Insights & learning
Carbon accounting can get technical quickly. Environmental performance doesn't need to be incomprehensible.
Explore practical explanations, learning sessions, useful numbers and insights from ETC Africa's work across tourism.
Watch & learn
Short, practical sessions exploring carbon, environmental performance, evidence and sustainability communication in tourism.
Your carbon data is the evidence, but the stories behind it bring it to life. Duncan Pritchard and Nicola from Love Africa Marketing explore credible environmental claims, the EU's new green marketing rules, and how tourism businesses can turn climate data, conservation initiatives and community projects into compelling stories that build trust and engage travellers.
Climate communication for tourism — how safari guides can turn guest experiences into honest, memorable climate stories.
Food, energy and waste in tourism kitchens — practical ways to cut costs and carbon while improving the guest experience.
Carbon literacy for tourism — understanding carbon footprints, emission sources and why measurement matters.
Data quality and evidence — why the strongest environmental claim starts with knowing where the number came from.
One idea worth knowing
Measurement tells you where you are. Comparison helps tell you what it means.
The number
18.4
kgCO₂e / guest bed night
The obvious question
Is that good?
Relevant peer benchmark
Now we know something.
Illustrative values, shown as an example only.
Plain English
Carbon accounting comes with an impressive collection of acronyms, units and terminology. Here's what some of it actually means.
Different greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere by different amounts. CO₂e — carbon dioxide equivalent — converts their climate impact into one common unit so they can be added together and compared.
Think of it as the common currency of greenhouse gas accounting.
Scope 1
Emissions you create directly — for example diesel burned in generators or company vehicles.
Scope 2
Emissions associated with purchased energy, most commonly electricity.
Scope 3
Other indirect emissions connected to the organisation — such as flights, waste, purchased goods, freight and other activities depending on the inventory boundary.
Three buckets. Lots of spreadsheets.
You usually don't measure greenhouse gases coming directly out of every exhaust pipe. Instead, an emission factor converts something you can measure — litres of diesel, kWh of electricity or kilometres flown — into estimated greenhouse gas emissions.
Activity data Emission factor CO₂e
A lodge with 20 guests should normally use fewer resources than the same lodge with 60 guests. Intensity metrics help account for operational scale.
Total CO₂e Guest bed nights Carbon intensity
This allows more meaningful comparison between properties and across years.
Total emissions tell one story. Intensity tells another.
A benchmark gives a number context. Knowing your lodge emits 18 kgCO₂e per guest bed night is useful. Knowing comparable lodges typically emit 25 kg tells you considerably more.
Measurement gives you a number. Benchmarking gives it meaning.
Carbon calculations depend on underlying evidence. Invoices, financial records, utility bills, fuel records and operational data help establish where the numbers came from. Some categories will be stronger than others.
That is why ETC Africa considers data quality alongside environmental performance.
Better evidence = more confidence in the answer.
Useful numbers
A few numbers that help make carbon and environmental performance less abstract.
1 litre of diesel
≈ 2.68 kgCO₂eCombustion emissions.
1 litre of petrol
≈ 2.31 kgCO₂eCombustion emissions.
1 kWh South African grid electricity
≈ 0.96 kgCO₂eGrid electricity emissions, excluding transmission & distribution losses.
Guest bed night
1 guest × 1 nightA useful tourism intensity denominator.
Carbon intensity
kgCO₂e / GBNOne of ETC Africa's core tourism performance metrics.
Benchmark median
50th percentileHalf the relevant peer group performs above it and half below it.
Emission factors vary by geography, year, methodology and calculation boundary. ETC Africa uses appropriate recognised factors for each inventory.
A number isn't always an answer
Environmental data becomes intelligence when you start asking why.
See What We DoDiesel
↑ 46%What happened?
Illustrative example values.
ETC tourism intelligence
As ETC Africa's anonymised benchmarking dataset grows, selected high-level findings will be shared here to help build a clearer picture of environmental performance across African tourism.
Carbon performance
Data insight coming soon
How does carbon intensity vary across different tourism operating models?
Energy
Data insight coming soon
What can renewable-energy contribution tell us about tourism carbon performance?
Operational performance
Data insight coming soon
Where do diesel, LPG, water and waste reveal unusual operational patterns?
You're probably not the only one wondering. Send us the question and we may unpack it in a future Carbon, Without the Bullshit explainer.
Better environmental performance starts with understanding what the data can — and cannot — tell us.
