A methodology that reads the place before it reads the practice.
Veriva Compass is not a curated collection or a self-reported badge. It is a structured, independently assessed standard with published criteria, academic foundations, and a clear pathway to third-party certification. This page explains exactly how it works.
INSIDER aThe Core Differentiator
Not a badge.
A journey.
Veriva does not issue a pass/fail certification badge. Every Compass profile shows exactly where a property stands on its regenerative journey — and how that changes over time. This is what makes Veriva fundamentally different from every other sustainability label.
A property at Foundation stage is not failing. It is on the journey — and the profile shows what the next steps look like. A property at Regenerative stage has a published record of how it got there. Both are more honest and more useful than a static badge that either exists or does not.
Binary badge — certified or not certified. No indication of where a property is on its journey or what it is working toward.
A single score or percentage that collapses four dimensions into a meaningless number.
A published position on a five-stage journey. Honest, evolving, and specific to each dimension.
A published position on a five-stage journey. Honest, evolving, and specific to each dimension.
Journey to Regeneration — how every Compass profile is shown
- Aware Recognising the responsibility to act
- Foundation Basic responsible practices in place
- Active Intentional, evidenced, consistent practice
- Regenerative Actively improving the living system
- Exemplary Sector-defining leadership practice
This example shows a property currently at Active stage — having passed through Aware and Foundation. The profile shows what evidence supports this position and what the path toward Regenerative looks like for this specific property in its specific context.
The journey never ends — and 100% is not the goal. Regeneration is not a destination. It is an ongoing relationship between a property and the living systems it inhabits. The timeline always continues beyond what is shown. Exemplary today does not mean complete. It means leading — and still moving.
INSIDER aThe Core Differentiator
A tool that works for you.
Not an inspection of you.
The Veriva Compass is designed as a business asset for properties doing genuine regenerative work. Here is what every assessed property receives — and why it matters.
Your Compass Star
A visual profile of your unique strengths
Every property receives a four-axis radar chart showing its position across all four Compass Dimensions. No two properties look the same. A community-owned lodge and a regenerative farm have completely different stars — and both are valuable. The star shows where you are genuinely strong, not just where you meet a minimum threshold.
Your Journey Position
An honest picture of where you stand — and where you are going
Your overall position on the regenerative journey is shown on a five-stage timeline: Aware, Foundation, Active, Regenerative, Exemplary. This is not a pass/fail. It is an honest map of your progress — and a story you can tell your guests with credibility, because it is independently verified.
Your Data Profile
Visible on Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb
Every Compass assessment generates a machine-readable JSON-LD data profile compatible with the Travalyst Data Hub — the infrastructure that connects verified sustainability data to the platforms where the next generation of conscious travellers books. Your regenerative credentials become searchable and verifiable at the point of booking.
Your EmpCo Compliance
Independent verification before it becomes mandatory
From September 2026, EU Directive 2024/825 (EmpCo) requires independent verification for sustainability claims in hotel marketing and on booking platforms. A Veriva Compass assessment provides that verification — for properties that are already doing the work, before the regulation requires it of everyone.
One important thing to understand:
Veriva does not expect any property to be strong across all four dimensions. No property in the world is. What matters is that you are honest about where you are — and committed to the direction of travel. The Compass is designed to show your genuine strengths, name your honest gaps, and help the right travellers find you.
The Compass Star — Visual Example
No two properties have the same star.
The star shows a property’s unique profile across all four dimensions — at a glance. A community lodge and a regenerative farm look completely different. Both are valid. Both are valuable. The shape of the star tells the story.
Both profiles are honest. Both are valuable. The community lodge is leading in Community Benefit — that is its story. The farm is leading in Ecological Restoration and Operational Circularity — that is its story. Veriva does not expect any property to be strong in all four dimensions. No property in the world is. The star shows where you genuinely stand — and that is always enough to start.
The Methodological Foundation
Where the standard comes from?
The Veriva Compass standard was developed in collaboration with Professor Willy Legrand, Professor of Sustainable Hospitality Management and one of Europe’s leading authorities on sustainability assessment in the hospitality sector. The standard draws on his principles of honest diagnosis, non-reductive assessment, and what he describes as the mirror-not-filter approach: the assessor’s role is to reflect what is genuinely present, not to filter out inconvenient evidence.
The standard integrates Alessandro Inversini’s Regenerative Hospitality Canvas, published by the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) in 2025 — the most rigorous academic framework currently available for understanding regenerative practice in hospitality. From Inversini’s Canvas, Veriva draws three core elements: the Spirit of the Place criterion, the People Intelligence dimension, and the Observe–Reflect–Act structure that underpins the two-stage assessment process.
Veriva is a GSTC Organisation Member. The standard is designed from its foundation to be auditable by a GSTC-accredited independent certification body — such as a GSTC-accredited independent certification body — as the basis for Veriva Verified, the full certification scheme targeted for 2027.
What Makes This Standard Different
Not a badge. Not a directory. Something more rigorous.
Independent Editorial
Honest profiles — including gaps
Every Compass profile is written by an independent assessor, not by the hotel. It includes an honest account of gaps as well as strengths. Veriva publishes when properties do not qualify. A profile that acknowledges limitations is more credible than one that does not.
Two-Stage Architecture
A questionnaire that becomes a certification
Stage one: the GM Place Mirror Questionnaire generates a machine-readable data profile. Stage two: the Compass Call validates and deepens the responses. The same framework, with third-party audit added, becomes Veriva Verified certification in 2027.
Place-Aware Assessment
Context matters as much as metrics
The questionnaire captures the specific challenges of each place — water stress, ecosystem type, primary local livelihoods. A coastal lodge in a water-scarce region is assessed differently from an alpine farm. The same practice means something different depending on what the place needs.
Community Voice
Locals are primary evidence — not a footnote
Most certifications rely solely on hotel documentation. Veriva gives formal weight to the perspectives of people who live in the place and are not employed by the hotel. What the community says is primary evidence — because regeneration only exists if the people of a place confirm it.
The Four Compass Dimensions
What we assess
Place Context — why it matters
A coastal lodge in a water-scarce region, a community farm in a post-conflict area, an alpine retreat in an over-touristed valley — each faces fundamentally different challenges. The Veriva questionnaire captures the specific ecological, social, and cultural tensions of each place before assessing practice. The same dimension, at the same level, means something different depending on what the place actually needs.
Every property is assessed across four dimensions. Each dimension is evaluated independently — there is no average score, no single number. The profile shows where a property genuinely stands in each area, with the evidence that supports that assessment.
Dimension 1
Ecological Restoration
The hotel's active contribution to the health of the ecosystems it inhabits — beyond avoiding harm.
Ecological Restoration distinguishes between conservation — protecting what exists — and restoration — actively improving what has been degraded. A property that plants native species, restores degraded habitat, or contributes to landscape-scale conservation efforts demonstrates active ecological restoration.
Dimension 2
Community Benefit
The genuine economic and social benefit to the local community — including community agency over decisions that affect their lives.
Community Benefit asks not just whether local people benefit from the hotel’s presence, but whether they have genuine agency over decisions that affect them. Employment and wages matter. So does whether the community has any formal role in decisions about shared resources.
Dimension 3
Cultural Integrity
The hotel's relationship to the cultural heritage and living identity of the place it inhabits.
Cultural Integrity asks who holds the pen on how local culture is represented. The critical distinction is authorship: whether local culture practitioners are genuine co-authors of how their culture is presented to guests, or whether they perform a version curated by the hotel for commercial purposes.
Dimension 4
Operational Circularity
How energy, water, food, and waste flow through the hotel's operations — and the direction of travel.
Operational Circularity assesses whether the hotel’s resource systems move toward closed loops — renewable energy, water recycling, local food sourcing, waste reduction. The direction of travel matters as much as the current position.
The Assessment Levels
How levels work
Each dimension is assessed on a four-level scale. Levels are descriptive — not numerical. A property is never reduced to a single score. The profile shows the level for each dimension independently, with the evidence base and any significant gaps.
Aware
No practice exists in this dimension. The hotel has not yet engaged with this area of responsibility. Published honestly — the profile explains what is absent and why.
Foundation
Basic practice is in place. The hotel is avoiding the most obvious harms but is not yet actively improving conditions. Published with context — the profile notes what exists and the trajectory toward higher practice.
Active
Practice is intentional, evidenced, and consistently applied. The hotel is managing its impact and has systems or relationships that demonstrate genuine commitment. Published as a positive finding.
Regenerative
Practice is actively improving conditions beyond the hotel’s operational boundary — contributing to the health of the living system in ways that are evidenced and ongoing. Published as a leading practice finding.
The Fifth Criterion
Spirit of the Place
From
Alessandro Inversini
Regenerative Hospitality Canvas
EHL Lausanne 2025
Every place has an irreplaceable character — its rhythms, its memory, its particular way of being. Regenerative hospitality strengthens this spirit rather than diluting or commodifying it.
This criterion is assessed independently of the four dimensions and applies to the Compass profile as a whole. A property can meet all four dimension thresholds and still fail the Spirit of the Place criterion if its presence is assessed as materially diluting the character of the place it inhabits.
The assessor asks: is this hotel making this place more itself — or more generic? Community members’ perspectives are weighted heavily in this assessment.
The Two-Stage Assessment Process
How the assessment works
1
The GM Place Mirror Questionnaire
The General Manager completes a structured questionnaire — alone, at a time that suits them. It captures hotel basics, ownership structure, and critically — the specific challenges and tensions of the place itself: ecosystem type, water stress, primary local livelihoods, the social and ecological pressures unique to that location. The same question means something different depending on where a hotel sits and what its context demands. Approximately 45 minutes. The responses generate a structured data profile that forms the foundation of the Compass assessment.
2
The Compass Call
A 90-minute independent assessment conversation between the Veriva assessor and the GM or property owner. The Call validates, deepens, and tests the questionnaire responses. The assessor asks about practice, evidence, tensions, and what the hotel does when no certification requires it and no guest is watching.
3
Independent Assessment
The assessor reviews all evidence — questionnaire responses, Compass Call, available documentation, and where possible community testimony and on-site observation. The four dimensions are assessed at their appropriate level. The Spirit of the Place criterion is evaluated.
4
Published Compass Profile
The Compass profile is published on Veriva — honest, specific, and including gaps as well as strengths. The hotel receives the Compass badge and a machine-readable JSON-LD data profile. The profile can evolve as practice develops.
The Pathway to Certification
From assessment to Veriva Verified
Veriva Compass is an independent editorial assessment — rigorous, published, and academically grounded. Veriva Verified, launching 2027, is the full ECGT-compliant certification scheme. Properties that complete the Compass assessment in 2026 are positioned as the first candidates for Veriva Verified certification in 2027.
Veriva Compass
- Independent editorial assessment
- Published criteria & non-compliance procedures
- Machine-readable JSON-LD data profile
- Travalyst Data Hub compatible
- Compass badge
Veriva Verified
- Full ECGT-compliant certification
- GSTC-accredited independent audit partner
- GSTC-accredited third-party monitoring
- Eligible for OTA verified regenerative label
- Builds directly on Compass assessment
Editorial Independence
What Veriva will and will not do
Veriva will
- Publish Compass profiles that include honest assessments of gaps as well as strengths
- Publish when properties do not qualify for the Compass badge
- Update profiles when practice changes — in either direction
- Name the evidence base for every published finding
- Maintain a public record of all non-compliance decisions
- Respond to complaints from community members about the accuracy of published profiles
Veriva will not
- Accept payment from hotels in exchange for a Compass profile or badge
- Accept advertising or sponsored content from hospitality brands
- Allow hotels to amend assessment findings before publication
- Suppress a published profile at a hotel's request
- Assign a Compass badge assessed by someone with a material personal or financial relationship to that property
Non-Compliance Procedures
What happens when a property
no longer qualifies
Annual review
No practice exists in this dimension. The hotel has not yet engaged with this area of responsibility. Published honestly — the profile explains what is absent and why.
Triggered review
A review is automatically triggered by: a verified complaint from a community member or guest; a material change in ownership or operational model; or evidence of practice that contradicts the published profile.
Response window
The property has 21 days to respond with evidence. Veriva assesses the response and determines whether the profile requires amendment or removal.
Badge removal
If the property no longer meets the minimum threshold, the badge is removed and the profile is updated. The property may reapply after 12 months. A summary of every decision is published.
Contact
Criteria & process: compass@veriva.travel · Profile complaints: integrity@veriva.travel
Methodology & Acknowledgements
Academic foundation
The Veriva Compass standard draws on four distinct bodies of academic work. Each contributes a specific and irreplaceable element to the methodology.
Alessandro Inversini
EHL Lausanne · Regenerative Hospitality Canvas (2025)
Three elements draw directly from Inversini’s Canvas: the Spirit of the Place criterion, People Intelligence as an assessment layer alongside the four Compass dimensions, and the Observe–Reflect–Act structure underpinning the two-stage assessment process.
Prof. Xavier Font
University of Surrey · Sustainable Tourism Certification
Prof. Xavier Font is one of Europe’s leading academics on sustainable tourism certification, greenwashing in hospitality, and pro-environmental behaviour. Veriva is in conversation with him about supporting the development of the standard.
GSTC
Global Sustainable Tourism Council · Organisation Member
Veriva is a GSTC Organisation Member. The Veriva Verified certification scheme (2027) is designed for alignment with GSTC criteria and ECGT requirements under EU Directive 2024/825. Veriva Verified will engage a GSTC-accredited independent audit partner for third-party verification.
Ready to apply for a Compass Assessment?
Read the full Criteria Document before applying. Every application is personally reviewed.
