Buildings – be they homes, hospitals, schools or workplaces – have a powerful effect on the people who use them, inspiring love, indifference or even loathing. They are also responsible for about 40% of all world resource consumption and over 40% of all waste, including greenhouse gases. They have other impacts too, such as their effect on the local economy and surrounding communities, and on biodiversity.
There are very good reasons why planners and hotel developers, owners and operators should want hotels and resorts that are conceived along more sustainable lines. Good buildings fit into their surroundings, are pleasant spaces to occupy and help define a sense of ‘place’. In this way they become an accepted part of the community and the landscape, attracting employees, visitors and guests – all of which is good for business.
Other good business reasons for taking people and the environment into account early on in development include minimizing potential exposure to litigation caused by pollution, reducing operating costs through efficient use of resources and enhancing the capital value of the establishment.
In a speech to leaders of the tourism industry in November, 2004, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, President of the International Business Leaders Forum said: “I have long been concerned about the impact of hotel siting and design on the environment and townscape, and the threat that, through unbridled development, they destroy the very quality which tourists demand. How many coasts around Europe, for example, have been desecrated by hotels which now stand half empty because people, rightly, have no wish to look out on a concrete wasteland?
There is clearly a need for guidance to help the industry move forward. The International Tourism Partnership (ITP) through the International Hotels Environment Initiative (IHEI) has long been involved in helping hotels and resorts to address operational environmental and social issues by providing practical resources and tools. The need now, however, is for assistance that will enable the industry to address these issues at a more fundamental stage, i.e. before the establishment is even on the ‘drawing board.’
To this end, ITP joined forces with Conservation International’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB) in 2002 to draw up general guidelines on responsible hotel design, siting and construction. As a result of that collaboration, and the input of many individuals and specialists, the guidelines will be launched early this year.
According to Dr. Harold Goodwin, Director of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism at the School of Science, University of Greenwich, the Siting and Design Guidelines “will provide, for the very first time, a coherent way of approaching sensitive siting, design and construction of hotels and other similar forms of accommodation.”
Mark Eckstein, Senior Environmental Specialist at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Environment and Social Development Department says, “The financial returns on better siting and design may be less apparent, but in the long term, they are likely to be as significant as those for internal environmental management.”
“As awareness over the scope and scale of environmental and social impacts associated with the travel industry increases, there needs to be a marked increase in the abilities of the players to manage those risks in their operations. When these risks were perceived as mainly internal – for example water and energy saving initiatives – they were fairly easily controlled. But as risks spread beyond the direct control of hoteliers, they will require more sophisticated responses.
These will need to recognize the roles of stakeholder engagement, industry partnerships, and more widely, the private and public sectors as they grapple with issues such as land use planning, social impact and the sustainable limits of tourism development in specific areas.”
Mark believes these wider issues will increasingly shape the success and long term viability of the sector.
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors believes the free market alone will not deliver sustainable building and that governments must take the lead if there is to be progress in controlling massive environmental impact of the world’s construction activities. A report published in 2004 called for legislation, monitoring, enforcement, and for governments to demonstrate high standards in their own buildings. “Only if governments step in, as they have done in Denmark and are attempting to do in UK, will there be a prospect of reducing the massive waste centred on the property life cycle,” says Chief Executive, Louis Armstrong.
Financial incentives will also be needed to encourage hotel and resort developers to build more sustainably. The Norwich and Peterborough Building Society’s Green Commercial Mortgage for businesses, developed with the UK Centre for Economic and Environmental Development (UK CEED) is the first such development in the UK, offering qualifying businesses 0.25% off their standard commercial mortgage rates for the first two years of the loan. It is specifically targeted at businesses providing environmental services such as recycling or pollution clean-up, manufacturers of environmental products, and those whose premises are built to high environmental standards.
Some international hotel groups, notably Rezidor SAS Hospitality and Hilton International through Scandic Hotels are already working towards developing more sustainable hotels and resorts. Says Wolfgang Neumann, Area President of Hilton UK and Ireland, “It is written into our environmental policy that we will ‘influence land use in harmony with nature and promote the use of environmental standards in our construction activities.’ This practice has been at the heart of our mid-market chain Scandic since the early 1990’s when the ‘Scandic Eco-Room’ was introduced. Since then, over 10,000 rooms have been built.
“Scandic was one of the first hotel brands to recognize sustainable development and has been leading the way with the introduction of ‘The Scandic Environmental Refurbishment Equipment and Construction Standards’ , a company-specific guide to sustainable property development and refurbishment. As we roll out the guidelines to Hilton world-wide, we already know from our Scandic experience that htis is a powerful tool.”
Case Example: Whitepod, Villars, Switzerland
Located above the ski resort of Villars at an altitude of over 1700 metres, Whitepod is an alpine retreat consisting of five dome shaped tents or ‘pods’ pitched on raised wooden platforms around a traditional 19th Century alpine chalet. It can only be reached by skis or snowshoes. The white geodesic pods blend into the landscape and are designed to withstand a snowfall of 445 lbs/sq ft. with winds up to 130 mph. Each has a private deck and uninterrupted views and is equipped with a wood-burning stove and high-tech reflective insulation.
Whitepod was developed according to 10 eco-principles based on those published by the World Tourism Organization which were drawn up at the World Ecotourism Summit in 2002. It opened in 2004/05 and as founder Sofia de Meyer explains, the camp aims to provide a revolutionary approach to experiencing pristine wilderness in the Swiss Alps.
It’s eco-principles include:
* zero impact: pods are pitched on wooden platforms which are removed at the end of the season.
* accommodates only 10 guests at a time
* used local, recycled materials for construction and furnishings.
* organic waste is composted; paper is recycled or used to start fires; glass and plastic is recycled
* water consumption is controlled; sheets and towels
are changed by request only; shared baths.
* biodegradable cleaning products used
* solar energy or rechargeable energy is used for lighting, stoves use wood from sustainable Swiss forests.
* support for the local economy through the use of local skills, suppliers and produce
As Sofia explains: “We use nature instead of cement – the pillars that hold the pods are put into place when the ground is sufficiently hard that they will not slip, but not frozen. Then, as the ground freezes, it secures the structure. The camp is designed to melt away with the snow and come April everything will be dismantled and the ground allowed to go through its natural course.”
www.whitepod.com
How can individuals tell whether a hotel or resort is sustainable?
ResponsibleTravel.com has developed a bullet-point plan with 10 ways to tell whether an ‘eco-lodge’ truly is that. As well as covering issues such as asking whether the lodge owner has a written environmental policy, what they are doing for conservation and local people, local employment and sourcing, it also suggests asking the owner questions such as how they treat waste water (coral and other wildlife is destroyed when effluent is pumped out to sea), and how they heat the building (i.e., solar vs. burning firewood).
George Martin, Director of Sustainability, BRE and Associate Director, Forum for the Future sums it up: “The case for sustainability in the development and construction industry is quite clear. A huge amassing of research evidences this. Yet, despite the clarion call to produce ‘green buildings’, these messages are not being translated into action. The result of the short-term economic view creates an attitude of sustainable development being either ‘tomorrow’s problem’ or ‘someone else’s responsibility.
“Climate change as a result of human activities is but one of the environmental challenges society faces – arguably the most important. It has already begun to have a discernible impact on global mean temperatures and there will be an increasingly significant effect on the built environment through this century. This must surely be apparent to the international hotel industry where in some resorts the effects of severe storms and flooding will be the outcome whilst in others the snow will disappear or, worse still, be absent altogether!
“Sustainable buildings are achievable and it’s not too late to start. A good starting point would be to develop and build the first zero carbon hotel. Now that would be a location I would look forward to visiting.” Who will be the first to take up the challenge?
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FROM The Green Hotelier, a SustainableBusiness.com Content Partner.
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