Urbn Hotels – Shanghai, China
Ever walked into a hotel lobby or room and immediately need to put on another layer of clothing because the room is only a few degrees above freezing? Kind of defeats the purpose of those little notes in the bathroom about caring for the environment and reuse the towels if possible. URBN Hotels and resorts takes a different approach to the concept of an environmentally friendly hotel. They have a boutique hotel in Shanghai, not known for having the freshest air quality in the world. If you like modern architecture then you will like the interiors.
A few things they do to reduce thier impact is to partner with Emissions Zero (www.emissionszero.com) to offset all the carbon emissions from operating the hotel, their employees commuting to work and food and beverage delivery. Guests can also opt to offset their emissions from flights if they choose. URBN Hotel is China’s first carbon neutral hotel. they also provide six square metres of green space per hotel guest, have solar shading and energy efficient heating and cooling.
Another thing that makes them different is when building the hotel the renovated the existing structure rather than tear it down and start from scratch. Reclaimed Shanghai hardwoods and old Shanghai bricks were also utilised. This was inline with the idea to source locally made materials and thus reduce the need for transport and the associated emissions. Of course there is also low energy lighting, low VOC paints and double pane windows to aid with insulation.
See more at URBN Hotels.
Europcar Greenfleet
Europcar Australia are a nation-wide car rental company. They have partnered with Greenfleet to offset the cardon emissions from their rental fleet. For each car Greenfleet plants 17 native trees and based on the average emissions this is enough to absorb the greenhouse gases a car produces in a year.
They began the program in December 2006 with the purchase of 836 new Subaru vehicles and the subsequent planting of about 14000 native trees. During the course of 2007 they bought in the remainder of their 6000 strong fleet.
Customers can also help by donating $2 each time they rent a car to help offset the emissions and help maintain a carbon neutral fleet.
To find out more about Europcar’s Greenfleet program visit the Europcar website.
