Since September 27, 2026, stricter rules for green claims have been in effect in Belgium to combat greenwashing. They apply to every business targeting consumers, including B&Bs, holiday homes, and guest houses. Words like “eco,” “green,” or “sustainable” may only be used if you can back them up. The good news: concrete, measured information is allowed. That is exactly why we built the Fairhospitality toolset, free for hosts.<\/p>\n\n
The Belgian law of July 22, 2026, transposes a European directive (Directive (EU) 2024\/825). For small accommodations, four prohibitions are most relevant:<\/p>\n\n
What is allowed: specific, verifiable green claims about one clearly named part of your business.<\/p>\n\n
This is not legal advice. If you are unsure about a phrasing, check with the FPS Economy<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n This is how you rewrite green claims in practice (replace the brackets with your own data):<\/p>\n\n The pattern: every sentence has a number or a name, followed by proof. An invoice, a meter reading, a supplier list. And that is exactly what the tools help you with.<\/p>\n\n With the footprint module<\/a>, you enter your energy and water readings and your occupancy, or have them filled in automatically via EnergyID. You get your consumption and your CO\u2082 emissions per person per night. How we calculate that is fully transparent in How we calculate<\/a>, so you can verify a figure instead of having to take it on faith.<\/p>\n\n This allows you to write a sentence that is permitted under the new rules for green claims: the year, the figure, and how you arrived at it. Only compare with yourself, using the same method.<\/p>\n\n Under Documents and evidence<\/a>, you store invoices, inspection certificates, your EPC, or your environmental policy once, and link them to the year, measurement, or label criterion they belong to. If someone asks “can you demonstrate that?”, you have the answer ready.<\/p>\n\n If you publish a completed year, your accommodation counts anonymously in the comparison, and you can see where you stand compared to other accommodations. Use that comparison for yourself first: to see where your biggest savings lie. If you also want to use them publicly, be extra careful with the phrasing.<\/p>\n\n A label is not a requirement. You can also communicate without a label, as long as you remain concrete and demonstrable. Not sure? The selection tool “Does a label suit you? If so, which one?”<\/a> asks you six questions and gives immediate advice, including pros, cons, a price indication, and a suggested path. Expect it to take five minutes.<\/p>\n\n If you choose the EU Ecolabel, the certification module<\/a> builds your file: 67 criteria and 142 separate declarations. The module fills in what it can from your own data and delivers the package you submit at the end. You are not doing it alone: in the certification circle<\/a>, hosts work together on the same process.<\/p>\n\n -> Note: Green-key integration will hopefully follow soon<\/em><\/p>\n\n Large chains were able to work with vague promises for years. That time is over. What remains is what small accommodations have always been able to do: be concrete. You know which farmer your eggs come from. You know your meter reading. A hotel chain has to hire a consultant for that; you just have to write it down and be able to show it.<\/p>\n\n For hosts, by hosts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Since September 27, 2026, you can no longer simply use green claims like “eco” or “sustainable.” Here is what accommodations are still allowed to say, and how to prove it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-geen-onderdeel-van-een-categorie"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairhospitality.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairhospitality.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairhospitality.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairhospitality.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairhospitality.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fairhospitality.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2660,"href":"https:\/\/fairhospitality.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657\/revisions\/2660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairhospitality.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairhospitality.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairhospitality.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairhospitality.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}From vague to concrete<\/h2>\n\n
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Backing up green claims: how the tools help you<\/h2>\n\n
1. Measuring: your footprint per guest per night<\/h3>\n\n
2. Proving: your documents in one place<\/h3>\n\n
3. Comparing without revealing your data<\/h3>\n\n
4. Choosing: does a label suit you?<\/h3>\n\n
5. Achieving: your file for the EU Ecolabel<\/h3>\n\n
Why this is good news for small accommodations<\/h2>\n\n
Start today, in three steps<\/h2>\n\n
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