Home Green Design More Luxury Hotels & Accommodations Are Sourcing Sustainable Furniture

More Luxury Hotels & Accommodations Are Sourcing Sustainable Furniture

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NATIONAL REPORT—Environmental consciousness is one of the key trends in the travel sector, starting with travelers aiming to minimize their environmental impact through flights with reduced carbon emissions. However, this trend extends beyond modes of transport, as travelers also expect their accommodations to embrace eco-friendly practices and offerings.

One of the ways the lodging industry meets this expectation is through adaptive reuse, which converts existing buildings into hotels to reduce the environmental cost of construction and transportation. Thus, a previous post highlights Historic Hotels of America’s examples of adaptive reuse among historically preserved buildings across America. The list of 25 hotels includes the Napa River Inn in California, which was once a multipurpose warehouse and a granary and mill before being transformed into a boutique hotel with exposed brick walls.

But besides the concept of adaptive reuse, hotels can also promote environmental consciousness and sustainability by sourcing eco-friendly furniture for their rooms, communal spaces, and outdoor areas. Below, we highlight how luxury hotels and lodges, in particular, are minimizing their environmental impact through eco-friendly furnishings.

Accessible Options for Sustainable Furniture

One of the notable examples of sustainable accommodations is the rise of ecolodges, which emphasize nature by being built near mountains, forests, and wetlands and ensure both construction and operations have the lowest possible environmental impact. To illustrate, a Forbes article features the Mashpi Lodge in Ecuador, known to elevate the authenticity of sustainable travel by utilizing its infrastructure, which used to be a sawmill, and sourcing its wood nearby to avoid cutting down any trees.

As a result, the Mashpi Lodge can be considered regenerative, from the structure itself and its spacious rooms down to luxurious amenities, such as its state-of-the-art tubs and a dining room with dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows. Interestingly, hotel and lodge owners can incorporate this concept into their own properties with the help of increasingly accessible furniture retailers. Case in point, some of the Living Spaces dining room sets are made of acacia, which produces sustainably grown and sourced wood as a fast-growing tree. An example is the Lars Black Wood + Metal dining set—ideal for rustic or industrial-style hotels while also providing ample seating for guests with its 18” extension leaf.

Furnishings That Meet Sustainability Standards or Certifications

Another way luxury hotels and accommodations can source sustainable furniture is by ensuring the pieces are environmentally certified or have been awarded for sustainable design. For example, DESIGNBAR’s creative interiors for hospitality and restaurant projects incorporate teak with a Forest Management certification by the Forest Stewardship Council.

This means that the FSC-certified teak used for furniture in the patio, rooftop bar, and other outdoor spaces meets the standards for ethical production. Not only do the teak pieces provide durability and weather resistance, but they are also guaranteed to come from responsibly managed, socially beneficial, and economically viable forests.

Balance of Luxury & Sustainability

Lastly, hotels and lodges need not sacrifice their luxurious and sophisticated designs when opting for sustainable furniture. Curtis Furniture’s hotel interiors prove that luxury and sustainability aren’t mutually exclusive, as their organic designs can fit right into hotels with rustic, minimalist, or industrial aesthetics.

For instance, Curtis Furniture has worked with Treehouse Hotel Manchester, incorporating sustainable and natural elements into the Brutalist concrete structure through timber tops, mixed-use timber cabinets, and spruce shelving. Hotels can thus take inspiration by adopting biophilic design, which is especially appropriate if their properties are built near ecotourism spots like responsibly managed forests and mountains.

Overall, the adoption of sustainable furniture for hotel interiors and outdoor spaces is becoming more and more viable due to the rise of accessible, industry-certified, and high-quality sources.

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