SPECIAL REPORT
The planned Six Senses Svart in Norway , on the edge of the Arctic Circle
layers , using the excess energy to work away at the embodied and operational carbon over time , first achieving a carbon neutral state and then going further to real carbon negative .
Details and strategies for the property are still being worked through but along with solar and geothermal energy , Six Senses Svart plans on adding a different type of renewable energy source – heat waste from the hotel ’ s data center located in the basement or back rooms of the resort .
“ Hotels and data centers are both very energy intensive . Data centers need a lot of cooling requirements because they produce a lot of heat ,” Smith says . “ So , the larger kind of strategy used for this hotel is to use the waste heat from the data center to dry our food waste and convert food waste into pellets .”
Those pellets will either go to fish farms nearby and then ideally , following the theory of industrial ecology , Smith says , the farmers would sell their sustainable farmed
54 hotelsmag . com October 2022 fish back to the hotel .
Since the data center is needed on the property regardless , and the heat waste is free , the related costs of this energy source are self-sufficient . “ So , this synergy of design and combining industries is definitely cost-effective and replicable ,” Smith adds . “ We do not anticipate any additional operating cost borne by the hotel as a result .”
Aside from producing renewable energy , Six Senses will track all of the property ’ s energy , water waste , and carbon output , and benchmark these against other hotels in the Six Senses collection as well as with Cornell ’ s Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index .
Smith admits that the Norway project , which aims to open in 2024 , is extremely ambitious . But he says the Six Senses strategy is going to be “ throw everything ” at this project , including assembling a project team of experts from different fields of sustainability technology . Whatever innovation succeeds at Six Senses Svart will be ready to replicate at more hotels . And like all matters concerning the environment , the time for pushing hotels out of their comfort zone is now .
“ We need to challenge the status quo of the hotel industry ,” Smith says . “ Because it must evolve incredibly fast to keep up with all of the world ’ s carbon targets .”
Along with solar and geothermal energy , Six Senses Svart plans on adding a different type of renewable energy source – heat waste from the hotel ’ s data center .