To reduce a hotel’s energy costs, it’s vital to cut wasteful energy usage wherever possible, and sometimes that requires rethinking the ways a hotel operates.
This is especially true for operators under third-party management contracts, as updating a building’s HVAC system is often not an option due to cost constraints. To meet this challenge, Scandic Hotels, Stockholm, has tweaked its hotels’ kitchen operations as well as other energy consumption practices. To find out more, HOTELS spoke with Inger Mattsson, director of sustainable business for Scandic Hotels.
Editor’s note: More on how hotels are improving energy management ROI will be in the technology section of the May issue of HOTELS Magazine.
HOTELS: What is Scandic’s system for evaluating a hotel’s energy management?
Inger Mattsson: We discuss with our property owners how to make the buildings efficient to run and pleasant for the guests. Each time a new contract is signed the question is on the table.
Scandic’s environmental reporting system has been in place since 1996 and requires each hotel to tabulate electricity, heating, cooling, water and waste usage based on guestnights for a monthly report. This helps us to keep control and we keep track of the hotels with highest energy consumption so we know what hotels to focus on.
HOTELS: What has Scandic found to be the most effective energy management practices based on ROI?
Mattsson: We are replacing old stoves and ovens, especially those on gas and LPG, with induction. Induction gives the same benefits as gas , its quick, at the same time its very energy efficient, it gives a safer working evironment avoiding the explosive gas, and it does not heat the room as much as the old techinque meaning you can save energy on less ventilation.
Refrigerators with glass doors mean you can decide what to take from the fridge before opening the door — this saves energy.
We have also started to collect organic waste to send it to biogas production. This gives us lower waste taxes at the same time.
HOTELS: Which energy-saving practices for water have the biggest ROI?
Mattsson: Controlling water flows in toilets, sinks and showers helps. Scandic’s standard is today 9 liters (2.3 gallons) per minute in showers, 6 liters (1.5 gallons) per minute in sinks and 6 liters per minute in toilets.
For dishwashing, we are shifting dishwashers to those recycling water, and the last rinse water is being reused for pre-rinse. We use automatic dosing systems for washing machines, cleaning chemicals and dishwashers. With optimized chemical usage we gain the cleanest result avoiding a second wash.
HOTELS: What about with electricity?
Mattsson: We have found that a hotel with 7,000 lights saves 1.3 million kilowatt hours by changing 60-watt lightbulbs to LED. Our hotels are currently on approximately 80% low energy or LED.