Our Low-Carbon Pledge

Our Super Low-Carbon Pledge

We know that a company’s dedication to an improved sustainable development is a key factor in decision making for more than half of consumers*. This means that more and more companies are determined to become more sustainable. Sustainability can be measured in so many different ways and we want our main focus to be carbon emissions. Many companies, within the hotel industry and beyond, are going "carbon-neutral" by investing money to offset their carbon emissions output, thereby storing it on earth instead of releasing it to the atmosphere. easyHotel is a little bit different. We want to reduce our carbon output. That's right... we don't think offsetting our carbon is enough. Instead, we want to minimise the amount of carbon we emit all together. In fact, here at easyHotel, we are aiming to become the leader in low-cost, low-carbon hotels throughout Europe and the UK.

We are dedicated to offering you an affordable, accessible and sustainable option in all the best European cities. 

We're already low carbon!

Unlike most hotels, which focus on providing their clients with a luxury service, our objective has always been to strip back to basics and provide our customers with high-quality basics that really matter, focusing on a minimalist hotel model. Obviously, minimal, limited-service hotel models are innately low-carbon when compared to full-service hotels. Let's dive a little deeper...

Central locations

• Since we’re in the heart of the city, there is no need for us to have the superfluous additions of a gym, conference room, kitchen or bar etc. This means that we don’t waste energy powering machines that aren’t being used most of the time!
• We also don’t waste precious resources by building another restaurant in central areas full of great eateries. We encourage customers to get out of the hotel, explore and discover the city and inject money into local businesses, improving the local economy and improving local employment. Nothing beats getting engaged in the culture of the local community, trying local foods and visiting the best local bars.

Food waste

• Because most of our hotels don't have restaurants, to the obscene amount of global food waste, of which the hotel sector accounts for about 12%**. 
• Where we provide breakfast (our European estate), we offer delicious continental options, which means no need for ovens or stoves!

Public transport

• We base our hotel locations on the biggest or most exciting cities across Europe and the UK and we are always in the heart of city centres or bustling urban neighbourhoods. These locations usually have strong transport hubs.
• This encourages our customers to explore by foot or use one of the modes of public transport that is on offer (such as metros, trains buses or trams etc) instead of travelling by taxi or hiring cars.
• Our customers are able to take advantage of eco-responsible and more economical modes of transport to get around city centres and to reach tourist attractions.

Operations

• The cleaning of easyHotel rooms happens every 4 days rather than every day, to reduce unnecessary washing of towels, which wastes water.
• We use a UK cleaning supplier with eco-labelled cleaning products.
• We have recyclable and recycled toiletry dispensers.

Construction 

• We use recyclable and sustainable materials throughout our newer properties, and we optimise our space and maximise our surface area in order to use less building materials like concrete, the production of which emits lots of CO2.

But with our ambitious goal of becoming the leader in low-cost, low-carbon hotels throughout Europe and the UK, there's more work to be done...

How are we going to achieve our goal?

As we said above, most companies look to offsetting their carbon output instead of reducing their carbon output. This is because carbon-offsetting relies on paying money to offset carbon-driving activity, meaning that there is no actual reduction in the carbon consumption at the outset.

Instead, we plan to take direct actions to not only reduce carbon emissions, but also reduce our energy usage.

Construction

A large proportion of emissions linked to the hotel industry come from construction***, so the way in which we construct our hotels is now designed to minimise our output of CO2 emissions. In addition, we're planning the renovation of our older properties.

• The layout of each of new hotel has been optimised to make the most of the surface area, meaning that we have been able to mechanically reduce our carbon footprint and minimise our emissions.
• We have developed a new concept for our hotel room, which focus on being sustainable and minimal, meaning we use fewer raw materials while providing the ultimate level of comfort at an affordable price.
• We have used materials and energy efficiently, in order to avoid wasting resources (such as concrete) during site construction period, in turn reducing our carbon footprint.
• We are installing energy efficient technologies to generate renewable energy at selected hotels.
• We are investing in Green CAPEX for the renovation of selected properties (such as Croydon, Nice and Glasgow) as well as new properties.
• We are implementing measures to follow the decarbonisation trajectory of CREEM on our existing portfolio in England. This includes studies on solar panels as well as advanced monitoring to note what consumes the most gas, water etc.
• Our new hotel room concept uses fewer raw materials and low-carbon materials, while providing the ultimate level of comfort at affordable prices.
• Our new bedroom flooring is Cradle to Cradle Certified, meaning that it is both a recycled materials and it is easily recycled, and is manufactured using renewable energy
• We've used timber for the bed frames, skirtings, door frames etc., which is sustainably sourced. Timber is an inherently a low carbon material
• Our tartan wallpaper achieves a VinylPlus label, which is only given to PVC products that use recycled raw materials, are easily recyclable, promote innovation in recycling and reduce carbon output during manufacturing
• The stools in the rooms are manufactured from 100% recycled household and industrial plastic waste

Operations

We are in currently analysing the energy and plastic use when hotels are in operation throughout our entire owned estate, to further identify areas in which we can cut emissions and reduce our plastic usage.

• We are prioritising an energy control project, which will involve an audit of our maintenance work, and equipment to see the areas in which we can improve.
• Key cards are commonly lost or retained by guests, and so are a key item that needs to be re-stocked frequently. This means we could go through a lot of plastic unnecessarily. We are switching from plastic key cards to wooden key cards in our properties to limit our plastic use.
• We have set up water fountains in the receptions of our properties so that guests can re-fill their own re-usable water bottles or purchase affordable re-usable aluminium bottles from reception. There will be no plastic cups on offer in the rooms or at reception. Moving forward, we will also not sell or stock plastic water bottles in our vending machines.

With low-carbon hotel construction, the use of recyclable and sustainable materials throughout our hotels, the reduction in our plastic and energy usage and central locations which are well connected; our low-carbon pledge is at the heart of everything we do.

This information is accurate for all of our owned estate. Please see section 14 on our T&Cs for a list of franchise properties.

*58% of consumers are thinking more about sustainability since the pandemic started (Accenture, 2021)

** "Leave footprints in the sand, but not on the environment, on your next holiday", The Times, 25 April 2022

*** "Activity Report 2021: Designing Solutions for a Positive Life", Artelia, June 2021