FX Hotel Focus: Sustainability for hotels


Andrew Jackson looks at ways hotels can show that they are taking sustainability seriously.


Images by: Michael Larson

Unlike most commercial properties, hotels consume resources around the clock and, therefore, represent an enormous opportunity for sustainability, energy savings and conservation efforts. Environmental responsibilities aside, customer expectation is driving the adoption of sustainability measures and design. Hotel guests show an increased awareness of sustainability and acknowledge that it influences where they decide to stay.

More than half of the global travellers in 2015 surveyed by booking.com said they were likely to choose a hotel and destination based on its social or environmental impact. Furthermore, research from UK energy supplier E.ON found a third of hotel guests believed that hotels should be judged on their sustainability credentials, with a significant proportion wanting to see an accreditation system put in place. Clearly, sustainability data matters; it meets customers’ desire for accountability and encourages companies to improve performance.

Four out of every five of the companies on the Standard and Poor’s 500 stock-market index published sustainability reports last year. With the importance placed on corporate sustainability, specifiers and end-users can be forgiven for assuming that manufactured products need to achieve sustainability credentials as standard. But despite a growth of sustainability standards and certifications, there remains a lack of consensus.

When it comes to product labels many are narrowly defined: for example, a label that reads ‘100% recycled’ tells us that a product has been made from recycled materials, but does not consider the manufacturing process or the concept of embodied carbon. Even when products do display sustainable credentials, how can a business, specifier or end-user, be sure that the sustainability standards and labels are delivering real environmental, economic and social results? The absence of an industry standard for sustainable certification has resulted in Shaw Contract seeking independent verification for its products and manufacturing processes.

There are a variety of bodies that provide accreditation to support the environmental credentials and material health claims of products. Shaw Contract uses third-parties to verify the sustainability credentials of its products. For example, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) reports, which communicate the environmental impacts of a product across all phases of its lifecycle, and Greenguard Certification verifies that products meet comprehensive standards for low emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). '

Shaw incorporates recycled content such as old plastic drinks bottles into carpet products. Image by: Michael Larson Shaw incorporates recycled content such as old plastic drinks bottles into carpet products. Image by: Michael Larson

To communicate the results of independent verification, as well as the progress of its sustainability initiatives, Shaw Contract presents its results and future goals in its annual sustainability report. The most recent of which, the 2015 Sustainability Report, was presented in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 guidelines and audited by Deloitte. Labels that disclose product ingredients, such as Declare and the Health Product Declarations, have value but if the production process undertaken by manufacturers has a negative effect on the environment it diminishes the benefits of the product’s sustainability credentials.

Shaw Contract tackles this issue and takes responsibility by assessing the entire supply chain to ensure that products meet its Cradle to Cradle Certification (C2C). Products guided by C2C philosophies are judged across five quality categories, including material health, recycling and reclamation, renewable energy and carbon management, and water stewardship. C2C certification verifies that products are recyclable. C2C design protocol demands products contain technical or biological components that are safe and healthy for humans and the environment with ingredients assessed down to 100 parts per million.

An essential component of carpet is yarn; the majority of carpet manufacturers use third-party yarn production and rely on their claims for environmental credentials. Shaw Contract manufactures its own yarn, which means greater control over supply chain, material health and final product. In 2015, 65 per cent of the sales of Shaw Contract manufactured products were C2C certified; by 2030 the goal is that all products meet C2C protocols. Shaw Contract’s aim is also to reduce waste to landfills and hazardous waste by 100 per cent, cut water intensity in half, and decrease both its non-biogenic greenhouse gas and energy intensity by 40 per cent by 2030.

Shaw Contract carefully monitors and tracks water usage and environmental impact and has implemented a closed loop recycling system in one manufacturing facility where more than 75 per cent of water use was reclaimed or recycled waste water. Part of Shaw Contract’s approach has been to shift several traditional sources of waste into resources. For example, the waste fibre from hardwood flooring operations is used by a major producer of composite decking, and the minimal waste from the resilient manufacturing facility is used to make garden hoses. Shaw Contract also incorporates recycled content from other industries, such as using plastic drink bottles in residential carpet. The hospitality industry has long held a reputation for wastefulness.

The key to tackling this is by ensuring that waste is recycled. Figures on global carpet waste are unavailable, but if the estimated 410 tonnes of carpet waste buried in UK landfills each year is anything to go by, it is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed. Part of the problem in the UK is that despite the rising cost of disposing of rubbish over the past decade due to the UK landfill tax, it still remains the cheapest option for many businesses – in particular hotels – to eliminate bulky waste. Shaw Contract’s EcoWorx-backed products come with an environmental guarantee for free reclamation and recycling with each tile or broadloom product, featuring a contact number on the back to facilitate the free return.

On an international scale, Shaw Contract annually reclaims and recycles up to 45 tonnes of post-consumer carpet, including the recycling of other manufacturers’ products. Reclaimed carpet materials also fuels Shaw Contract’s Reclaim-to- Energy (Re2E) facility, where carpet is turned into energy. LEED v4, a new version of the internally adopted American green buildings benchmark, launches this month and includes new design guides for the hospitality sector. LEED v4 promises stricter criteria in products specified for a project. According to a study by Cornell University, LEED-certified hotels obtained superior financial performance when compared to their non-certified competitors, for at least the first two years after certification.

Investing in sustainable technologies and innovative solutions can also benefit the bottom line, since a 20 per cent cut in energy costs is thought to be the equivalent of a five per cent increase in sales. Using the hospitality sector as an example, the Carbon Trust says that businesses can reduce energy costs by as much as 40 per cent through maximising energy-efficiency opportunities. The motivation for many companies to adopt and invest in sustainable development is due to the demands of stakeholders and consumers. Regardless of whether hotels are also motivated to adopt sustainable practices by the bottom line, a feeling of genuine duty or industry pressure, studies show that when it comes to the public, its main concern is that the environment is placed first.








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