The partnership with the leading hospitality sustainability data management hub will enable hubli to make more eco-certified hotel content available to planners.
COPENHAGEN, JANUARY 17, 2024 — BeCause, the technology start-up transforming how the global hospitality, travel and tourism industries manage their sustainability data, announced today an expanded partnership with hubli, the leading online marketplace and booking platform for corporate meetings, events and group hotel lodging.
This partnership will allow hubli to add an ever-growing list of over 25,000 eco-labelled hotels on its platform, giving clients better visibility on a hotel’s environmental footprint and allowing them to book options that comply with their environmental, social and governance policies.
With the BeCause sustainability API, hubli will be able to collect sustainability data from over sixty Travalyst-recognized certifications and automatically map it to hotels in its platform in real-time, providing valuable data such as energy and water consumption and many other attributes BeCause will be aiming to roll out support for this year. Hubli users can then identify which properties are sustainable according to internationally recognized standards.
According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) research, sustainable business travel has become increasingly important for corporate travel managers, with 73% communicating or planning to communicate to employees about making sustainable business travel choices. The hubli and BeCause partnership will make it easier for planners to make sustainable choices when booking meetings and group lodging in hotels worldwide by providing live sustainability data at the time of booking.
Powering transparency and customer choice
Hubli has an award-winning sustainability module allowing users to plan where to meet based on the lowest carbon consumption, book sustainable venues and remove high-waste items such as single-use plastics from meetings.
Prior to the BeCause partnership, hubli allowed hotels and venues to upload third-party sustainability accreditation while also connecting to environmental venue certification bodies such as Green Key. Hubli will maintain the option to upload accreditation, particularly for non-hotel venues and partner with BeCause to fully automate over 25,000 hotel accreditations via API.
“We empower global enterprises to make it faster and easier for their teams to meet in the most cost-effective and sustainable way possible. We are excited to work with BeCause to automate and scale our sustainable hotel content around the world,” commented hubli Founder and CEO Ciaran Delaney.
“Our ongoing partnership with hubli demonstrates how BeCause can help booking marketplaces easily ramp up the availability and visibility of a wide range of hotel sustainability data. We’re excited to see how adding new eco-certification data will help hubli better service its enterprise client base,” adds BeCause CEO and co-founder Frederik Steensgaard.
For more information about BeCause, their partnership with hubli, or to speak with CEO and Co-founder Frederik Steensgaard, please get in touch with Vanessa Horwell at vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com.
About BeCause
BeCause is an enterprise software company that streamlines the flow of sustainability data and creates synergies between different stakeholders in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries, empowering them to make decisions that result in positive, responsible change for people, the planet, and their profits. BeCause works with over 20,000 hotels, including brands like Radisson, certification entities like GreenKey, industry partners like the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, and marketplaces like Booking.com. For more information, visit because.eco.
About hubli
Hubli is reinventing how teams meet and collaborate by providing organisations with a self-serve booking platform for meetings, off-sites and group hotel stays with in-built policy, savings and sustainability controls. For more information, visit hubli.com.
WebBeds, the global marketplace providing accommodation ground product distribution services to the travel industry, has partnered with BeCause to provide WebBeds users with certified sustainability data on its hotel partners.
As a multinational organization, WebBeds recognises the importance of global corporate responsibility and is dedicated to reducing its environmental footprint by promoting environmentally responsible sustainable travel.
WebBeds has partnered with BeCause – a sustainability technology start-up transforming how companies in the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries manage their sustainability data – to scale up the number of properties tagged as ‘eco-certified’ on WebBeds booking platforms.
BeCause will enable WebBeds to automatically match hotels in its database to those with Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GTSC) credentials (currently 49 recognised standards). Individual properties that meet GTSC criteria will receive an eco-friendly identifier on WebBeds' booking platforms, which travel trade partners can use to book hotel stays for the end traveller aligned with their values on sustainability.
Daryl Lee, WebBeds CEO said, “Partnering with BeCause is a key step in our ongoing journey to become a more environmentally responsible business. Our travel trade customers are becoming more conscious about the eco-credentials of the properties they recommend to the end traveller. Working with BeCause helps us to rapidly scale the number of eco-certified properties we provide on our platforms with the assurance that these properties have all been through a rigorous certification process administered by recognised standards authorities."
Frederik Steensgaard, CEO and co-founder of BeCause said, “Without BeCause, marketplaces like WebBeds have to manually perform sustainability checks. This process is expensive, outdated, and error-prone. BeCause eliminates these issues. Not only does automation help speed up and reduce costs, but with our centralised data hub, marketplaces and their users have access to real-time, trustworthy hotel information from recognised sustainability organizations like the GSTC. With more and more travellers putting a premium on eco-friendly travel, enabling this transparency is vital to a marketplace’s business.”
About WebBeds
Launched in 2013, WebBeds is a global marketplace for the travel trade, providing powerful distribution solutions that make selling and buying travel products easier. It sources accommodation and destination services from travel suppliers, aggregates and merchandises that content in the WebBeds platform, then distributes it to its global network of travel trade buyers, who sell to the travelling public.
Hotels and other suppliers - global and regional hotel chains, independent hotels, apartments, resorts, attractions, transfer and sightseeing companies and more - can sell their products to a global network of online and offline travel buyers through robust solutions that provide greater inventory control to simplify distribution, and leverage WebBeds enhanced analytics to inform inventory optimisation choices – saving costs and increasing revenue.
Travel buyers - online travel agencies, retail travel agents, corporate travel managers, tour operators, wholesalers, tourism boards, super apps, DMC’s, group providers, airlines and more - can integrate the hundreds of thousands of hotels and ground services in the WebBeds marketplace through simple and seamless API connectivity, or they can search, shop and book online through one of WebBeds trade only booking sites.
WebBeds operates globally through four geographic regions – Europe, Asia Pacific, MEA (Middle East and Africa) and Americas - with over 1,500 travel professionals working in 120 cities across 50 countries worldwide. WebBeds also operates specialist brands JacTravel DMC and UHI. JacTravel DMC provides tailormade travel arrangements for offline FIT and groups traveling to the UK, Ireland and key mainland European destinations to the international travel trade. UHI is a genuine pioneer, providing online pilgrimage travel services to travel agencies worldwide.
Find out more about the WebBeds business at www.webbeds.com
WebBeds is a travel brand of Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB).
About Webjet Limited
Webjet Limited, an ASX 200 listed company (ASX: WEB), is a global travel business that enables travel the world over through our market leading travel brands supported by our travel technology businesses.
Our digital travel brands, spanning both wholesale and retail markets, include; WebBeds - a global marketplace for the travel trade, providing powerful distribution solutions that make selling and buying travel easier, Webjet - the market leading Online Travel Agency in Australia and New Zealand, and GoSee - a global motorhome and car rental ecommerce site.
Our travel businesses are supported by smart technology we build and invest in that differentiate our offerings and make booking and transacting travel better, including; Trip Ninja - providing complex travel itinerary automation technology to digital travel businesses globally and investments in ROOMDEX and LockTrip.
Find out more about Webjet Limited at: www.webjetlimited.com
About BeCause
BeCause is an enterprise software company that streamlines the flow of sustainability data and creates synergies between different stakeholders in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries, empowering them to make decisions that result in positive, responsible change for people, the planet, and their profits. BeCause works with over 20,000 hotels, including brands like Radisson, certification entities like GreenKey, industry partners like the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, and marketplaces like Booking.com.
For more information, visit because.eco
Funding Will Help Meet Growing Demand for BeCause Solutions from Global Travel Brands and Enterprise Companies.
COPENHAGEN, NOVEMBER 29, 2023 — BeCause, the Danish start-up transforming how the global hospitality, travel and tourism industries manage their sustainability data, announced today that it has secured $1.9 million (€1.75M) in seed funding from investors. The round, co-led by Denmark’s Ugly Duckling Ventures and Estonia’s Superangel.io, includes a $708,000 (€650K) open tail-end, in addition to the $1.9 million, for strategic investors to join on equal terms.
“We have retained the possibility of adding another investor to this round and hope to find a partner that has experience with high-growth startups in the impact space, particularly those with a background in B2B SaaS models, travel and big data API, to help accelerate our mission even further” explains Frederik Steensgaard, BeCause co-founder and CEO.
With a $450,000 angel investment from earlier this year, BeCause has raised $2.6 million (€2.4M) to date. This latest installment will allow the company to grow at an accelerated pace as it continues to meet the demand for its solutions from major enterprise organizations and global travel brands, such as Booking.com, easyJet, Google, Radisson Hotels and TUI.
A Transformative Solution for Sustainability Data in Travel
In an era of heightened consumer scrutiny and regulatory compliance, BeCause enables hotels, travel brands and marketplaces to streamline, simplify and reduce the costs of managing their sustainability data. Backed by an AI-powered platform, BeCause eliminates repetitive, error-prone tasks such as manual data collection at the individual property level and automates communication between hotels, industry organizations, green certification entities and booking platforms, freeing up valuable resources and leading to greater transparency between stakeholders and consumers.
Serving as a centralized hub for all sustainability data, BeCause results in a sixfold faster return on sustainability investments, amounting to a potential savings of millions of dollars for a typical hotel chain in the first year alone.
“We’re very excited about BeCause’s ability to improve sustainability data collection and reporting for the hospitality and tourism industries. It’s a massive addressable market which thus far has lacked a purpose-built solution with the analytical capabilities to help players supercharge their positive impact on the people, planet, and profits,” says Andreas Green Rasmussen, General Partner at Ugly Duckling Ventures.
According to a June forecast from research and advisory company Forrester, the cumulative global green market spend is expected to total $325 trillion from now until 2050, with travel and transportation commanding 35% or about $114 trillion of that spend by the end of this period. By adopting the BeCause platform, hospitality, travel and tourism brands can responsibly capitalize on this demand.
“We came in as a co-lead on this fundraising round because we believe in the power of BeCause to increase certified sustainability and decrease greenwashing in the accommodations sector. We are also very impressed by how fast the team has built a product that some of the world’s biggest brands are comfortable using,” explains Kärt Siilats, Venture Partner, Superangel.io.
An Impressive and Growing Roster of Clients
BeCause currently has over 20,000 hotels streaming sustainability data through its platform. It also counts more than 50 certifiers, including GreenKey, and 15 travel booking marketplaces, including Booking.com, amongst its users.
“This newest round of funding allows us to continue our work with stakeholders in the hospitality industry and gives us the ability to respond to the massive interest in our sustainability data hub from adjacent industries like corporate travel and destinations and meetings,” says Steensgaard.
“We’re thankful to Ugly Duckling Ventures, Superangel and all our investors for putting their faith in us and our solution, which is critical to making travel greener and reducing its impact on the environment,” he adds.
Additional investors in this round include serial exit entrepreneur Sean Brown (UK); Director, Business Development and Partnerships for fintech unicorn Circle.com, Sean Evans (UK); and private investor Patrick Patrong (DK).
Securing Funding in a Precarious Climate
The nearly $2 million raise for BeCause comes at a challenging time for start-ups, with the amount of capital down 38% from Q2 to Q3. Carta, the equity management platform, also recently revealed that it had had the worst quarter on record for company shutdowns. BeCause is flying in the face of that trend.
“Though we are just beginning our journey, the fact that we have signed some of the biggest names in travel and are more than anything preoccupied with handling non-stop demand reflects the pressing need for a solution like BeCause. We’re proud that through better sustainability data management, we can do our part to reduce the harmful impacts of travel on the planet and instead help sustainable choices flow effortlessly,” said Steensgaard.
For more information about BeCause or to speak with CEO and Co-founder Frederik Steensgaard, please get in touch with Vanessa Horwell at vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com.
About BeCause
BeCause is an enterprise software company that streamlines the flow of sustainability data and creates synergies between different stakeholders in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries, empowering them to make decisions that result in positive, responsible change for people, the planet and their profits. BeCause works with over 20,000 hotels, including brands like Radisson, as well as certification entities like GreenKey, industry partners such the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, and marketplaces like Booking.com. For more information, visit because.eco.
The sustainability startup will help easyJet holidays automate and simplify the way it presents sustainability-certified hotels to travelers at booking
Copenhagen, Denmark, August 23, 2023 – BeCause, a startup enterprise software company that is transforming how companies in the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries manage their sustainability data, has announced a new partnership with easyJet holidays to help the tour operator more efficiently collect and communicate hotel sustainability data.
BeCause will collect data on hotels certified according to 33 recognized Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) standards and integrate that data into the easyJet holidays system. That sustainability data will help inform the tour operator’s “eco-certified” hotel collection.
Efficient and scalable sustainability data management
BeCause’s sustainability data management solution replaces easyJet holidays’ current manual update processes. Under the new partnership, hotel sustainability data will be automatically updated in the easyJet holidays database, ensuring that users and travelers always have up-to-date sustainability information about eco-certified accommodation options.
“Through our shared involvement with GSTC, we quickly recognized both easyJet holidays’ need for a scalable sustainability data solution and their genuine commitment to industry transformation,” said Frederik Rubens Steensgaard, CEO and co-founder of BeCause. “We look forward to a long and productive relationship and helping to make real headway on reducing travel’s impact on the environment.”
Supporting easyJet holidays’ eco-friendly goals
Part of the easyJet group, easyJet holidays is the UK’s fastest-growing tour operator, projected to grow by 60% year-on-year this summer. The company, who were the winners of The Globes’ Sustainable Future Award, is committed to making sustainable holidays mainstream and, in addition to the GSTC, partners with the University of Oxford and the UNWTO to help drive forward the development of sustainable travel.
“We’re committed to our holidays being a force for good and making a positive impact on the environment and local communities in the destinations our customers visit,” said Matt Callaghan, Director of Customer & Operations for easyJet holidays. “We know that holidaymakers are caring more than ever about the eco credentials of the hotels they’re choosing to stay at. So, we needed a partner to help us connect and communicate hotel sustainability data more efficiently and scale with us as we grow, and BeCause delivered on those criteria.”
BeCause’s technology framework connects certification entities like GSTC and Green Key with travel providers and distributors, enabling over 11,000 hotels, tour operators and OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) to provide travelers with accurate and reliable sustainability data. These processes, traditionally handled via spreadsheets, emails and unconnected niche systems, are ripe for transformation, and managing them more efficiently allows travel and tourism companies like easyJet to accelerate their sustainability efforts across their consumer-facing platforms.
For more information about BeCause or to speak with CEO and Co-founder Frederik Steensgaard, please contact Vanessa Horwell at vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com.
About easyJet holidays
easyJet holidays is the UK’s fastest-growing tour operator, having carried 1.3 million people in its first fully operational year and being named Rising Brand of the Year by Travolution. It offers great-value beach, city and lakes holidays to over 5000 hotels, in more than 100 destinations across Europe, directly through its website and through over 5000 travel agent partners. The ATOL-protected holidays can be secured with a deposit of just £60 per person, including flights, hotel, 23kg luggage and transfers on beach holidays. easyJet holidays is a member of ABTA, and all packages are covered by its Ultimate Flexibility, offering freedom to change a booking, a refund guarantee, and best price guarantee.
Winners of the Sustainable Future Award at the Globe Travel Awards 2022, easyJet holidays has a sustainability strategy focusing on three key pillars – create better holiday choices which is about making sustainable travel affordable and accessible to everyone; keep our holidays special, which is maximising the benefits and minimising the negative impacts of travel and tourism, and transform travel for everyone which means embedding sustainability into business decisions and behaviours and driving meaningful change in the industry. Through ongoing collaboration with the University of Oxford and as a member of the GSTC, easyJet holidays is focused on building its research, partnerships and certifications and taking action to make a positive impact on the people and places that make its destinations so special.
easyJet holidays has been named one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2023 – being called out as one of the most loved employers and highly commended as a great place to work for LGBTQIA+ employees, as well as being named The Best Workplace in Travel 2023.
About BeCause
BeCause is an enterprise software company that enables sustainability data to flow more simpler, faster and cheaper so travel and tourism companies can positively impact people, the planet and their profits. BeCause works with over 11,000+ companies, including sustainability-certified hotels, eco-labels, certification entities like GreenKey, industry partners including UN GSTC and marketplaces including Booking.com. The BeCause Sustainability Management Hub allows organizations to collect and display all their communication about their sustainability efforts in one place, empowering them to make sustainability manageable for their operations and a competitive advantage for their business. For more information, visit because.eco.
Feeling the heat?
Still doubting climate change…?
We believe it is about time to put aside all of your skepticism.
As the heat of summer intensifies, it becomes increasingly difficult to deny the reality of climate change. Recent findings from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) underscore the severity of the situation. By monitoring global climate patterns, C3S has revealed unprecedented ocean warming and escalating surface air temperatures in June 2023, solidifying the urgent need for action.
For those who are not familiar with this service, here is a short summary: The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), an initiative by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission, plays a vital role in monitoring and reporting climate patterns. By analyzing vast amounts of data from satellites, ships, aircraft, and weather stations worldwide, C3S provides valuable insights into global climate trends.
Unprecedented Ocean Warming: The world's oceans, integral to regulating Earth's climate, are experiencing a troubling rise in temperatures. The latest C3S report highlights that June 2023 witnessed the highest global sea surface temperatures ever recorded for that month. Particularly concerning are the exceptionally warm sea surface temperature anomalies observed in the North Atlantic, resulting from a combination of atmospheric anomalies and long-term oceanic changes.
Escalating Surface Air Temperatures: June 2023 broke records for surface air temperatures, surpassing the previous high set in June 2019 by a significant margin. It was the warmest June globally, with temperatures exceeding the 1991-2020 average by over 0.5°C. Notably, Northwest Europe, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Asia, and eastern Australia experienced significantly warmer conditions than usual, signaling the widespread impact of rising temperatures.
The concurrent occurrence of drought and heatwaves, known as compound drought and heatwave (CDHW) events, is drawing increased attention due to their detrimental effects on agriculture, energy, water resources, and ecosystems. Both recent observations (1982-2019) and future model projections (2020-2099) demonstrate statistically significant trends in CDHW characteristics. The greatest increases in CDHW frequency are projected to affect regions such as East Africa, North Australia, East North America, Central Asia, Central Europe, and Southeastern South America by the late 21st century.
The implications of rising ocean temperatures, soaring surface air temperatures, and the projected increase in CDHW events are far-reaching. Ecosystems, agriculture, water resources, and energy sectors face significant challenges. To address these risks, tailored adaptation and mitigation policies are necessary, particularly in critical geographical regions.
In conclusion: the convergence of rising ocean temperatures, soaring surface air temperatures, and the projected increase in CDHW events present a stark reality of climate change's impact. Urgent action is imperative to mitigate both the causes and effects of climate change and to minimize the repercussions of extreme events. The heatwave in Southern Europe serves as a poignant reminder of the immediate risks faced by communities worldwide. Governments, policymakers, and communities must unite to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, transition to renewable energy sources, and implement robust adaptation strategies. By doing so, we can build a sustainable future for generations to come.
The partnership will enable Booking.com to automate the way it updates and manages information about accommodations with recognised third-party sustainability certifications on its platform
Copenhagen, Denmark, July 25, 2023 – BeCause, a startup enterprise software company transforming how the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries manage their sustainability data, has announced a new partnership with global online travel platform Booking.com. Through a dedicated API, the partnership will make it possible for Booking.com to receive updated data in real time about accommodations that have earned an array of more than 40 recognized third-party sustainability certifications. This will enable the company to more efficiently present reliable, up-to-date information about those accommodations with a third-party certification, so travelers can make a more informed choice for their next trip.
The ability to transparently communicate credible sustainability information is increasingly crucial for companies like Booking.com, as a growing number of people continue to indicate that they prefer more sustainable travel choices. In fact, according to Booking.com’s latest Sustainable Travel Report, 57% of global travelers say they would feel better about staying in a particular accommodation if they knew it had a sustainable certification, and 81% say sustainable travel is important to them.
A bespoke sustainability solution to meet global tourism and traveler needs
Based on its Sustainability Management Hub platform, BeCause developed an API solution specifically for Booking.com’s needs. As one of the world’s leading digital travel platforms, Booking.com sought an efficient, scalable way to receive data from accommodations certified according to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) recognized standards, among others. They also wanted that data to be automatically updated in their database, so Booking.com customers would always have access to up-to-date sustainability information about the available accommodation options.
BeCause’s solution addresses both needs first by replacing manual update processes, which are time-consuming and occur only periodically, with automated sustainability data transfers. The BeCause solution also maps standards from 40+ certifications that align with GSTC criteria to the data provided by tens of thousands of individual properties worldwide, providing a more complete and accurate picture of the sustainability information for those accommodations available on Booking.com.
“Through our partnership with BeCause and the technical solutions they have created specifically for our platform, we’ve streamlined how we receive sustainability information from our accommodation partners that have invested in achieving a credible third-party certification, allowing us to focus our efforts internally on those areas where we can further innovate and have the most impact,” says Thomas Loughlin, Sustainability Manager at Booking.com. “We get the accurate, trustworthy data that we need in real time, which we can then in turn automatically present to our customers, enabling them to make more informed decisions about how they choose to travel.”
A partnership between leaders in the sustainability sphere
“Working with Booking.com, which beyond having an extensive global reach, has an equally considerable reputation for being a leader in sustainability issues and efforts, is a significant deal for our startup,” says Frederik Rubens Steensgaard, CEO and Co-founder of BeCause. “It’s an ideal fit in terms of vision, needs and capability, and we look forward to helping Booking.com expand its sustainability data management capabilities even further as our partnership continues.”
BeCause helps organizations collect, coordinate, and communicate their sustainability data, reducing redundancies and creating efficiencies that translate to positive revenue and ecological impacts. BeCause’s solution connects certification entities and travel providers and distributors, enabling over 17,000 hotels and online travel platforms to provide travelers with accurate and reliable sustainability data. These processes, traditionally handled via spreadsheets, emails and unconnected niche systems, are ripe for transformation, and the need to manage them efficiently to ensure compliance and competitive advantage is fueling the growth of BeCause.
For more information about BeCause or to speak with CEO and Co-founder Frederik Steensgaard, please contact Vanessa Horwell at vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com.
Watch the video below to hear about how Booking.com benefits from their partnership with BeCause.
About BeCause
BeCause is an enterprise software company that enables sustainability data to flow simpler, faster and cheaper so travel and tourism companies can positively impact people, the planet and their profits. BeCause works with over 17,000+ companies, including sustainability-certified hotels, eco-labels, certification entities like GreenKey, industry partners including UN GSTC and marketplaces including Booking.com. The BeCause Sustainability Management Hub allows organizations to collect and display all their communication about their sustainability efforts in one place, empowering them to make sustainability manageable for their operations and a competitive advantage for their business. For more information, visit because.eco.
About Booking.com:
Part of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), Booking.com’s mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. By investing in the technology that helps take the friction out of travel, Booking.com’s marketplace seamlessly connects millions of travelers with memorable experiences every day. For more information, follow @bookingcom on social media or visit www.globalnews.booking.com.
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