Beyond net zero design to carbon-positive hotels

INTERNATIONAL REPORT —In October, America’s first carbon-positive hotel, Populus, opened in downtown Denver. Beyond its honeycombed sculpted exterior of low-carbon concrete lies the look of the future, according to developer Jon Buerge, president at Urban Villages.

For Buerge, the carbon-positive design of the Chicago-based Aparium Hotel Group-managed property goes beyond a net-zero hotel’s emissions balancing act.

“By being carbon positive, the hotel is sequestering — sucking out of the atmosphere — more carbon than it emits over the lifetime of the building. Not just our operational carbon footprint but also the embodied carbon footprint from manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of the materials used to build the hotel.”

Six years in the making, Buerge said carefully planned sustainable design and construction techniques significantly helped reduce emissions at the 265-room property upfront.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, buildings are responsible for more than a third of CO2 emissions in the country, and globally, construction materials account for around 9% of that.

Denver-based Urban Villages analyzed every facet of the construction project, said Buerge, working with the decarbonization experts at STOK, “and calculating the carbon footprint of every single material used in the building.” Starting with the use of low-carbon concrete in place of fly ash, he claimed it was the first in the world, “allowing us to reduce emissions from the concrete by nearly 40%.”

To fit his vision of “biophilic” nature-centric design favoring sustainable materials, Chicago-based architects Studio Gang inspired Colorado’s native aspen tree, the Populus tremuloides, for the hotel’s white trunk-like facade. The firm’s founding partner, Jeanne Gang, took a hike in the Colorado woods before visiting the site and said the distinctive spherical windows on the insulated facade mimic “the eye-shaped marks” on their bark.

Jeanne Gang

A visionary renowned for the Aqua Tower in Chicago, Gang believes biomaterials such as wood and mycelium and “innovative concrete technologies” — all of which feature in the Populus design — are the future for sustainable buildings.

The use of materials, lights, and textures echoing the natural world extends into the hotel’s interiors. “Every detail aimed to minimize the building’s carbon footprint through innovative, consciously sourced materials,” said Heather Wildman of Pittsburgh-based Wildman Chalmers Design. “From the natural materials like wood and plants to wall coverings and carpeting.”

Wildman sees sustainability as a professional responsibility. “Every decision we make about beautification, we try to make for sustainability.”

ROI benefits of green design

Many hotel materials have been salvaged and repurposed, meaning less carbon and less money. Reclaimed snow fencing from Wyoming ended up in the wood slats on the lobby ceiling, biodegradable recycled materials in the guest room carpets, and beetle-killed pine trees in the headboards. Outdoors, the sidewalk benches by Denver-based landscape architecture firm Superbloom were crafted from honey locust trees felled during the revamp of the city’s 16th Street Mall, “giving the trees a second life.”

Jon Buerge

Populus is LEED Gold certified by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for its sustainable design, construction, and operations. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The USGBC cites “operating cost savings, shorter payback periods and increased asset value” as benefits of new green buildings and green retrofits, with a “rapid” ROI.

To meet its LEED commitments, Populus relied on 100% renewable electricity sourced from Colorado wind farms for hotel operations. Zero waste, “food to farm” dining harnesses BioGreen360’s food cycling technology to turn food waste into compost for local farmers. Beurge said the development makes “financial sense” on top of being sustainable, and he’s confident it will be lucrative for investors. “Using more renewable materials and operating more efficiently does not mean sacrificing ROI.”

For many, it increasingly means the opposite. Bardessono Hotel & Spa in Napa Valley was designed sustainably in 2009. However, it received Platinum LEED certification in 2016, just after the purchase of Ashford Prime (which later became Dallas-based REIT Braemar Hotels & Resort). That’s the country’s highest environmental design standard, said GM Alain Negueloua.

The Bardessono Hotel & Spa in Napa Valley was designed sustainably in 2009.

“Several factors contributed to this achievement, including our solar-powered heating and cooling system, energy-efficient lighting that minimizes daytime and nighttime energy consumption, low-water-use treatment systems, and food waste composting.”

“The hotel’s recent renovations continued the commitment to sustainability,” said Negueloua, adding that’s what many guests come for.

“New suites were built utilizing salvaged materials such as wood and Tufa stone,” he said. Being sustainable with the furniture, lighting, area rugs, and bathroom vanities means “honoring the property’s history and offering an artisanal aesthetic.”

The USGBC has been saying for a decade there is a “revenue benefit” from building green, as it cuts operating and maintenance costs and can lead to 10-20% improvements in ROI.

Environmental and financial stewardship

SCP (Soul Community Planet) Hotels was banking on those savings with a revamp of the 1965-built Salishan Coastal Lodge on the Oregon Coast by “integrating eco-initiatives into every aspect of its operations,” said Ken Cruse, the Laguna Beach, California-based firm’s founder and CEO. From LED lighting, water-saving fixtures, recycled water, and lithium battery golf carts on its golf course to Ecolab sustainable cleaning products and minimizing in-room dining waste with reusable containers.

SCP Hotels revamped of the 1965-built Salishan Coastal Lodge in Oregon.

A certification process under EarthCheck’s building, planning, and design standards led it to Silver Certified, measuring the resort against best practice performance benchmarks for sustainability. Salishan rigorously tracks its energy use, water consumption, waste production, and emissions. It is partnering with the Lincoln County sanitary district on a commercial composting pilot program and “actively measuring waste diversion.”

Like Buerge, Kelly Ogden-Gregg, principal designer at Portland, Oregon-based Elk Collective, which oversaw the refurbishments, talks about “environmental stewardship” at Salishan.

“Sustainability was always at the forefront when the lodge opened its doors 60 years ago,” she said. “The architecture was designed with a deep respect for its natural surroundings and reflects clean lines and organic materials.

“Our team opted for sustainable materials. This commitment allows sustainability and luxury to coexist effortlessly with thoughtfully designed suites featuring non-toxic finishes. Prioritizing health and wellness consistently delivers a greater return on investment than outdated, toxic alternatives.”

For Buerge, decarbonizing and energy-efficient strategies not only cut costs immediately but future-proof buildings ahead of more strict regulations, but he believes more consumer demand and regulatory pressure are needed in the U.S. to encourage hotels to go through the “very detailed process” of becoming sustainable.

“It’s a mindset that we have to get into as well as a technical challenge,” Gang said. “I think sustainability needs regulation... as architects, we have to convince our clients to do these things.”