Carbon intensity
kgCO₂e / guest bed night
Your property14.6
Comparable properties18.7
Illustrative values only
Benchmarking
Your carbon footprint tells you how much you emit. Benchmarking tells you what it means.
ETC Africa compares carbon and environmental performance across relevant tourism operations, helping businesses understand where they lead, where they lag and where the biggest opportunities lie.
22% below benchmark
Why benchmarking matters
A number tells you something.
Comparison gives it meaning.
The same figure can be excellent or alarming. Only relevant comparison tells you which.
Without context
Your carbon intensity
18.4
kgCO₂e / guest bed night
Is that good?
With context
Your property
18.4
Comparable properties
24.7
26% below benchmark
Now the number means something.
Illustrative values only.
Your position
Where do you sit?
Every property already has a position within its peer group. Most simply have not seen it yet.
Off-grid safari lodges
Carbon intensity — kgCO₂e / guest bed night
Peer rangeTypical peer range
Illustrative property14.6 kgCO₂e
Where would your property sit?
Lower intensity / top quartilePeer medianHigher intensity
Where would your property sit?
Talk to UsIllustrative distribution and values only.
Benchmark dimensions
What can we benchmark?
Total carbon is only the headline. The operational detail beneath it is usually where the interesting questions live.
Total carbon
kgCO₂e / guest bed night
Your property
14.6
22% below
Comparable properties18.7
Diesel
litres / guest bed night
Your property
7.2
29% below
Comparable properties10.1
Electricity
kWh / guest bed night
Your property
31.4
13% above
Comparable properties27.9
Renewable energy
% contribution
Your property
68%
Top quartile
Comparable properties44%
Game drive emissions
kgCO₂e / guest bed night
Your property
0.59
94% below
Comparable properties10.1
LPG
kg / guest bed night
Your property
4.8
153% above
Comparable properties1.9
Water
litres / guest bed night
Your property
412
26% below
Comparable properties560
Waste
kg / guest bed night
Your property
0.48
39% below
Comparable properties0.79
Illustrative prototype values only. These figures do not represent actual ETC Africa benchmark results.
Carbon is the foundation
Comparison is only useful when the numbers can be trusted.
ETC Africa's benchmarking starts with credible carbon and environmental data, supported by evidence, recognised methodologies and transparent assumptions.
Good benchmarking starts with good data.
Data confidence
Verified evidence: 94%Estimated data: 6%
ConfidenceHigh
Illustrative data confidence profile.
Compare like with like
The right comparison matters.
An off-grid safari lodge should not be judged against an urban hotel. ETC Africa groups relevant operations so benchmarking reflects the realities of how tourism businesses actually operate.
Benchmark data representing 29 off-grid solar and hybrid tourism operations.
Your property
Off-grid safari lodge
Southern Africa
Full board
Nature-based tourism
Relevant peer group
Comparable off-grid safari operations
Similar energy systems, similar guest patterns, similar operating constraints — so differences in performance reflect operations, not category.
RelevantOff-grid safari lodgeComparable off-grid safari operations
NotOff-grid safari lodgeUrban business hotel
The value is not simply having data. It is understanding which comparisons are meaningful.
Benchmarking → operational intelligence
Sometimes the interesting number isn't your carbon footprint.
Category-level benchmarking exposes the operational detail that a headline figure hides.
LPG
kg / guest bed night
Your property
4.8 kg
Comparable properties
1.9 kg
Worth investigating
Kitchen equipment, hot-water systems or purchasing records.
Illustrative comparison
Diesel
litres / guest bed night
Your property
11.4 L
Comparable properties
7.2 L
Worth investigating
Generator efficiency, game-drive operations, fuel records or unusual operational demand.
Illustrative comparison
ETC Africa does not simply tell businesses whether they are high or low. We help understand why.
Variance can tell a story
Not every improvement is an improvement.
A big change is a reason to investigate, not automatically a reason to celebrate.
Waste to landfill
kg / guest bed night
2025
1.2 kg
2026
0.4 kg
Great performance? Maybe.
Waste records changed.
A contractor changed.
Disposal data is incomplete.
Recycling improved significantly.
Illustrative example
ETC Tourism Intelligence
Building environmental intelligence for African tourism.
Every credible assessment adds to a clearer picture of how tourism businesses operate across Africa.
As the dataset grows, businesses can increasingly understand performance across relevant operational peer groups rather than relying on generic sustainability targets.
93tourism assessments
400,000+guest bed nights analysed
1,000+environmental datapoints
19,500+ tCO₂eanalysed
01
PROPERTY DATA
Operational and evidence-backed inputs.
02
ANONYMISED BENCHMARK DATA
Aggregated — never individually exposed.
03
PEER COMPARISON
Compared with relevant operations.
04
OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Findings you can act on.
Built from tourism assessments across multiple properties, operating models and reporting periods. More than 19,500 tCO₂e analysed across multiple tourism properties and reporting periods. Benchmark information is aggregated and comparative; individual client data is never publicly exposed.
From comparison to action
Comparison is the start, not the outcome.
Benchmarking earns its value when it changes where effort is spent.
01 / 05
MEASURE
Establish a credible baseline.
02 / 05
COMPARE
Understand your position.
03 / 05
INVESTIGATE
Find what is driving performance.
04 / 05
IMPROVE
Focus effort where it matters.
05 / 05
TRACK
See whether change is actually working.
Who is this for?
Built for tourism operations of every shape.
Individual safari lodges and camps
Hotels and resorts
Multi-property tourism groups
Tour operators
Conservation tourism businesses
Sustainability teams
Owners and investors
Travel buyers seeking credible environmental performance
See where you sit
You already have a position. The question is whether you know where it is.
Whether you already calculate your carbon footprint or are starting with raw operational data, ETC Africa can help establish your baseline, compare your performance and identify what your numbers are telling you.
All values on this page are illustrative and do not represent actual client data.