Corinthia Hotel Lisbon - The Energy Efficient Hotel

The Corinthia Hotel Lisbon, currently the biggest five star hotel in Lisbon, claims to be the most energy efficient hotel in the city.

A refitting project started in 2011, developed in a partnership with Galp Energia and ISQ Energia, two energy companies operating in Portugal, increased its energy efficiency dramatically.

The company was committed to reduce its energy consumption and at the same time its CO2 footprint by implementing efficient systems, and by the use of renewable energy sources.

The measures included the optimization of the water heating and acclimatization systems, lighting hardware and software and installing both a cogeneration and solar stations.

By the end of the refitting, the hotel was able to save 2,02 GWh/year. That’s 22% of its previous yearly energy consumption.

Replacing around 6300 halogen light bulbs for LED alone, granted a 202.599€/year save. The equivalent of 635.181 KG CO2/year or 31.753 trees.

Source: http://www.galpenergia.com/PT/Media/Noticias/Documents/2011/Apresenta%C3%A7%C3%B5es%20Evento%20Hotel%20Energeticamente%20Eficiente_Hotel%20Corinthia.pdf

Sustainability: from a nice-to-do to a must-do

The inspiring insights of IKEA's CSO on Sustainability

source: https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_howard_let_s_go_all_in_on_selling_sustainability#t-8690

Nearly zero, nearly there

The Nearly Zero Energy Hotels (neZEH) is an initiative inspired by the European Union's targets for the greenhouse gas reduction and co-funded by the EU's Intelligent Energy Europe Program.

Its purpose? To accelerate the rate of refurbishment of existing hotels, namely the small to medium, helping them to become Nearly Zero Energy Buildings by:

- providing technical advice to committed hotel owners

- demonstrating the profitability, feasibility and sustainability of investments towards nearly zero energy

- undertaking training

- promoting front runners at national, regional and EU level to increase their market visibility

The neZEH claims as benefits for the hospitality sector:

- energy savings and thus reduction of operation costs

- an improved image and service for guests

- access to a new "sustainability" market segment

- achieving Corporate Social Responsibility targets and sustainable balance

The initiative, a consortium of European institutes and agencies and the UNWTO, will run for three years (2013-2016) and includes several pilot projects in 7 countries.

In the next few weeks, we'll try to unveil more about those particular projects.

source: http://www.nezeh.eu/home/index.html

Planet People Profit

Understanding Sustainable Development as a triple-bottom line idea - economic, social and environmental, disambiguates the concept from an anti-capitalistic dream. In the words of Hevré Houdré, Sustainable Development is definitely geared toward profitability and the future. Thus without profit no business would be sustainable.

That, we think, is the best argument to convince shareholders to invest in sustainable planning for their companies.

It may seem difficult to balance planet and people aspects on one hand and profit on the other. In fact, history tells us that the industry's success was built in a large extent, since the late 18th century, at the expense of environment and social exploitation.

Environmentalism and the broad acceptance of human and labour rights brought some protection to planet and people.

However, it has been difficult to convince decision makers that long-term economical success can pair up with environmental and social prosperity. We're far from George H W Bush's "the American way of life is not negotiable" stand, but still far from a consensual agreement that preserving our natural assets may well be the only way to guarantee our long-term economical success.

Some factors though seem undeniable:

- The market is getting more conscious and demanding on environmental and social aspects of business and in the long run that can be an important factor of customer choice.

- Governments are progressively engaging in stick and carrot strategies to persuade companies to become greener.

- Whether because utilities and other input costs rise or competition pressures companies to lower their prices, improving operational efficiency is imperative to guarantee the desired margins.

Hence, acknowledging triple-bottom line sustainable development plans can only be seen as a triple-win situation: The company, by becoming more efficient, will reduce costs and meet the demands of both market and governments. That and CSR initiatives will create brand notoriety and differentiation from competitors. All put together will ultimately broaden the company's profit margins.

As this can be considered a virtuous cycle, the increased cash flow should enable new investments whether on social or environment performance. 

Improving the process' efficiency through a sustainable triple-bottom line point of view can only be seen as a source of competitive advantage.

image source: http://newgensurgical.com/environmental-stewardship/

Sustainability - The New Standard

Lights off hour

The Earth Hour WWF movement celebrates each year its symbolic lights off hour event with the purpose to raise awareness about climate changes.

It started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia and since then it became an worldwide event. Actually, it has grown from a one city initiative to a global event that involves around 162 countries and 7000 cities and towns, supported by individuals, organizations and governments.

This year the lights off hour will take place on the 28th March at 8:30 pm local time.

Marriott International Hotels are proudly taking part in the initiative. Last year, around 120 hotels took part and many are expected to participate in 2015.

The chain's hotels in the UK south region are particularly engaged and working closely with the WWF and the Earth Hour. They'll switch their lights off and are encouraging their guests to join in by offering a 20% discount in their restaurants during the hour.

In several Marriott's european hotels guests can expect a number of different events including candlelit dinners and cocktails.

Guests at the London Heathrow Marriot will be treated to their annual Glow Show.

The initiative is aligned with the chain's commitment to cut their energy and water consumption by 20% by the year 2020.

Sustainable Tourism

The United Nations World Tourism Organization defines sustainable tourism as "Tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities"

Therefore, it should:

1) Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity.

2) Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance.

3) Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation.

http://sdt.unwto.org/content/about-us-5

Sustainable Development

development which meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) 1987