Four Points by Sheraton, Residence Inn and Disney Parks and
Resorts are the most environmentally efficient upscale hotel brands, according to
a new study by sustainability technology company Brighter Planet. Vagabond
Inns, Red Lion Hotels and Howard Johnson ranked highest among midprice
properties, while Red Carpet Inns, Travelodge and Scottish Inns were found to
be most efficient among budget brands.
Brighter Planet examined 46,000 U.S. properties—accounting
for about 80 percent of all U.S. hotels with 15 or more rooms—and estimated each
brand's energy consumption and carbon emissions. Estimates were based on a
variety of factors, including square footage per room, hotel amenities, energy
sources and climate.
JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Marriott's Renaissance
Hotels & Resorts and Hilton's Embassy Suites Hotels ranked as the least
efficient among studied upscale hotels (which included upper upscale brands). Carlson's
Country Inns & Suites, Drury Inns and AmericInn International were the
least efficient among midprice hotels. Extended-stay brands InTown Suites,
Value Place and Budget Suites of America ranked at the bottom among budget
brands.
Brighter Planet noted that efficiency can vary widely within
the same brand, even within the same geography. The most efficient Holiday Inn
Express in Nashville, for example, was twice as efficient as the least
efficient Holiday Inn Express in Nashville.
Because of all the variances within tiers and brands,
Brighter Planet asserted that assigning
average emission factors to hotel nights, a standard approach in travel
sustainability reports, produces incorrect conclusions. Property-level data,
rather than averages, is becoming more readily available, according to the
study.
"Treating all hotels as uniform incorrectly suggests
that the only way to reduce lodging impacts is to reduce business travel,
obscuring opportunities for significant sustainability gains that would be
possible through travel procurement choices," according to the study's authors.
"It also introduces major inaccuracies into sustainability reports and
hides footprint trends that are independent of travel volumes."
With more rooms, larger rooms and more amenities, upscale
hotels naturally consume more energy and produce more carbon emissions on
average than do lower-tier hotels. But the "dirtiest" budget hotels
have a greater environmental impact than most upscale hotels, according to Brighter
Planet. "Since hotel efficiency varies dramatically at all price points,
travelers on any budget have opportunities to reduce their footprint without
comprising on cost or service," the study concluded.
Relatively newer hotels generally are less efficient than
older ones, according to the study. Hotels built in the 2000s on average use
twice the energy and emit 2.5 times the carbon as hotels built between 1965 and
1975—due to larger rooms, more energy-consuming amenities like pools and
in-room refrigerators, and more dependence on electricity rather than fuel oil.
More recently, as hotel chains have embraced such green certifications as LEED
and Energy Star, that trend has begun to reverse, and hotel energy use per
square foot actually is lower than 1980s levels.