Within the next 20 years, our planet could reach peak oil consumption. Even so, demand for oil continues to grow year-on-year as global production decreases.
This ever-growing problem will impact the way that hotels are constructed in the future, and how eco-friendly strategies can benefit hotels in terms of their cost-efficiency.
Half of all carbon emissions in the UK are accounted for by the construction industry, especially machinery used in the production process. However, eco-friendly practices are now being developed.
Reconomy, a provider of container hire and waste management solutions explains that the UK government is instructing construction firms building hotels to use green processes. Post-construction, firms are also encouraged to incorporate green technologies within the build to benefit the environment once construction is complete.
Building an eco-friendly hotel
There are three core principles that need to be taken into account during the construction of a hotel so that’s ecologically beneficial to and within the environment:
- What needs to be established, is whether energy is being wasted during construction. During the production process machines can often be overused. This leads to energy that is wasted. So that a motor isn’t overworked, electric vehicles or machines with hybrid-engines should be used so that when a motor is overworked electric engines can help power and support the overall load.
- Once the building of the hotel is complete, what energy is being generated within it, and is it being wasted?
- Furthermore, assess whether materials for the construction of the hotel have been locally sourced – if they haven’t, a decision has to be made on whether they can be recycled in the future.
For the roofing of the hotel, recycled paper can be utilised instead of new insulation that’s often expensive. By using cheap and practical alternatives insulation that is produced for individual roofs will be more cost effective when using pre-existing materials. Using timbers that are sourced from sustainably managed forests within the local area avoids chopping down trees that will not be replanted.
Ecological hotel structures and their design
Based on making the most out of the hotel structure, these eco-friendly techniques can help to save costs, and energy within the hotel design.
- Drainage systems and water filtration. When biological waste is treated safely, water can be re-used within a hotel. Rainwater can also be utilised and collected into specific drains that recycle it, so it can be re-used instead of water from a tap and also used in outdoor spaces such as gardens and courtyard spaces for plants
- Low-energy lighting. Low energy lighting can last twice as long as regular lightbulbs, which accounts for an energy saving of 100%
- Solar energy panels. Solar energy is fast in becoming a cheaper alternative as opposed to other forms of commercial power. When using them within a hotel’s power supply, this can account for a significant saving in energy costs. A hotel also covers a large surface area, which means that many solar panels can be used, maximising the amount of electricity that can be generated in this energy efficient way.
Benefitting from environmentally friendly construction
The day-to-day running of a hotel can account for 80% of hotel’s overall cost, which can be expensive. Reducing the total running costs of a hotel by one third, introducing green initiatives can help reduce these costs to 53.3% of overall costs.
When it comes to the hotel’s architectural design, daylight should always be considered. This is because daylight helps to save on artificial lighting costs. Furthermore, it is considered by many that the ‘indoor environment quality’ of a hotel can be improved when natural light is abundant – this is because it creates the illusion of more space within a more natural feeling environment, benefitting the health of occupants that are present within the building.
Once the construction part of hotel begins, long-lasting materials that can be recycle should always be utilised. This means that fewer new materials will be used during construction, helping to reduce the overall cost of the build whilst less energy is consumed in order to produce the new structure.
To tackle climate change, construction firms will have to use these materials and techniques within their construction processes. By producing hotels that are greener, more environmentally efficient and conceptualised with the long-term future of the planet in mind, this will ensure that buildings are constructed in a sustainable way for generations to come.
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