SPECIAL REPORT
THIS MONTH ’ S SECTION IS ABOUT
EARLIER IN THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS THAT HOTELS START DOING
MATH ON SUSTAINABILITY ,
GETHE THE BETTER . on which economy you ’ re in .” That means that “ the majority of operators don ’ t have good data ” on exactly how big their carbon footprint is , he says . “ And you can ’ t manage what you don ’ t collect .”
START AT THE BEGINNING “ In order to make any meaningful progress , the decisions ( to be sustainable ) need to be made at the very beginning of the hotel development cycle ,” says Eric Ricaurte , founder of Greenview , a Singapore-based consulting firm that
By BARBARA BOHN , MANAGING EDITOR
specializes in measurement of carbon and other energy performance indicators for hospitality companies . “ The question is , how do we get sustainability into the discussion among hotel owners and the development community ?”
Ricaurte says that while some owners actively prioritize sustainability , often a brand ’ s sustainability team will enter the discussion long after the budget has been committed and design decisions made . And sometimes , he says , “ because this is just the nature of it , the hotel development
LESS IS ENOUGH
“ In our process we like to peel it back , to find out what we don ’ t need , and use less in materials ,” says Tryggvi Thorsteinsson , co-founder of Minarc , an architecture and design firm in Santa Monica , California , that utilizes sustainable materials . He and his wife , co-founder Erla Dögg Ingjaldsdóttir , took that approach at the Ion Adventure Hotel ( exterior , left ) and the Ion City Hotel in Reykavik ( interior , above ), where the guest bath features Icelandic black volcanic sand . “ Build the walls out of materials that we can leave and use . Don ’ t use paint if you don ’ t need to use paint ,” he says . Regarding the Ion Adventure , “ concrete is the easiest material to find in Iceland , and the hotel is located in a really rural area in a national park , and we had to do this really simply and by disturbing nature as little as possible ,” he says . Adds Ingjaldsdóttir , “ We try to eliminate layers , which makes it less expensive , but that means you have to do the first layer better .”
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