Sustainable Stays: 1 Hotels

Evidence of businesses shifting their practices toward sustainability can be seen all over. Restaurants are eliminating single-use plastics, large companies are integrating more environmentally conscious policies in their day-to-day, and solar panels and other technologies are saving businesses money and reducing their carbon footprint. The hospitality industry is jumping into this accelerating trend; 1 Hotels is one of the first major brands to offer their guests the opportunity for a more sustainable stay. 

Bluedot Living intern Dorje Dixey got a chance to speak with Joel Costa, director of sales and marketing at 1 Hotels San Francisco, about the many unique and innovative ways they are providing guests with all the luxuries of a high-end hotel, while offering education and tools that enable folks to make more informed and eco-friendly choices.

Dorje Dixey: What inspired 1 Hotels to create a sustainable hotel chain and what key sustainability initiatives are your hotels implementing?

Joel Costa: 1 Hotels is one of three brands under the umbrella of SH Hotels, created by Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital. He decided that, in order to continue in the hotel business, he wanted to create a brand that was cognisant of the fact that as we build, as we renovate buildings, there is a toll on the planet. He wanted to create the brand based on sustainability. With that goal in mind he created the 1 Hotel Brand, the Bacara Hotel, and the Treehouse Hotels brand. Ideally each building meets the standard of LEED Certification: a new build should reach platinum status, and any retrofitted buildings should meet gold status. My property in San Francisco was opened in June of last year and we are in our review process for LEED certification. We expect to be certified in September of this year.

DD: How does 1 Hotels ensure that all of its hotels are environmentally responsible and sustainable? What are some key challenges you face in that process?

JC: To run a hotel with complete sustainability is extremely difficult. Everything from how we operate our food and beverage services, to our zero waste implementation program. We work with companies like Foodprint Group to help design our kitchens and recycling efforts to ensure we divert as much waste out of the landfill as possible. Currently our property is averaging about 90 percent waste diversion out of our kitchen. To do things environmentally consciously is more expensive and more involved. But we know it’s the right thing to do, and through our efforts, there are a lot of great things that happen as a result. Food cost is a lot lower for this property compared to other hotel chains I’ve worked for, simply because we utilize ingredients all the way through. We can take a lemon and turn it into lemon zest, or into lemon juice for making a vinaigrette in the kitchen. We can roast the lemons and extract even more juice to create syrups for the bar, then take that spent lemon and incinerate it into an ash that we use as a garnish on another cocktail. 

DD: Do you have any sustainable partnerships with local farmers?

JC: That’s a commitment that all our hotels make — to find local vendors as much as possible. We try to be hyperlocal as much as possible, so we look to source all our ingredients in our kitchen within 100 miles if at all possible, and in some cases within 50 miles. San Francisco is amazing because we do have that accessibility. We did very quickly formulate some amazing partnerships. There is a farm we work with out of Half Moon Bay which is less than 30 miles away. That is an aquaponic farm, so we get a lot of our fresh greens from them. We also work with another farm out of Half Moon Bay called Iacopi Farms that uses zero-water planting. They plant according to the fog that we have here in the bay area. They plant in a cycle that allows them to access the moisture from the fog. Those types of partnerships help us keep things fresh, and definitely cut down on the carbon footprint of transporting goods.

DD: What are some other steps 1 Hotels has taken to mitigate environmental impact?

JC: In our common areas and for as much of our decor as possible, we look to local artists and artisans who work with elements like wood, gesso, macramé, things like that. On top of all that, we do operate as a carbon neutral company. Anyone that stays here or has a meeting or event here is guaranteed to be a part of the carbon neutral movement. We are also getting ready to release an initiative called Sustainable Gatherings. Our clients can partner with us and we can track every single item that goes into the production of their event and then give them a score based on how much waste they are diverting. A lot of companies today are very concerned with their corporate social responsibility, so that will be a great tool to help them show they did not do any harm to the planet by having their event. Of course, we don’t have any single-use plastics here; that’s all part of our DNA. 

DD: What are some unique sustainable offerings and innovations that set 1 Hotels apart?

JC: The building in San Francisco was built as a hotel back in 2005. We had to basically re-plumb the building to reduce water consumption. All the bathroom fixtures are now low-flow. The dishwashing process is low-flow, and our waste reduction program is comprehensive. We take additional measures to make sure all our recycling and composting programs are well-organized. We also have electric vehicles on the property, so we have a corporate partnership with Audi. We do house car service and we also allow our guests to reserve an electric vehicle for two hours. Look at the car you are using, it’s a luxury vehicle but it’s better for the planet. Things can be luxurious and you can have some really exquisite accommodations, but you don’t need to hurt the environment to enjoy those things. We have timers in our showers — a little five-minute hourglass to remind people what a shower for five minutes looks like to conserve water. It’s an immersive educational process that we offer people. We also do a program called One Less Thing. Travelers quite often will leave clothing in the room and expect the maid to take it home. That happens more than people understand, so we offer this placard that designates an item that’s left behind to be donated to a local charity. We have a bin where we donate to St. Anthony’s and our One Less Thing program, and we are on average donating at least one full bin of items to St. Anthony’s every month.

DD: How do you see the hospitality industry evolving in terms of sustainability?

JC: Many people in the hospitality industry are emulating our mission. I read an article about a hotel in Colorado that is being built as a carbon positive hotel that will actually generate energy. That is an incredible step forward. The pressure is on for the big companies to realize how much of an impact they have. The big names out there that have thousands of hotels and different brands, their operations really do need to be overhauled. There are a lot of these initiatives that are not yet implemented in these large chain hotels. We are all in this together — it’s not just us as one company trying to do this. Everyone has to work toward this larger goal.