room2 Chiswick : Net Zero Hometel

Mark Bibby Jackson chats with Melisa Gooding, sustainability specialist at Climate Friendly Travel Registry (CFTR) member Lamington Group which owns the net zero room2 Chiswick Hometel in London.

Robert and Stuart Godwin are clearly ground breakers. Not content with introducing a new  UK hotel concept, the former members of the British Olympic Development Sailing team have raised the bar in terms of climate zero accommodation.

Hometel from Home

Their Lamington Group introduced the hometel brand to the UK in 2o15. Now they have three properties, one in Southampton and two in London. But what is a hometel?

“A Hometel perfectly balances the service and standards of a hotel with the psychological needs people have from space to make them feel comfortable and balanced when they are away from home,” explains Melisa Gooding, sustainability specialist at the Lamington Group.

With innovative features such as 24-hour stays as standard & mattress selection, room2’s highly flexible offer provides kitchens in most rooms and is available for stays from one night to one year.

Net Zero Hometel

Not content with breaking the hotel mode, they are going about transforming the sector. With their room2 Chiswick, which opened in December 2021, the group has launched what they claim is the “world’s first fully whole life net zero hotel”.

Where possible room2 Chiswick’s carbon emissions will be reduced with residual emissions offset throughout the entire Hometel’s life cycle.

“The Hometel goes further than being carbon neutral and is whole life net zero, following the UKGBC’s net zero carbon building framework,” explains Melisa. “Whole life net zero is broken down into two parts. Embodied carbon, which is all the emissions associated with bringing the project to life … and also any refurbishments throughout the building’s lifecycle, and operational carbon which, as the name suggests, refers to all the carbon emissions associated with all the energy sources used to keep the buildings warm, cool, ventilated, lighted and powered.”

Reduce and Offset

The first step was to measure the upfront embodied carbon, which totalled 2,448 tonnes of co2e emissions. This has been offset through a bamboo afforestation project in Nicaragua, through Climate Partner.

The project called Eco Planet, grows giant clumping bamboo to absorb carbon from the atmosphere to be a permanent carbon sink. Robert Godwin visited the offsetting partner to get a deeper understanding of how the project actually absorbs carbon. “We chose this project as it is a nature based carbon removal and aligns with best practice for net zero buildings from the UKGBC framework,” explains Melissa.

Any future embodied carbon from refurbishments or upgrades will also be measured, reduced and offset. Operational carbon will be measured and offset annually and areas to reduce will be identified and acted on.

“It’s really important to say we are on a journey and learning along the way, what we take from room2 Chiswick will be taken forward into future room2 sites,” she adds. “For example, we didn’t hit our target for embodied carbon at Chiswick the building was calculated at 765kg/co2e per m2 and our target was 500kg/co2e per m2 so our focus in new developments is to bring down upfront embodied carbon to this target.”

Life Net Zero Standard

The Lamington Group has committed to the whole life net zero standard for all new properties; those subsequent to their net zero roadmap in September 2021. “Putting sustainability at the core and making Hometels whole life net zero carbon is hugely important,” Melissa says. “We believe we should have full accountability for carbon emissions. The embodied carbon is so often forgotten and we want to change that.”

The inspiration for their journey to whole life net zero came from a perceived lack of innovation within the industry. “Beyond the obvious changes such as limiting towel changes and removing the small plastic toiletry bottles, no one was tackling the single biggest driving force of climate change - carbon emissions.

“With room2 Chiswick, we have set out to be the change we want to see in the industry and we aim to encourage behaviour change to help meet national net zero targets. Our goal is to boost public awareness in how we can all cut energy use.”

Net Zero Measures

Melissa admits to being “extremely creative”. Using solar energy & ground source heat pumps to make buildings 89% more energy efficient than a typical hotel: only heating hot water to 45 degrees Celsius, ultra-energy efficient lighting & occupancy sensors.

The initiatives go further than energy reduction. “There is a blue roof, which can hold up to 50,000 litres of rainwater to reduce localised flooding and a green roof to increase biodiversity and absorb CO2,” says Melissa. They also have around 75,000 bees on the roof, using honey in the bar and café and for guests to purchase.

Room2 Chiswick also works closely with the local community; 100% of the bespoke loose furniture items are made within 10 miles of the hotel. “We prioritised products that aligned with our mission such as those that use renewable energy in their factories and embrace a circular economy,” she says. “We sourced rugs from recycled fishing nets, terracotta tiles reclaimed from decaying buildings, and protected 4,462 trees from the furniture purchases.”

Joining the CFTR & Our recent Podcasts

The Lamington Group recently joined the Climate Friendly Travel Registry (CFTR). “We joined the CFTR as it aligns with our ambitions to reduce carbon emissions specifically from the hospitality sector,” says Melissa. “It also gives us a connection to the UN and access to resources that will be useful to combine with our current efforts.” Melissa hopes this will allow the group to connect with other like minded organisations. “We will collaborate with others to share & learn best practice to ultimately decarbonise, within a holistic approach to our sustainability efforts,” she says. “We can offer practical advice on setting out on this journey, especially in net zero strategy and getting teams engaged in sustainability. I run an award winning engagement campaign called Team Planet. The aim of the campaign is to empower individuals to take action and ownership of sustainability targets.”

We recently welcomed Melissa to the Climate Friendly Travel Podcast, with Ged Brown, where they spoke about the philosophy behind Room2, what the quick wins were, what’s next on their journey and about climate change anxiety – something which is increasingly affecting us all.  

You can listen to this fascinating episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and we encourage you to subscribe to the podcast to hear more insights from leaders in sustainability around the world.

_______________________

About SUNx Malta - Strong Universal Network

SUNx Malta is a legacy for the late Maurice Strong, father of sustainable development. Its goal is to advance Climate Friendly Travel (CFT) ~ low carbon: SDG linked: Paris 1.5.

SUN^x has a core partnership with Malta’s Ministry of Tourism & Consumer Protection and Malta Tourism Authority to advance CFT, to create a UNFCCC-linked CFT Registry, and to promote CFT Education. It plans to put in place 100,000 Strong Climate Champions by 2030 across all UN states.