Beyond Copenhagen: Can this new hotel be ‘World’s Greenest’?

When a hotel plays host to delegates for one of the biggest environmental summits in history, it has to live up to some pretty lofty expectations. While it may not be the world’s prettiest hotel, owner InterContinental says that the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers could possibly be the greenest.

The 366-room hotel does in fact house the largest solar panel building installation in all of Northern Europe, with every bit of it 85 meter-tall sunny façade and roof covered in panels. This impressive system is estimated to generate about 170,000 kw/h worth of power on a yearly basis.

While that may not be enough to make the hotel self-sufficient, it will undoubtedly help it on the way; the average European household consumes around 5,000 kWh per year.

The hotel also uses the first groundwater-based heating and cooling system. By drawing water from 100 meters underground, the system effectively uses the earth as a heat source in winter and heat reducer in summer. It is expected to reduce the energy needed to heat or cool the hotel by around 90 percent.

According to the hotel’s management, low energy lighting, computer equipment and kitchen equipment has also been installed to save energy.

“Future hotel guests will require hotels to run their businesses and operations based on environmentally friendly principles, without compromising on modern comforts and luxury,” said Mr. Allan L. Agerholm, the general manager. “We have therefore made the decision to build the most environmentally friendly Hotel building in Denmark- even the hand dryers in the public toilets have been selected based on their energy consumption.”

The hotel meets EU Regulations for an EU Green Building, meaning that its emissions are a maximum 5.7kg per guest per night, compared to 8.4 kg per guest per night. In actual fact, when using renewable energy sources, the action CO2 emissions are 0 kg per guest.

Hot competition

The competition to be green is hotting up in the accommodation industry.

In October 2008, the Proximity Hotel in North Carolina became the first hotel to achieve the US Government’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum green building standard, similar to the EU’s own program.

Since then, the hotel has regularly been voted the world’s greenest hotel – featuring 100 solar panels on the roof to heat approximately 60 percent of the hotel’s hot water, and a geothermal cooling system for the restaurants refrigeration equipment.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts, a worldwide leader in travel lodging, is successfully building its Element brand – a line of green, sustainable, boutique-like properties worldwide.

These properties, and others like them, will hopefully serve as a proper model for future design as well as the restoration of older, established lodgings.