

Hostel sustainability framework

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Progressing a sustainability agenda is a huge hurdle for any business and particularly so in the hostelling category where over 80% of our hostels are independently owned and operated businesses.

It’s our mission to revolutionise sustainability in the hostel sector, to make our travel niche an industry leader in sustainable tourism.

We worked with the Global Sustainable Travel Council (GSTC) to create a first-of-its-kind sustainability framework for hostels to assess, compare and communicate their sustainability achievements to customers and other stakeholders.

 

The framework, called Staircase to Sustainability, is designed to help hostels identify any gaps in their current sustainability practices and guide them on how to enhance their sustainability practices and in doing so, to move up the ‘staircase’ to secure a formal certification.

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Our ultimate goal

We are a signatory to the Climate Pledge, promising to reach net-zero carbon by 2040.

We’re doing this by reducing our own emissions, supporting our hostel partners to reduce theirs, being very selective in who we pick as our suppliers and helping customers travel more sustainably, to ensure a safe climate for generations of travellers to come.

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Taking Climate Action

As an online travel agent, our emissions are naturally low. But there’s always work to be done. Our target is to keep Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions below 30 tonnes each year, in line with the GHG Protocol, and we’re proud to say we’ve been hitting it! In 2024 we set a target for our Scope 3 emissions, working ultimately to net zero by 2040.

Each year since 2021, Hostelworld has been awarded a sustainability badge by South Pole, in recognition of our efforts in carbon management.

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1. Quantify and analyse emissions using a recognised standard

2. Develop an emission reduction plan and contribution strategy

3. Set at least an internal reduction target contribution target

4. Offset remaining emissions with certified carbon credits

5. Communicate publicly, transparently and unambiguously

We are delighted with the evolution of the South Pole label which is approved by CO2Logic and validated by Vinçotte (Member of Group Kiwa), an independent third-party auditor and partner.

Helping you offset your carbon footprint

We want to give you the chance to make a positive impact when planning and booking your travels.

We all produce greenhouse gas emissions, from turning on lights to driving cars. And when we travel, we create even more. Carbon offsetting is investing in environmental projects to counteract the impact of our emissions. A bit like ordering a clean green smoothie to counteract the hangover. Except this one works.

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By offsetting our travel emissions, we can reduce our carbon footprint, and support projects that are reversing climate change, so we can all keep travelling the world!

While some question the credibility of carbon offsetting, we’ve worked with a third-party partner, Cloverly, to make sure the projects we support make a real difference to the environment and people they serve to help. 

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Our people

Our unique and inclusive culture has been recognised with a silver accreditation by the Irish Centre for Diversity.

We support females in STEM and in addition to our partnerships with the 30% Club and IMI, we also partner with Teen-Turn, an Irish charity, which helps young women from underserved backgrounds gain experience through work placements.

We review our people policies annually which include policies for wellness days, domestic abuse, fertility, surrogacy and menopause policies. In addition to an annual leave entitlement of 27 days, we also offer our employees 3 wellbeing days and 5 volunteering days.

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IT'S OFFICIAL

Hostels produce 82% less carbon emissions than hotels

A report released by leading sustainability and compliance specialist, Bureau Veritas, has found that hostels are 82% less carbon intense (tCO₂e) than hotels.  

The research, ‘Understanding the Carbon Impact of Hostels vs Hotels’, conducted in partnership with Hostelworld, across a selection of European hotels and hostels, is the second edition of the study. The first edition (published in 2022) found that hostels produced 75% less emissions than hotels. This report reveals that hostel carbon emissions have reduced year on year, while hotel emissions have increased. 

We’re so excited to be able to release the findings as part of our ongoing sustainability journey and know that it will be welcome news to our increasingly environmentally-conscious sector of the travel industry. 

Not only are hostels a way to meet other people and share unique experiences, we also now know for sure that they represent a more sustainable accommodation choice in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a win, win, win! 

To find out more about the data points measured- and how hostels came up trumps against hotels - take a closer look at the report here. 

Climate-conscious travel advice

 

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