Assessing carbon footprint in the life cycle of accommodation services: the case of an international tourist hotel

Abstract

The accommodation sector is the most demanding energy consumer among all building stock categories. This study quantifies an international tourist hotel in Taiwan to holistically estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of hotel accommodation services through a complete life cycle inventory. The study also investigates the difference between the carbon emissions of the baseline and reduction years to understand the effects of carbon emission reduction on the hotel industry. Results show that energy consumption is the main source of carbon footprint. However, the carbon emissions of other activities, such as the production and transportation of hotel amenities and laundry services, are 15.90% for the baseline year and 16.03% for the reduction year. These values are larger than the 5% cutoff rule according to PAS 2050. Thus, these factors should also be considered in assessing the carbon emissions of accommodation services. Hotel occupancy rate significantly affects carbon emissions during a one-night stay in a standard room as the functional unit. The selection of the functional unit should be considered in the hotel strategy. Although this case study involves an international tourist hotel in Taiwan, the findings and recommendations for improvements can be applied elsewhere.

Keywords:

• carbon footprint assessment
• life cycle inventory
• accommodation service
• PAS 2050
• travel and tourism

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Environmental Protection Administration of Taiwan under grant numbers EPA-101-FA101-02-A056 and EPA-102-FA11-03-A236.