Sustainability at the center of hotel operations, thanks to VARIG
February 8, 2024
In the face of an increasingly greener future, the hotel industry cannot ignore sustainability. Therefore, insight into the building’s sustainability parameters is also crucial.
This is where VARIG comes in.
The Norwegian startup aims to simplify sustainability reporting within the real estate industry. The solution automates data capture and processing, providing a comprehensive and understandable overview of the performance of buildings, portfolios, and tenants.
Because VARIG collects all sustainability parameters and automates data capture, tenants of a building can easily create their reports.
“Hotels are relatively complex buildings. The building itself may not necessarily be more complex than other commercial buildings, but its use is somewhat unique. Among other things, because it operates around the clock, the comfort needs of the end customer strongly influence it, the building ideally should be adaptable to each of us, and you can’t ‘turn it off’ even if the hotel is almost empty,”
– explains Renate Straume, CEO of VARIG, to Hotellmagasinet.
“So our solution where we connect measured consumption to use – guest nights – not size (m2) is very useful in this context,” – Renate explains.
CSRD together with the EU Taxonomy, the classification system for what is considered green and not, has given rise to a variety of demands on the real estate industry, including the hotel industry. Renate Straume emphasizes the necessity of this focus:
“It will be extremely challenging to run a profitable business in the hotel industry without having sustainability in focus. Sustainability has gone from being nice to do to a must-do.”
Fine-tuning the facilities
VARIG’s solution was recently installed in KLP Eiendom’s buildings at Gardermoen, where Quality Airport Hotel Gardermoen is located. Here, Glenn Tolderlund, Facility Manager, now has a whole new tool he can use to manage the building.
“VARIG enables us to see results on various initiatives and when we fine-tune our facilities from day to day. Instead of speculating, we can take action based on fresh data. And in addition, we can produce reports more easily than ever before,” – he says.
The simplicity and efficiency VARIG offers have enabled KLP Eiendom and their hotels to take sustainable actions and clearly see the effects of these actions.
“With VARIG, you get a tool to plan energy measures, but more importantly, to follow up on the effects of the measures afterwards. This makes it easier for us to implement energy measures in the part of our building stock where the tenant manages the operations themselves,” says Kristian Strømmen, Head of Sustainability at KLP Eiendom.
KLP Eiendom has now connected its entire portfolio of hotel buildings in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the UK to VARIG’s sustainability system.
Simplifying everyday life
KLP Eiendom owns fifteen hotel buildings spread across four countries. Collecting water, waste, and energy data from all these buildings is a highly complex task.With VARIG’s system, this process is automated, and tenants of a building can report themselves. This has been a great help to KLP Eiendom, which now has a complete overview of the sustainability data for its hotel buildings.
“It is very positive that major players in the Norwegian real estate industry, such as KLP Eiendom, prioritize sustainability and use systems like VARIG. Sustainability can be complex and time-consuming, and technology is necessary to enable positive change quickly,” says Straume.
Sustainability in every building
Straume explains that 80 percent of the buildings to be used in the world by 2050 have already been built.
“Therefore, it is crucial to work with existing buildings and infrastructure. New buildings often score well on sustainability variables such as energy efficiency, but construction itself is highly emission-intensive. We must facilitate sustainability in all buildings and increase the lifespan of existing buildings.”
//This article was originally published in Norwegian on hotellmagasinet.no on 8 February 2024