The Pirelli Brutalist Building has been voted the ugliest building in Connecticut. Now, the massive mid-rise of 1970 has gained a new supremacy: the most energy-efficient hotel in the United States.
The Marcel Hotel – named after famed modernist architect Marcel Breuer – opened in New Haven in May as an all-electric hotel that generates its own power through a rooftop solar array and solar parking canopies. They contain lithium-ion batteries that store energy created during the day for use at night.
The 165-room hotel has already passed passive building certification, meaning it uses 80 percent less energy than any typical American hotel. The Green Building Council gave Marcel its highest efficiency rating, LEED Platinum, making it one of about ten hotels in the United States with that rating.
If the Marcel Hotel is as energy efficient as its developers claim, the property will be the country’s first “net zero” hotel. While net zero can be achieved in various ways, it broadly means that the building produces enough renewable energy to meet its annual energy consumption requirements.
Unlike luxury off-grid hotels or luxury resorts, net-zero hotels can exist at lower price points and in cities, which have stricter building codes that do not allow for off-grid structures. Network connectivity means these hotels can add renewable energy to the communities around them.
Installing solar panels and batteries costs more than conventional construction. But the travel industry’s growing focus on the climate means that more zero-rated hotels are to come.
“Hotels are nearly the worst in terms of energy efficiency compared to other buildings,” says Bruce Becker, the engineer and developer behind Marcel. “But you don’t have to use fossil fuels to have a successful hotel.”
How hotels contribute to climate change
Hotels account for about one percent of global emissions, according to The United Nations World Tourism Organization, a number that is expected to increase as more people join the middle class and have income available to travel. To limit global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius agreed in the Paris climate accords, the hospitality industry must cut emissions by 66 percent by 2030, according to a research paper from the International Tourism Partnership.
Hotels use more energy than offices, retail, multifamily housing and industrial manufacturing, according to the Urban Land Institute report. But hotels have different challenges than other properties.
Many are non-recurring buildings, which means that emissions reduction plans must be tailored to a unique location. The hospitality industry Complex ownership models often mean that no single party is responsible for thinking about sustainable practices. During a retrofit or renovation, concerns about disrupting the guest experience often outweigh the task of saving energy.
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Net-Zero Buildings can help the hospitality industry bypass “greenwashing” efforts or small ideas (refillable shampoo dispensers, use of bath towels for more than one day) that aren’t enough to seriously reduce emissions.
The increasing focus on combating climate change in other parts of life is affecting the hospitality industry. “It’s been pushed a lot more than that,” says Claire Whiteley of the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance. “There are expectations from hotel guests and corporate clients.”
Some hotel brands have set zero net goals at the company level, including Hilton, Marriott, and Accor. The Sustainable Hospitality Alliance has released a guide on how owners can reduce emissions when developing properties, undergoing large-scale renovations or purchasing buildings.
The renewals, which usually happen every decade, will be an opportunity for nearly all hotels to reconsider their carbon emissions. “These moments are opportunities to think about technologies you can install,” Whitely says.
The pandemic and supply chain shortages have slowed hotel construction and renovation. But Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality market analytics at CoStar, a commercial real estate firm, says developers are more interested than ever in zero-rated hotels. The war in Ukraine — which drains supplies of fossil fuels and calls into question the subsidies of oil-rich regimes — has added a new urgency to decarbonization.
“We knew we had to do it,” Freitag says. “Now it is imperative.”
Hotel greening
At Marcel, Becker and his team focused on energy production and reducing the energy needed to run the hotel. Its brutal style helped: with a lot of concrete windows and smaller than usual, the structure better prevents heat and cold air from escaping from, say, a tall building with glass walls.
The renovation included triple glazed windows to help maintain temperatures and energy-efficient appliances for the restaurant’s kitchen and on-site laundry. All lighting operates via a system called Power over Ethernet (POE), which provides low voltage power.
It will take a year to measure the building’s energy production and use before Hotel Marcel can confirm that it is completely zero-zero. Unlike some certifications that allow hotels to self-certify their efforts, the net zero verification comes from the New Building Institute, which will take twelve months of readings from the solar panels and then ensure that the energy generated either matches or exceeds Marcel’s energy bills.
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“There’s a green wash in the industry,” Baker says. “This method lends itself to rigor in the construction process. There are thousands of things you can do to give your building a better environmental profile, but with these certifications, you have to be objective and can’t overlook anything important.”
All this careful planning has made construction costs higher than those of traditional hotels, but Baker says energy savings will pay for these additional costs within a few years.
The search for more sustainable sleep
There is no definite statistic for the number of hotels that have no hotels yet. But travelers are looking for more eco-friendly hotel options. According to a 2021 report by Booking.com, 81 percent of travelers surveyed said they would like to stay in sustainable lodging in the next year; 49 percent say they don’t think there are enough options.
But there are some greener properties, with more to come. Vienna, Austria’s Stadthalle hotel, was renovated to be net-zero in 2009. Its owner, Michaela Ritterer, says the timing was tough — she first went to Lehman Brothers for a loan, which he told her shortly before it dissolved during the financial crisis. I eventually found a woman banker who understood her vision and got the money to add the solar panels and heat pumps that power the hotel.
Many net-zero properties exceed fossil-fuel-free energy in their attempts to be sustainable. “It’s not enough to have a green building,” Ritterer says. At Stadthalle, you serve organic food in the restaurant; shipping breakfast coffee beans by sailboat; It sells snacks and drinks in the lobby instead of the in-room minibar, which is hidden energy hogs.
The stunning curved Sevart building will appear in Holandsfjorden Fjord and will be built from structural steel and concrete, which require less energy to produce than other building materials. His kitchen will keep food waste away through the on-site organic gardens and fish farm.
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Although the property’s sustainability has been taken into account, it will still be accompanied by benefits such as spa treatments and winter views of the northern lights. “You can still enjoy luxury and travel without feeling guilty,” says Ivailo Liftrov, director of hotel development.
Some hospitality companies are working to protect buildings from potential climate change. This includes bringing hotels back away from beaches or river banks. Although guests love the oceanfront property, it may be increasingly risky in the future, according to Freitag.
“We want to have less of an impact on nature,” he says. “But nature also has an effect on us.”
