Our top 10 eco-hotels and lodges for their energy consumption

How do you know if the perfect hotel you’ve found is really doing everything they say they are to be sustainable and environmentally conscious or are they just ‘green washing’?

As attitudes change, businesses will always try to follow the trends, and hotels are no different.

There are so many different ratings and awards available for hotels and lodges that claim to be focused on being environmentally conscious that it can be very confusing, if not misleading!

Worse, some of the ratings are based on how much money a location can spend on the award itself, rather than purely on what they are achieving.

So, how do you make sure that the hotel you are going to visit is setting up long-term sustainability projects, and not just waiting to jump onto the next bandwagon?

This situation has become so complicated that Rebecca and Lionel of Kiwano Hotels decided they would create their own, called the “leaf status”.

There are 4 levels of leaf-ratings, from 1-leaf up to gold status.

Rebecca and Lionel know each location inside out. From how they deal with waste to how they get their power, source their food, and regenerate the environment that surrounds them.

Having researched each property and interviewed the owners or managers too, they then rate each location based on 9 categories:

• Architecture
• Conservation
• Energy
• Engage Guests
• Food
• Housekeeping
• Waste
• Water

The final category is Community, which looks at everything else the property, and its owners, are doing to help the community they live within.

Over these 10 articles, we are going to run down the top 10 locations in each category, whether they be a hotel, lodge, or self-catering, before giving you our top 10 eco locations you should visit if you want to make a positive difference whilst you explore the world.

This article is the 3rd one in the series and will look at Energy.

This category investigates how the properties generate, purchase, and use the energy that is consumed by the hotel and their guests.

Some of the things that the resorts may use to help reduce their energy consumption include:

• Do they have in produce their own electricity onsite?
• Do they source 100% renewable energy (e.g. wind, solar, and/or hydro-electric power)?
• Do they have good insulation to retain heat and keep the property cool?
• Do they use energy efficient (LED) lighting?

The local electricity supplier for the Tyrol area of Austria is “TIWAG”. Since its inception in 1924, TIWAG has produced eco-friendly, clean and CO2-free electricity from hydropower.

Heat exchangers are used within the building to retain as much heat or cold as possible.

Almost all of the lighting is LED and lighting in the public areas are sensor-based.

There are 3 electric car charging points on site which are free for guests to use.

You can find out more about this hotel on their website https://www.hotel-outside.com/en/

Solar panels power all of the energy used by Boulder Bay. They were situated away from the bungalows to prevent any trees needing to be felled.

All lighting is LED and there is no air conditioning onsite.

You can find out more about this hotel on their website https://boulderasia.com/

Heating for the hotel comes from local public services that generate all their power from hydroelectric turbines.

The hotel has solar panels on their roof for generating their electricity.

Whilst there is air-conditioning, it is centrally controlled and the temperatures lowered during the night. They use also use living plants to improve room temperatures.

They have electric car and e-bike charging points in the garage for guests to use, as well as a car sharing car park for the car sharing club Erlangen.

You can find out more about this hotel on their website https://www.hotel-luise.de/en/

Aristi Mountain Resort & Villas uses a waste heat recovery system that captures heat released by appliances/machinery to heat the hotel.

LED lighting is used throughout. There are sensors to turn off electronics, lights, as well as adjust temperatures in guest rooms and public areas when they are unoccupied.

You can find out more about this hotel on their website https://www.aristi.eu/en/aristi-mountain-resort-villas/green-policy

New solar panels have recently been installed to improve efficiency and provide more energy.  All the lighting is LED. Any unused power is stored in batteries.

A separate panel is used to power the communication system, providing telephone service at the lodge.

The stored energy is used to pump water to the elevated, gravity-fed, water system.

You can find out more about this hotel on their website http://www.yarapa.com/index.html

Nepal’s electricity is currently about 90% hydropower sourced, which is clean and sustainable.

In drier months, some electricity is imported from India, which results in an annual average of about 70% hydropower electricity.

In addition, 4 guest rooms have solar water heaters and 100% of the staff’s water is heated by solar energy.

All lighting at the lodge is provided by LED or CFL bulbs. Furthermore, the laundry is washed by hand and air-dried to further reduce energy usage.

You can find out more about this hotel on their website https://tigermountainpokhara.com/

The very architecture of the building was designed with energy efficiency in mind, with its geometric design allowing the hotel to save 66% of energy of a typical building its size.

This energy efficiency comes from:

• Its windows which take advantage of natural light and warmth provided by the sun
• The building façades and overhangs protect the interior from bad weather and promote ventilation using natural cross ventilation.
• The hotel uses renewable biomass energy to heat the hotel
• 80% of the hotel lighting is LED
• Guest rooms have key-card sensors to reduce energy consumption

You can find out more about this hotel on their website https://tierrahotels.com/chiloe/

Being in the desert, using solar power was never in doubt!

However, the scale to which they have embraced it is amazing.

The first hotel in South America to produce solar-powered electricity, they constructed a hybrid system using 588 photovoltaic panels!

This fantastic area enables them to operate during the day with 100% solar electricity.

By generating 335.000 kWh per annum, the hotel avoids burning more than 110,000 litres of diesel annually, reducing their carbon footprint by 340 tons of CO2 every year!

You can find out more about this hotel on their website https://tierrahotels.com/atacama/sustainability/

The hotel is powered using an ice battery! The ice battery uses waste heat from the Spa and other devices.

The heat is passed through heat exchangers to cool a water tank, producing ice.

The combined effect of thawing and freezing is used to turn a turbine to generate electricity.

95% of the energy used within the hotel comes from this smart technology!

You can find out more about this hotel on their website https://valsana.ch/en

The Pavilions Himalayas uses 3 different renewable energy sources to make it as eco-friendly as possible.

The 1st is the electricity it uses. This is hydro-electricity provided by the Nepalese.

The hotel also has its own solar power and solar heating systems.

2nd is the gas they use to cook the food. They use biogas which is methane that has been generated onsite from black water and livestock manure from the farm.

3rd, all the heating comes from using carbon neutral eco-briquettes in the fires.

You can find out more about this hotel on their website https://www.pavilionshotels.com/himalayas/

Our "Climate Heroes" initiative is going from strength to strength.

Every booking we make now includes a carbon hero contribution, which goes to support a range of environmental initiatives all around the world.

This means that when you book with us, you’ll be helping the planet, so you can feel even better about going on holiday. 30 times better in fact! As our Climate Hero projects are up to 30 times more effective than most tree planting projects.

Find out more on our website https://lisetteandliam.notjusttravel.com/travel-that-gives-back

Congratulations to The Pavilions Himalayas. They are doing an amazing job to reduce their energy consumption and reliance on fossil fuels.

In our next blog, we'll look at how the Hotels and Lodges ensure that the food they serve their guests is as sustainable as possible.

To find out more, please get in touch:

lisette.julio-quinn@notjusttravel.com

07505 999 773

lisetteandliam.notjusttravel.com

You can find all our blog posts about ecotourism on our website here: https://lisetteandliam.notjusttravel.com/blog/inspiration?tag=140

Thank you to Rebecca Woolford and Kiwano Hotels.

https://kiwanohotels.com/