Carbon villains? Climate change responses among accommodation providers in historic premises

Abstract

Building stock is a major anthropogenic source of emissions contributing to global warming. Older buildings are conventionally portrayed as performing worse environmentally than more recent buildings. For a sector like tourism, which relies heavily on historic building stock, this raises questions about its ability to contribute to emission reductions moving forward. This paper explores the relationship between the age and environmental performance of historic premises for small accommodation businesses in South West England, first by correlation analysis and then three extensive case studies. It argues that the failure to integrate heritage buildings in tourism scholarship on climate change is a major lacuna. Empirically, no statistically significant relationship is found between environmental performance and the date when the original premises were first built. Far from being carbon villains, several accommodation providers in older premises perform very well against environmental benchmarking schemes. Three types of heritage accommodation providers are identified on the basis of their perceived and actual levels of environmental performance. This paper concludes that heritage building stock of itself is no impediment to action on climate change. Guidance to tourism businesses in such properties should make them aware of this, and provide tailored advice to help them realise potential opportunities.

Keywords:

• Climate change
• heritage
• tourism
• accommodation
• lodging
• energy

Notes on contributors

Tim Coles is a professor in the Management Department at the University of Exeter Business School. His research interests on sustainable business practices in travel and tourism organisations, most recently with a focus on innovation and smart solutions.

Claire Dinan is a senior teaching fellow at the University of Exeter Business School. She was previously a sustainable tourism manager for the English Tourism Council and freelance consultant in sustainable tourism business practices. Her interests are in sustainable tourism policy, indicators and measurement.

Neil Warren is Business Engagement Specialist for the Centre for Business and Climate Solutions based in the Business School at the University of Exeter. He was previously Sustainability Strategist for South West Tourism, the former regional tourist board, and a freelance consultant.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Economic and Social Research Council for funding Stage One of this programme (RES-185-31-0046). The European Regional Development Fund supported the detailed research conducted with individual businesses which forms the basis for Stage Two.