Sustainability Making green pay
Kimpton BEM Budapest hotel: bathroom miniatures have been replaced with dispensers.
as a model for other heritage properties seeking to improve their environmental performance,” he says. Kurowska agrees that modelling sustainability is critical if the industry is to make genuine green headway. “We recognise our responsibility as one of the world’s leading hotel companies to take decisive, practical action to make a positive impact on our planet,” she says.
Root and stem sustainability As such, Kurowska says IHG has a root and stem approach to its sustainability practices. There’s reviewing energy usage in buildings, including LED lights to better control thermostats, as well as creating a cost vs payback toolkit for hoteliers in their franchise to help them make the correct decisions when it comes to sustainability. They have also rolled out a sustainability measurement dashboard. There are also low-carbon pioneer hotels, such as the voco hotel in Exeter, showcasing heat pump benefits or how all-electric kitchens play their sustainability part. With successful operations measured against globally recognised sustainability standards, such as LEED or BREEAM. For example, Voco Zeal Exeter is entirely renewable and the first hotel in the UK that has utilised the vertical solar photovoltaic panels as a rainscreen cladding system and uses adiabatic cooling heat pumps to further reduce energy usage. And there’s no standing still. “The ambition is to inspire other properties to join the programme and help encourage wider adoption of carbon reduction practices across IHG’s estate,” says Kurowska. Similarly, Greer sees the University Arms as a beacon: it was during a 2018 restoration that the 190-year-old building was retrofitted with locally sourced building materials, better insulation and ventilation of the building for heat efficiency (lowering both cost and carbon costs). Other procedures are more ongoing: such as reviewing suppliers and their sustainability, and where energy is sourced from.
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A more sustainable approach only works, however, if it benefits the business. Here, a Journal of Hospitality & Tourism paper outlines that although the initial capital investment in sustainable practices can put a strain on hotel finances, they can be linked to improved operating profits. But there are challenges, says Kurowska, such as the high price of electrification, especially in the UK, investment needed in sustainable technologies and high upfront costs. To counter this, she suggests industry trade bodies play a key role as well as lobbying governments. “Our collaboration with governments, industry peers and trade bodies is essential to supporting hotel owners, and the wider sector, on the path to successful decarbonisation,” she says. She adds that for hotel groups such as IHG, which operate within a franchise model, communication of benefits to individual owners is critical to driving broader sustainability success. The Journal of Hospitality & Tourism’s findings suggest there are a multiplicity of benefits. There is a suggestion that savings (through lower energy costs) could be channelled towards higher employee wages, who may then engage guests in a more friendly manner. Or the hotel could lower prices for guests, improving retention rates. Conversely, eco credentials may attract guests who are more willing to pay a premium for sustainability. Corporate guests may also have rules around sustainable procurement and be willing to work with companies that are eco-friendly, winning businesses from them and sustaining revenues. Indeed, credentials are critical, says Kurowska. “For eco-conscious travellers and corporate customers using IHG hotels, guests can now search for hotels with a third-party sustainability certification on our website and app,” she says, adding that both corporate and leisure accounts want this. Yet Greer warns that any credentials and efforts are for nothing if guests aren’t brought in. The University Arms can, for example, vaunt close, sustainable collaboration with local producers: a low-carbon to-table offering that, for the University Arms at least, boasts prime cuts from a family-run butchers to artisan honey from a local supplier being offered to guests. “The balance [of sustainability] with guest experience is key,” he explains.
Although he says most sustainability-focused changes are positively received, they must be in step with the heritage brand (University Arms opened its doors in 1834) and guest comfort. “We ensure anything we implement is not disruptive to the guest experience as we are offering a luxury service and product,” he says.
But as The Savoy and Greer’s hotel are showing, sustainability and luxury don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Critically, sustainability efforts to protect the planet are a luxury many would argue we can’t afford to forgo. ●
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