SustainabilityOnline’s Stephen Wynne-Jones examines how Ireland‘s hotels are turning to energy efficiency to drive both environmental and cost savings. This is an abridged version of an article that first appeared in Hospitality Ireland.
While embracing sustainability is becoming an imperative for Ireland’s hotels, ensuring that such investments also make strong business sense is essential. This is particularly the case when it comes to energy efficiency, with much of a typical hotel’s infrastructure – kitchens, laundry, guest rooms, etc – significant users of energy.
First steps
Raquel Noboa has headed up Fifty Shades Greener, an environmental education consultancy that challenges Ireland’s hospitality industry to rethink what sustainability really means, since 2017.
A firm believer that sustainability doesn’t have to come with a hefty price tag, she argues that simple shifts in energy habits can yield major savings – a discovery she made during her previous role as Hotel Doolin’s ‘green manager’, at the time a relatively unheard-of role.
“For me, unless you measure something, you can’t manage it, so when I started the role, in 2013, I said ‘okay, what are the key things that I can measure here?’,” she says. “So I started measuring every month: how much energy we were using per square metre, per customer, per room, how much water we were using, and how much waste we were producing.”
By tracking these consumption levels, she identified inefficiencies caused by habitual staff behaviours, such as switching on kitchen equipment unnecessarily.
“The ‘eureka’ moment for me was when I realised the most important factor when it comes to energy usage isn’t the lighting, or the equipment – it’s us, the people working in the hotel, that make the daily decisions as to when to use this energy,” she says. “The oven doesn’t switch itself on by default — someone has to switch it on.”
By introducing small behavioural changes and monetary incentives – “I said to the chefs, if we keep this oven turned off until 10am every day, and we save this amount in electricity, I’m going to take you all on a night out,” Noboa says – the hotel achieved a reduction of 30% in energy usage, as well as 40% in waste and 25% in water within 18 months, without major investments.
This experience led to the establishment of Fifty Shades Greener, through which she has engaged with hotels across Ireland on how energy efficiency can be better embedded in to day-to-day operations.
“Some businesses might decide to start straight away with solar panels and the heat pumps, without even knowing what kind of systems they need,” she says. “Would you not inform yourself – or learn a little bit about energy management – before you go spending 50 grand, 60 grand, 70 grand?”
Before investing in infrastructure, she adds, businesses should seek to implement operational and behavioural changes within their teams, forming a practical foundation that can dictate future efforts – without impinging on the guest experience.
“It’s not about providing a lesser service, it’s about becoming as efficient as you can be with your energy use,” she says. “With a lot of kitchens, for example, they might keep lots of equipment running late into the night, in case any orders come in. But at the same time, they might have another, smaller machine, that can fulfil these orders.
“It’s about making smart decisions based on the available data. I’ve never said to any hotel, ‘you should tell your guests that they can’t have any food after 9pm’. It’s about becoming as efficient as you can with what you have and with the service that you want to provide.”
Raising the bar
One location that has sought to raise the bar when it comes to energy efficiency is Dublin’s The Iveagh Garden Hotel (pictured), opened in 2018, where the owners, the McGill family, have implemented extensive measures to reduce its energy footprint.
Located in a listed Georgian building on Harcourt Street – which used to house a bank – a series of upgrades have been made to future-proof the business, taking it from an E3- to an A3-rated building in the process.
“Our owners – Brian and Sally McGill – retrofitted the entire building, re-insulating the front, and removing the existing plumbing and heating system that ran on fossil fuel,” says James Hayde, the hotel’s director of sales. “This was removed to make way for a new system that uses natural energy harvested on site, which is powered by an underground river that runs underneath the hotel.”
Other initiatives at the hotel include recycling kitchen extractor fan energy into its cooling systems, installing low-power LED and smart-controlled lighting, solar panels on the roof, the use of energy-efficient elevators, and a comprehensive monitoring system to optimise and reduce energy consumption.
As Hayde explains, while The Iveagh Garden Hotel has earned plenty of plaudits over the years for its sustainability efforts, the work is never done when it comes to energy efficiency.
“It’s an ongoing process,” he says. “It’s not a box ticking exercise. It’s not a case that you can go ‘we’ve got a certification’, or ‘check out this new innovation’, and then move on and forget about it. We’re constantly looking to improve the services we offer, improve the hotel, and improve our sustainability journey as well.
“We’re constantly looking at what’s coming down the line, how we can implement that into the hotel, and keep at the forefront. We were Europe’s first fully sustainable hotel when we opened in 2018 – that’s all well and good, but we need to continue on that sustainability journey. It’s all very well being something 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, but if you’re not at the same standard now, then it’s pointless.”
Sustainability first
Two years ago, the Armada Hotel at Spanish Point in Co. Clare was awarded B Corp certification, which acknowledges excellence across five categories, including governance, workers, community, the environment, and customers, making it the first hotel in Ireland to earn this accolade.
The hotel, owned by mountaineer John Burke, has a longstanding commitment to sustainability, an approach that appears to be good for business – profits at Armada Hotel Holdings Ltd were up an impressive 18% in 2023, while revenues rose by 13%. As Burke told the Irish Independent, much of that growth in profitability was driven by its investment in energy efficiency, including in a 155kW solar photovoltaic system that is now delivering over €35,000 in annual savings.
“We allocate capex every year to bring key projects to life,” says Bernard Cahill, head of impact and brand at the hotel. “This year, we’re going to be looking at heat pumps, and air-to-water systems.”
At the Armada Hotel, all investment decisions need to balance sustainability, guest experience, and financial realities.
“Communication is a big part of that,” says Cahill, noting that the check-in process offers an opportunity for the hotel to engage guests and offset any potential negative experiences. “We explain to people that we’re doing our best to become a sustainable hotel, and for that reason we don’t have bottled water in the rooms – but there’s a water filter station in the corridor where you can fill up a carafe, and we show them how to do that. Also, our rooms are single-use plastic free, so you can’t get milk in plastic containers; if you want fresh milk, we can send it up to your room.
“How you tell that story is the dealbreaker in how the guest perceives it — as an inconvenience or as a positive, impactful step toward becoming a sustainable hotel.”
As with The Iveagh Garden Hotel, staff engagement has become central to driving sustainability, particularly when it comes to achieving energy and waste reduction. The Armada Hotel has used its Alkimii workforce management system as a communication tool, enabling personnel to share updates on sustainability targets, or inefficiencies, ensuring they feel part of the hotel’s progress.
“With anything to do with sustainability, we’ve never had resistance to getting our people on board with it,” says Cahill. “It doesn’t feel like a burden to them, and they’re very good at giving feedback if they feel we could be doing more in certain areas.”
Cahill acknowledges that improving energy efficiency is likely to differ from hotel to hotel, however embarking on projects that address employee well-being, guest experience and energy costs simultaneously, can prove a winning formula.
“Trying to find that balance, where a hotel feels fresh, modern, and exciting, and also has energy-saving benefits – that’s the sweet spot,” he says.
Read the full article at https://www.hospitalityireland.com/features/stephen-wynne-jones-examines-how-irelands-hotels-are-turning-to-energy-efficiency-213009
