bnetwork has been recognised at the Symbol Impact Awards 2026 with two awards: gold for Responsible Supply Chain Company, and bronze for Sustainable Innovation Strategy.

the Impact Awards are part of the Symbol family of awards, which has recognised excellence since 2009. They assess ESG, CSR, and purpose-driven work across four groups: environmental sustainability, CSR and social impact, sustainable business, and stewardship and changemakers. Both bnetwork awards sit within the sustainable business group.

why the supply chain is the story

accommodation is one of the largest components of an event’s environmental footprint, and one of the least visible. Hotels invest in certification. Organisers need the data for ESG disclosure. The attendee making a booking rarely sees either.

closing that gap is supply chain work. Verified information has to exist somewhere, stay current, and travel all the way to the booking page before an attendee can act on it.

bnetwork works with a database of more than 11,000 hotels worldwide, with close to 2,000 properties contracted for the 2026–2027 event season. The gold award recognises how sustainability data moves through that network: collected from hotel partners, verified internally, and integrated into sourcing tools, booking platforms, and reporting dashboards.

who checks the labels

everything rests on how the underlying data gets checked, and by whom.

bnetwork reviewed more than 50 sustainability labels and curated 34 recognised certifications, prioritising those acknowledged by GSTC and Travalyst. Green Key, EarthCheck, the EU Ecolabel, ISO 14001, and ISO 50001 are among them, alongside verified hotel group programmes.

hotel teams are trained on the labels and the verification procedures. An annual partner survey allows properties to update credentials and submit new ones. Sustainability consultants check validity and legitimacy before anything enters the database that feeds every accommodation website.

the effect is measurable across the network. Eco-certified properties rose from 12% in 2024 to 16% in 2025. Among the hotels targeted by the 2026 survey, 38% already held a recognised certification at launch.

the research that set the direction

the bronze award recognises the strategy that turned this data into a decision tool.

the work began with a survey. In 2024, bnetwork asked more than 690 event attendees across advertising, media, healthcare, technology, retail, and trade what they actually prioritised, and interviewed sustainability leaders at RX Global, the Barcelona Convention Bureau, the CCIB, the Vienna Convention Bureau, Strata, and the Global Destination Sustainability Movement.

governance and transparency came out on top at 4.32 out of 5, ahead of social responsibility at 4.23 and environmental impact at 4.21. What attendees were asking for, in other words, was proof.

the results were presented at IBTM World in Barcelona in November 2024 and covered in more than 40 industry publications.

what reaches the booking page

that ranking shaped what appears at the point of choice. Verified certifications show up while an attendee is still deciding, not in a report circulated after the event. Organisers hold live sustainability data throughout the event lifecycle, with downloadable reports for ESG disclosure.

sustainable bookings rose from 64.6% in 2024 to 73% in 2025 — a shift of more than eight percentage points, across a portfolio of more than 150 events in over 40 destinations and 20 countries.

addition in 2026: carbon at room level

in 2026 the programme adds measurement to certification.

hotel partners are being asked to report their carbon footprint in kilograms of CO2e per occupied room-night, with guidance based on the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative methodology. This moves accommodation reporting from a binary — certified or not — to a comparable figure organisers can work with.

discussions are also underway with certification bodies on API integrations that would automate verification and updates, reducing manual handling and shortening the path from a hotel’s credential to a booking page.

the governance underneath

the programme sits inside a certified management system. bnetwork holds ISO 20121:2024 certification, audited by Bureau Veritas under certificate FR100487-1, covering Cannes, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, London, and Vienna, with Geneva planned for 2027.

the company moved from ISO 20121:2012 to the 2024 revision in February 2026, expanding the certification scope in the process. Its first Sustainability Impact Report, covering 2022–2024, was published in 2025. Responsible procurement extends internally through a dedicated sustainable IT equipment procedure covering environmental labels, repairability, lifecycle management, and supplier criteria. Since 2025, bookings in eco-certified hotels have been linked to tree planting through a partnership with Treedom.

180 employees contribute to the implementation and continuous improvement of the management system.

what the recognition confirms

two awards, in two different categories, assessed alongside organisations from every sector.

the jury assessed a working system: data that is collected, checked, kept current, and then put to use at the booking page and in the reports an organiser files afterwards.

“most people only ever see the filter on the booking page. The work sits behind it — the partner engagement, the verification, the annual audit cycle. Sustainability data is only worth showing if someone is accountable for keeping it accurate.”

Marie Julian-Patacchini, Quality and Sustainability Manager at bnetwork

learn more about our sustainability initiatives in the CSR section of our website, and explore our booking platforms and organiser tools across the bnetwork website.
august 2026