SPECIAL REPORT
on sustainability initiatives isn ’ t that challenging to do . Owners will appreciate the savings ; guests will realize it doesn ’ t compromise their comfort .”
POPULUS When the first gas station in Colorado opened at 14th and Colfax Streets in Denver in 1912 , cars lined up to fill their tanks for 19 cents a gallon . Next year , when the ecominded Populus Hotel opens on that very spot , it won ’ t even have a parking garage , encouraging guests to instead walk , bike , or use rideshare to arrive at the hotel .
Populus ’ environmental aim is a lofty , almost unheard-of endeavor – sequestering the hotel ’ s embodied carbon and its operational carbon output . Nixing a parking garage will save tons of both and it ’ s just one of the ways the hotel hopes to achieve a carbon-positive status , that is , its carbon output will be offset through other means . ( This is also referred to as being carbon negative .)
“ You can ’ t build a building with no carbon footprint ,” Buerge says . “ So how do we sequester the same amount that we emit ? How do we leave the world a better place than we found it in developing this project ?”
The hotel has been hyperconscious of its embodied carbon , the amount of carbon that is emitted when constructing and furnishing a hotel , using low-carbon concrete mixes and identifying the carbon output of all its interior materials . The reason for meticulous carbon-tracking is so they can determine exactly how much carbon needs to be sequestered .
But rather than buying carbon credits or offsets , Populus is forming partnerships with a mix of publicly held and privately-owned forests in the Mountain West region to plant trees that won ’ t be sold back to the timber industry at a later point . This growing practice is better known as soil carbon sequestration .
“ What we ’ ve realized is that a lot
IT ’ S THE FIRST TIME DOING THIS , AND WE KNOW WE ’ RE NOT GOING TO GET IT RIGHT . BUT WE WANT TO PUBLISH IT AND SHOW EVERYBODY WHAT WE DID , WHY WE DID IT , AND HOW TO LEARN FROM IT .
– JON BUERGE
Populus Hotel rendering from Studio Gang of times those carbon credits are not very authentic ,” Buerge says , describing how some carbon credits or offsets don ’ t actually sequester carbon . “ We want to be very real about this , and find a group that can actually dedicate land , it might be in forest service areas , where we say , we ’ re going to plant these 5,000 trees , and they ’ re never going to get torn down .”
The carbon-tracking will continue after opening , too . “ Once we turn on the lights , once people start eating at the restaurant , once we start operating the building , we are going to be constantly calculating our carbon footprint ,” Buerge says , adding that even menu items will