Hotels That Reduce Climate Change Emissions - Is It Possible?
In September 2024, the Guardian posted that the Populus Hotel in Colorado was the first “carbon positive hotel” in America. Urban Villages is also opening another carbon positive hotel in the autumn, with its Hotel Westland in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square neighbourhood. Let’s take a closer look at that claim.
The hospitality industry, which includes hotels, resorts, restaurants, and other accommodation facilities, plays a significant role in global carbon emissions due to its energy-intensive operations and reliance on natural resources. The hotel industry needs to reduce its carbon emissions by 66 per cent per room by 2030, and by 90 per cent per room by 2050 to ensure that the growth forecast for the industry does not lead to a corresponding increase in carbon emissions.
Electricity is the second largest expense for hotel operators after employment, accounting for up to 3% of the total operating costs and represents about 60% of its CO2 emissions.
The hotel sector in America spends a staggering $2,196 per available room per year on energy, representing approximately 6% of their operating costs, while the average monthly residential electricity bill in the United States is $115, or $1,380 per year. Hotels account for 21% of total estimated CO2 emissions generated overall by tourists.
What is Climate Positive?
“Carbon positive” can be confusing as it sounds as though we are releasing more carbon into the air. Many businesses are aiming for net zero carbon releases meaning it evens out, but we know that’s not enough, so some are aiming higher. A more accurate term would be carbon negative, meaning that we are removing available carbon dioxide from the air. The other problem with this term is that currently no one has created a standard, meaning that any hotel can make this claim, even if unsubstantiated. Fortunately governments are now taking action to sue and fine companies for making unsubstantiated claims, known as greenwashing, but it will take time to have an impact and many governments are pushing back.
To even know whether you can meet this goal, your company has to measure life cycle emissions, from cradle to grave. This includes all construction materials and their sources, building operations like air conditioning and heating, transportation of any furniture, foods, and bedding purchased, and transportation of guests. Most don’t consider all of these factors in their analysis.
What is Populus Doing to be Carbon Positive?
A new hotel caled Populus is coming to Denver from the Urban Villages company. Populus is claiming to be carbon positive because it is offsetting both operational and embodied carbon – including the carbon emitted during the creation, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of materials used to build it.
The hotel’s creators have promised to overcompensate for their emissions by a factor of 400% to 500%, through a combination of low-carbon construction, eco-friendly operations and a huge tree planting campaign throughout Colorado.
One hundred per cent of their food products are sourced locally, and all food waste will be turned into compost and returned to those same farms. They use leather made from reishi mushrooms. They purchase 100 percent renewable electricity. That’s all good, but not everything is as it seems.
The hotel also utilized eco-friendly materials such as beetle-kill wood, fly ash concrete. Fly ash concrete is concrete that contains fly ash, a fine powder byproduct of coal-fired power plants, meaning it’s from fossil fuel production. Fly ash reduces the amount of coal combustion products that need to be disposed of in landfills. But if you look deeprr into the issue of coal power plant pollution, fly ash has a darker side. Fly ash contains sulfur, boron, and mercury. If it gets into our local rivers it can damage fish and ecosystems. Inhaling fly ash can cause respiratory problems, cardiovascular disease, weakened immunity, and an increased risk of lung cancer. Exposure to fly ash can also lead to cognitive defects, developmental delays, behavioral problems, kidney disease, and gastrointestinal illness.
Populus has also committed to planting a tree in Colorado’s national forests for every night a guest stays in the hotel, which is meant to help recover emissions. They have already planted 70,000 spruce trees throughout Colorado’s National Wilderness Preservation System. Unfortunately, so far about 80 percent of the trees have died. So, now it has purchased carbon credits t offset emissions, including protecting forests in North Carolina, Vermont and Massachusetts - thousands of miles from the hotel itself. Sadly, these are all common issues with carbon offset projects. Many are not cared for properly or monitored and often die off or are converted back to agriculture, or worse into development, leaving the carbon credits useless. In addition, purchasing credits far away from the site of impact leaves much to be desired for the loca; communities.
In a nod to nature the hotel tried to bring the outdoors inside with recorded bird songs in nearby Rocky Mountain National Park. The question remains whether this hotel will contribute to the loss of those species by contributing to carbon emissions.
Other Carbon Positive Hotels
While the Populus hotel has gotten alot of hype, it is by far not the first carbon positive hotel. While the htels below ae taking positive action for the environment, a consistent carbon positive hotel standard is needed to prevent greenwashing.
Inkaterra
In October 2021, Inkaterra was acknowledged by the United Nations as the first Climate Positive hotel brand in the world. Inkaterra is committed to the preservation of the natural heritage of Machu Picchu. The GreenInitiative certification company measured Inkaterra’s Co2 footprint and offset to determine the Peruvian ecotourism enterprise as climate positive – meaning, “any activity that furthers the achievement of net zero carbon emissions, providing an environmental benefit by removing additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”
Since 1976, Inkaterra has worked on restoring the cloud forest's life cycle at Machu Picchu through the reforestation of native flora, including ferns, bromeliads, and native trees like the queñual and the pisonay. Today, Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel is considered one of the most diverse urban hotspots in the world. Inkaterra partnered with the Municipality of Machu Picchu, AJE Group, the National Service of Protected Natural Areas, and Bosques Amazónicos to create a carbon-free future for Machu Picchu. Since 1978, Inkaterra has produced flora and fauna inventories to define the baseline in its natural areas of influence. Having registered in hotel grounds 903 bird species, 365 ant species (world record sponsored by Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson) and 372 native orchid species (the world’s largest native orchid collection according to the American Orchid Society), Inkaterra’s ascending learning curve has led to the description of 29 new species to science by fellow researchers.
In 2024 they tok additional actions to reduce their footprint:
A biodiesel plant, which processes waste oil from restaurants and casinos
A pyrolysis plant for organic waste, which generates allows the generation of “biochar,” or natural charcoal
Ecological restoration with 6,596 native trees planted.
Hotel Luise
Founded in 1956, Hotel Luise in Erlangen, Germany, was one of the pioneers of sustainability in the hotel industry. It is one of the most environmentally friendly city hotels in Germany and was awarded the EU Eco-label in 2023. Hotel Luise has been climate-neutral since 2010 and were the first hotel in Europe to be certified climate-positive since 2015. Hote Luise is a climate hotel and certified climate positive by Viabono.
They analyze, calculate and fully compensate for their CO2 footprint. For example, they calculate the travel routes of our employees, the cut flowers on our tables and much more. They also add 20 percent on top to make sure they did not miss anything.
They have created the Wall of Change that represents the more than 230 sustainability measures they have implemented based on psychological principles and an unusual design. It helps communicate efforts but shows how people can take small individual actions. Examples include:
Circular rooms where all materials used in the renewable hotel room are either 100% biodegradable or 100% recyclable.
Capture rainwater with a sponge city design where it then waters the plants.
Dining tables ae made from old refrigerators.
Reduce food waste and give away surplus food.
One of first hotels in Germany to receive the EU Ecolabel.
Outside of its environmental benefit the hotel has other amazing amenities like:
Free room service for disabled guests
Wellness area, including unique beer massage
Local and organic breakfast; zero waste breakfast available
Hotel Marcel
The New Haven, Connecticut hotel takes a good first step towards carbon positive by reusing a vacant building - meaning that the construction related carbon had long been placed into the atmosphere.
The building that houses Hotel Marcel was originally designed in 1968 in a Brutalist architectural style by Marcel Breuer. Originally housing offices for a tire company, the building sat vacant for two decades when Becker stepped in.
Hotel Marcel earned LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council in recognition of design initiatives that significantly reduce its carbon footprint. It generates 100% of its own electricity, including the energy required for heating and hot water.
The project is on track to become the country’s first Passive House–certified hotel. The Passive House certification, managed by the Passive House Institute (PHI), is the only internationally recognized performance standard for air tightness and energy consumption, verified with field-tested energy modeling.
Construction measures to minimize air and energy leakage include the use of triple-pane insulated glass window units and continuous, closed-cell insulation and other insulating materials on the inboard face of the building’s existing concrete panels. The result is an estimated an 80% reduction in energy use. As a net-zero—and potentially net-positive facility—the Hotel Marcel expects to meet or exceed its energy demand through 1,000-plus solar panels installed atop its rooftop and parking canopies. On cloudy days or at nighttime, the hotel pulls power from the grid or from its on-site battery.
Green Solution House Hotel
The Green Solution House hotel on the Danish island of Bornholm, features smart rooms and real-time energy and resource monitoring and was Denmark’s first mass timber hotel.
The building is designed to be carbon negative over the course of its entire lifetime. Hotel guests can monitor their own energy consumption, allowing them to observe how they themselves become a design factor. Upon arrival, guests receive a tablet with which they can monitor the temperature and air quality in their room. The app also displays their real-time energy, resource and water consumption.
Part of the design was to test as many sustainable ideas as possible. In the end, 75 green solutions were incorporated throughout the building.
The photovoltaic system generates electricity from sunlight.
Food scraps and bio-waste from the restaurant are shredded in the biogrinder and converted into biogas.
The hotel’s wastewater is treated in a biological filter system to produce service and drinking water.
Sheep help to minimize the hotel’s carbon footprint by taking on lawn mowing duties.
Westland Hotel
In Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square district, a new eco-responsible hotel, the Westland Hotel is opening as a carbon positive hotel. Run by Urban Village, just like Populus, Hotel Westland is a part of RailSpur, a carbon positive micro-district that is positioned to be one of the country’s most significant adaptive reuse developments. Until I see some date, this is looking a case of greenwashing so far.
According to the hotel, by revitalizing an existing structure instead of building a new one, the hotel reduces its embodied carbon footprint by 36 percent—the equivalent of 2.2 million miles driven or 492 tons of coal burned. While this should be the apporach taken by many to reduce the razing of old buildings, this part is nothing new - as Brownfields developers will tell you.
The hotel also reduces its carbon footprint by avoiding construction of an onsite parking garage, same as its hotel in Denver. What this accomplishes is sending those emissions to someone else, like a nearby parking lot. It could also increase emissions from idling near the hotel, driving around longer to find a spot, and excessively using ride share.
Whatley Manor
UK’s first climate positive hotel, Whatley Manor, spent five years maximizing the reduction of its Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions and achieved EarthCheck Silver Certified in September 2022. It has also achieved its climate positive target through purchasing carbon credits, certified by Gold Standard, to offset more than its residual 1778 tonnes of CO2 emitted in 2022.
Whatley Manor has partnered with ItMustBeNow and EarthCheck to keep its sustainability programme accountable and transparent. This means it will use a science-based approach to measure and benchmark, audit and certify; to build capacity and report its sustainability actions to inform and engage the support of its stakeholders; and to avoid accusations of greenwash.
Whatley Manor entered into a three-year purchase agreement to invest in 8,250 high-quality carbon credits produced by the San Jerónimo Coatlán Carbon Sequestration Project in Mexico.The project works with Climate Action Reserve (CAR), a high-quality carbon credit registry.
Other key carbon positive actions included:
Converting from Natural Gas to Bio Gasrenewable energy
Upgrading insulation throughout the building for energy efficiency
Reducing waste by 31% per guest night and the remaining waste confirmed as Zero to landfill
Sending all food waste to an anaerobic digester to make Bio Gas
Auditing the full supply chain and holding supplier knowledge-building events to increase collaboration, investing in new technology that will generate energy from waste on property in 2025
Tree and Biodiversity Audit in 2024 which led to garden improvements, establishing an effective composting regime, the removal of all pesticides and the introduction of BioChar to the soil to ensure all garden waste is put to good use
How Can Hotels Reduce Their Carbon Footprint?
To be carbon positive hotels will need to both incoporate emissions savings into their design and change the behavior of their guests.
The World Sustainability Hospitality Alliance released a free tool, the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI), to calculate the carbon footprint of hotel stays and meetings in their properties. It includes all energy used ‘on site’ (including fuels such as natural gas, oil and other fuels, purchased electricity, and mobile fuels from vehicles and other equipment) and emissions from refrigerants. It also includes, if applicable, carbon emissions from outsourced operations (e.g. laundry). It is already being used by over 30,000 hotels globally, and provides robust, transparent and comparable data.
Encouraging travellers to make environmentally sustainable choices in their accommodation planning can have a significant impact on promoting positive transformation. One company, Clear.Eco allows you to figure out your carbon footprint and provides options for reducing it, such as buying carbon offsets (e.g., paying to plant trees).
