What does sustainability mean to Archer?
Sustainability, and its related acronyms such as ESG, have become the stuff of corporate speak with large companies competing to ‘out-green’ each other via clichés, box ticking and endless lists of initiatives designed to save the planet.
At Archer, we don’t pretend to have all the answers to a complicated problem. Hospitality has natural conflicts with elements of the sustainability agenda with its reliance on air travel and the 24-hour nature of the business. And our ultimate goal is to deliver returns for our shareholders.
However, sustainability considerations are fundamental to everything we do at Archer. Every commercial decision is made in the context of sustainability. Two members of our 33-person team are dedicated full-time to this topic. They share their knowledge with the hotels and train onsite champions to drive our agenda forward. We have spent considerable time trying to understand every aspect of our assets – a 2-year project – and set challenging, bespoke targets for each property based on the opportunities identified.
Much of this work is unglamorous and laborious – conducting endless audits, reviewing shower heads and water pressures to balance guest experience with water savings, ‘sustainability-engineering’ prototype rooms renovations to reduce embodied carbon, studying our supply chain to ensure it is as local and ethical as possible, persuading the hotels not to over-heat or over-cool empty rooms, and number crunching to meet the ever growing list of reporting regulations to name just a few. As well as training, training, training.
However, our resources are finite so we have identified the areas of focus where Archer can have the most positive impact. Carbon, Circularity and Community.
A 4th ‘C’ could have been Certification. But at Archer we felt this sent the wrong message. We are focused on improving all our BREEAM, LEED, Green Key and WELL certifications but that is a by-product of what we do in this area, it’s not our raison d’être
We also produce an annual sustainability report. A huge amount of work goes into it, and we would love it if you took time to take a look. We would also welcome any feedback, questions or suggestions.
Carbon
Our hotels provide heating, cooling, fresh air, hot water and cooked food to our guests, 24/7. The best way we can reduce this impact is by making our hotels more energy efficient by investing in new technology and maximising sustainable initiatives during renovations. We also have plans to transition our hotels from using fossil fuels to renewable energy. We believe that carbon offsets should only be used as a last resort. We are committed to reducing our 2019 operational carbon emissions by 80% by 2030.
Embodied carbon is the carbon emitted from the extraction, manufacture, delivery and installation of materials. 40% of global annual carbon emissions come from buildings, 13% from embodied carbon. Yet this is little mentioned in hospitality, especially for renovations. Archer is taking action by calculating it and sharing lessons learnt. We have completed five assessments so far.
Example carbon reduction projects:
- Building using cross-laminated timber at Renaissance Amsterdam, reducing embodied carbon.
- Installation of air source heat pumps and an aquifer thermal energy storage well at Renaissance
- Amsterdam and Hilton Schiphol.
- Installing solar panels
Circularity
We want to use our power to procure and use resources responsibly, championing local, natural and renewable materials.
The largest sources of waste in hotel operations come from food and packaging. We are addressing this through procurement changes, training people and making it easier for guests to recycle.
For our renovations and developments, we want to foster a culture of circularity in the luxury design space. We’re still early in our journey, seeing where we can retain old elements in new designs, then prioritising donation to charities, and resale or donation to other hotels. The supply chain is complex. As a start, all our purchases are screened against our sustainability criteria and we are quantifying the proportion of materials which are sustainably certified or come from small family businesses with great sustainability ethos’.
Example projects:
- Donation or resale for reuse of 99% of old furniture and fittings from the Palace Madrid renovation, also underway at the Sheraton Stockholm.
- Partnership with Migrano de Arena at the Hotel Arts Barcelona, to reuse furniture and support people in employment.
- Use of food waste measurement technology at The Shelbourne, a 25% reduction in food waste has been achieved over a year.
Community
We believe that our hotels are more than places to stay or work—they are integral parts of the communities they serve, inviting and welcoming to all our neighbours, residents and businesses alike.
Our charitable partnerships focus on fostering social inclusion, action against poverty, and upskilling for employment. For example, in 2024 Archer donated €130,701 in cash and an additional €598,103 in-kind through gifts, meals and rooms and our people volunteered 9,601 hours of their time.
We nurture our people through wellbeing and training programmes, feedback forums and encouraging innovative ideas.
We look to work with local suppliers whose products enrich the guest experience. We promote local experiences for guests and engage them on sustainability through celebrations such as Earth Day and PRIDE.
Example projects:
- Conrad Dublin’s Barista Academy, a five-week training program for adults with Down Syndrome.
- Sheraton Stockholm’s partnership with Talita, helping women who have been exploited in the sex trade by providing employment opportunities and training.
- Regular volunteering at food banks and homeless charities such as the Palace Madrid’s partnership with Pan y Peces.
Sustainability Downloads
We are excited to share our 2024 sustainability report, with four major renovations underway, 3 new hotels on-boarded and 2 franchise conversions it has been a busy year. Our sustainability highlights include:
- Completion of the Palace Madrid guestroom renovation – with 100% of suppliers used having an environmental management system or environmental product certification and our first embodied carbon analysis of a renovation.
- Construction of our first cross-laminated timber building at Renaissance Amsterdam, reducing embodied carbon.
- New climate transition plan with science-based 2030 carbon and energy reduction targets.
- 52% like-for-like increase in hours volunteered.
- 5 more hotels achieving third party certification to Global Council of Sustainable Tourism standards.
- If you want to read the full report please click here