CASE STUDY | CONSIDERATE HOTELIERS
CASE STUDY : Taking a measured approach to sustainability
New analysis of has shown that Qbic Hotels is far outperforming the industry average and also opened eyes to the extent that smaller actions contribute to the sustainability effort . BENEDETTA CASSINELLI , joint managing partner of Considerate Hoteliers explains how measurement is helping shape the hotel ’ s thought process on sustainability
Qbic Hotels have always been deeply committed to sustainability and since opening its London City hotel in 2013 , the brand has set out to become the greenest hotel in the capital , challenging every aspect of its operation to reduce the environmental impact , whether its solar panels on the roof , using chemical-free cleaning products , or wearing recycled uniforms .
Recently we have been working with Qbic Hotels using our data management system Con-Serve to analyse a year ’ s consumption of resources by the hotel , particularly electricity , water and gas
The results are a real eye-opener when they ’ re benchmarked against the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative . Compared with the 31.1kg CO ² which is the average level of emissions per room night in the UK , Qbic London City achieved an emission level of just 10.3kg CO ² per room night .
So that ’ s all well and good , but what makes the analysis particularly valuable is when you drill down into the detail and see the impact of specific actions . Most notably for Qbic London City was the impact of its water-saving drive .
During 2016 , the hotel had introduced new technology and initiatives aimed at influencing guest behaviour when it came to cutting water consumption . Each of the showers in the rooms was fitted with a Hansgrohe Airdrop shower head , which reduced the jet of water by 25 % per minute while maintaining a satisfying pressure for users by mixing air with the water .
Guests were reminded to switch the
BENEDETTA CASSINELLI
bathroom taps off with the introduction of an organic toiletries range called ‘ Stop the water while using me ’. In addition , Qbic London City also squared up to the high levels of towel and bed linen cleaning by offering an incentive to guests staying more than one night – a free drink in exchange for not having their linen changed . Over 18 % of guests opted for the incentive .
Con-Serve enabled water usage to be tracked throughout the year and after 12 months it demonstrated that consumption had fallen by a staggering 41 %, amounting to over four million litres year-on-year which is the equivalent to 67,638 showers based on a UK average eight-minute shower time .
By homing in on , tracking and measuring specific areas , hoteliers such as Qbic can correlate usage with actions . This is not just useful from a retrospective viewpoint but also for testing the return on investment on new initiatives before rolling them out right across the hotel .
For instance , we ’ re now offering Qbic London City the possibility of testing new sink and toilet flushing technology in one room before the hotel commits to investing a substantial sum that would come with a wholesale roll-out of the new technology .
To do this , innovative sensors would be fitted to the taps and toilet flush which would take readings every 15 minutes and automatically feed that information into Con-Serve to provide the hotel with consumption levels and knowledge of usage patterns .
If all this sounds like figure overload , then correlating the results to monetary savings is a great way of focusing the mind . Take the achievements in water consumption that Qbic London City achieved between 2015 and 2016 which resulted in a whopping annual saving of £ 10,413 for the hotel .
For Qbic Hotels , it not only reaffirms its vision for being the greenest , but in the words of the managing director Julie Fawcett : “ By seeing all the relevant data curated into one place and presented in a way that we could understand , it brought into sharp focus the results of our efforts , and areas where we can achieve more . It made us realise just how big an impact simple improvements could make and helped shape our future sustainability plans . The results have encouraged us to keep pushing forwards .”
To-date a significant proportion of the sustainability gains at Qbic London City are the result of infrastructure and technology improvements . While the hotel is already savvy when it comes to providing friendly visual clues such as the solar energy
28 www . hotelowner . co . uk July 2017