A hotel in the heart of London is in the top 10% of sustainable commercial buildings in the UK for its “outstanding” eco-friendly policies.
Novotel in Blackfriars has been given an “excellent” rating for its environmental performance and is trying to change the mindset of guests so that sustainability becomes something they actively seek out when choosing a hotel.
The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) rating ranks the hotel among the top 10% of UK new non-domestic buildings. Novotel is one of the Accor Group’s mid-scale hotel chains, among other international brands such as Sofitel, Mercure and Ibis.
The Novotel group is market leader in Europe and worldwide has more than 3,700 hotels in 92 countries – it has a total of 480,000 rooms. It is committed to reducing the environmental impact of hotels through its Planet 21 initiative and the new Blackfriars hotel, based in a busy tourist area of London, is a showcase.
Planet 21 has seven themes: health, nature, carbon, innovation, local, employment and dialogue. These cover a comprehensive list of sustainability goals ranging from ensuring interiors are healthy, reducing water use and encouraging eco-design, to protecting children from abuse, buying responsibly, conducting business openly and improving the quality of life at work.
Half the savings in laundry costs raised by encouraging guests to reuse towels go to reforestation projects. The group has planted more than 2,000 trees a day since 2009. In 2013, Accor Morocco joined forces with Pur Projet to plant 2,000 olive trees with “Femmes du Rif”, a collective in Chefchaouen, Morocco. Now it uses olive oil produced from the trees in local hotels.
Three Pullman hotels installed beehives on roofs in 2011 and produce honey that guests eat at breakfast. In Bangkok, the Siam Square Novotel produces spirulina, a micro-organism particularly rich in protein and amino acids. Almost 90% of hotels have excluded endangered seafood from their menus and 95% use ecological products.
The group has set a high standard for sustainable hospitality and has awards to applaud hotels’ performance. Four levels (bronze, silver, gold and platinum) encourage hoteliers to bring in sustainability measures.
The Blackfriars hotel has a platinum rating. All platinum and gold ratings are on the Accor website, helping guests identify hotels that have a range of external certifications, including BREEAM.
BREEAM, the world’s foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings, judged Novotel London Blackfriars “excellent” with a post-construction score of 72.17%.
A combined heating power system) is installed in the building, extracting thermal heat from the exhaust ventilation and using the energy to generate electricity and heat water.
Other initiatives include low energy lamps for permanent lighting and in bedrooms, energy-efficient refrigerators in bedrooms, energy-efficient boilers and recovered energy from ventilation. Recycling is extensive and includes electrical and electronic equipment and cooking oil.
Taps and showers are fitted with water flow regulators, toilets are water-efficient and use rainwater from the roof and guests are encouraged to reuse towels and sheets if they are staying longer than a night. The group buys ecological paper, eco-label and organic products.
Accor has introduced an e-learning course in eight languages to train its 16,000-plus employees and improve the environmental and societal performance level of other hotels in the group. Planet 21 research is free to the industry on its website.
