Comparative study on the carbon footprints of hotels

To probe into the sources and levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from hotels and analyze their carbon footprints, an empirical study covering scopes 1, 2 and 3 of the GHG Protocol was carried out on two representative hotels in Hong Kong. The result of comparison between their carbon emission levels normalized by number of guestrooms differed from that based on their emission levels normalized by total floor area. Use of purchased electricity was the dominant contributor to carbon emission; the emission from use of portable liquefied petroleum gas was the least. A regression analysis revealed that the carbon emissions bore a strongly positive correlation with the outdoor air temperatures rather than the occupancy rates of the hotels. The carbon footprints of more existing hotels should be investigated to enable benchmarking and hence identification of mitigation measures for attaining sustainable management of hotels.