Budget brand EasyHotel is to spend £4.5 million to reduce the carbon footprint at 12 of its properties in the UK.
The investment will include the installation of heat pumps and solar panels at the hotels, as well as improved metering, control systems and a new more efficient air conditioning system.
EasyHotel said these measures would lead to an estimated 45 per cent reduction in carbon emissions from its UK-based hotels by 2025.
The chain has already removed all single-use plastic bottles from its properties with guests able to use free filtered water fountains to fill their own bottles or buy a reusable one from reception.
Another current initiative is the phasing out of plastic key cards, which are being replaced by wooden cards across all easyHotel locations – this move will prevent 55,000 plastic key cards from being produced this year.
EasyHotel’s CEO Karim Malak added: “The hotel industry accounts for about 1 per cent of carbon emissions globally and we have a collective responsibility to do all we can to reduce these emissions.
“Our business is naturally low-carbon thanks to our size-efficient room design which uses less raw materials, but it’s important for us to look at every area of our operations and try where we can, to be as low-carbon as possible.”
All 12 UK properties will stay open while the work is carried out and easyHotel is planning to announce similar initiatives for its hotels in Belgium, France, Netherlands and Spain by the end of this year.