If you are a responsible traveller and are keen to make a positive impact in the face of climate change, then you may refer to a new hotel booking platform named alight.travel. Launched by a United States based tech start-up, Wayaj, the platform will not only help travellers to book hotels that follow high standards of sustainable practices but also allow them to calculate and offset their carbon emissions at check out.

Wayaj is a sustainable travel platform that provides tools and resources to travellers and travel operators to make better choices in the age of climate change and environmental degradation.

According to alight.travel, ‘each hotel and resort on Alight is vetted for its high standards and awarded a Hotel Sustainability Rating based on seven criteria categories’. Every property is measured on various aspects, from building materials and energy usage to local community support. The booking platform allows travellers ‘to purchase carbon net neutral trip, including transportation’. Alight’s founder, Nelly O. Gedeon, said she was compelled to act after seeing how climate change was devastating Togo, an African country known for its palm-lined beaches.

Travellers booking on the platform have the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions generated by their stay, or even during the entire trap. Using Alight’s proprietary Carbon Footprint Calculating Engine, guests can see instant results with the impact of their travels, the website said. The platform also provides sustainable trip ideas.

According to the company, to offset the trip, travellers may select from such vetted Carbon Offset Projects (COPs) as wind power and reforestation. Alight’s COPs come from the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In India, Alight is working for a reforestation project developed in partnership with Mangalam Timber Products Limited (MTPL); this program consists of carbon sequestration of degraded land through reforestation activities, the website said.

Although alight.travel website did not list any hotel in India under their ‘popular sustainable hotels around the world’, there is one from Nepal.