Stories & Coverage
The Next Big Thing in Hotel Sustainability Isn’t Inside the Hotel
As hotels hit a ceiling in property-level efficiency, hoteliers are exploring how IT can extend sustainability efforts beyond guestrooms to municipal systems, waste networks, and local energy grids.
Michal Christine Escobar
Hotels have spent years optimizing their energy and sustainability performance inside their properties. In fact, LED lighting, smart HVAC systems, AI-driven building controls, and predictive maintenance platforms have become the backbone of modern hotel operations.
And yet, as CIOs and CTOs continue pushing toward ambitious ESG targets, a new reality is emerging: the next wave of emissions reduction may not come from property-level upgrades at all.
Why Hotels Are Reaching a Sustainability Plateau
While property-level improvements will always matter, many fundamental sustainability challenges lie outside hotel walls. According to Nico Nicholas, CEO & Co-founder of Zeero Group, some of these challenges include:
Municipal waste systems are under strain. Cities are facing rising costs to manage sludge and increasingly strict PFAS restrictions. Wastewater disposal rules keep shifting, and those fluctuations keep pricing in flux.
Guest expectations are evolving. Travelers increasingly want transparent, verifiable impact — not symbolic gestures.
Many destinations rely on aging or diesel-heavy electrical grids. Island communities, for example, often struggle with daytime-only solar generation and costly fuel imports.
ESG reporting is becoming more data-driven. IT leaders are being asked to centralize, validate, and communicate environmental metrics across ownership, brand, and investor groups.
Together, these pressures point toward a sustainability ceiling that’s happening inside the hotel. According to Nicholas, the next phase of progress will come from transforming the infrastructure the hotel depends on, not just the infrastructure it owns.
What Hydrothermal Liquefaction Is — and Why It’s Getting Attention
Understandably, hotels rely heavily on the systems that surround them — the wastewater network, the local power grid, the waste-disposal chain, and the overall resilience of their destination. As those systems face tightening regulations and rising environmental pressures, new technologies are emerging that could meaningfully change how hotels think about sustainability, community impact, and long-term digital strategy.
Nicholas’ enthusiasm centers particularly around a new technology: Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), an industrial process that uses high heat and intense pressure to break down wastewater and organic materials. In about 10 minutes, the process converts mixed waste into:
- Bio-crude oil that can be refined into biodiesel or aviation fuel
- Biogenic gases that can support synthetic fuel production
- A phosphorus-rich byproduct usable as fertilizer
- Significantly reduced solid waste, cutting landfill needs by up to 90%
HTL also destroys PFAS and drug residues, which is increasingly relevant as municipalities face stricter discharge and disposal regulations.
HTL allows communities to transform an existing waste stream into a source of low-carbon energy — without needing to redesign transportation fleets or construct new energy infrastructure.
For hotels, this represents a new sustainability category: destination-level decarbonization that is local, measurable, and rooted in critical infrastructure.
Where Hotel Tech Meets the Rest of the World
It may seem unusual for hotel technology leaders to pay attention to what’s happening at a wastewater plant or municipal energy facility. But as sustainability efforts stretch beyond guestroom devices and building controls, these upstream shifts start to influence how hotels operate, report, and interact with their surrounding destinations. The implications reach farther into IT strategy than many might expect.
First, the rise of destination-level technologies expands the very definition of “sustainable hotel operations.” During our conversation, Nicholas stressed that hotels play a meaningful role in the strain placed on municipal systems, especially in tourism-heavy destinations. He explained that when local waste, water, and energy infrastructure becomes more resilient, hotels benefit even without making on-property upgrades.
In describing island communities in particular, he noted that “the hotel could actually help the island become energy independent,” highlighting how the waste generated by visitors and hospitality businesses can directly support local electricity generation. The health of municipal infrastructure, in other words, becomes part of the hotel’s environmental footprint — whether or not the hotel directly controls it. And for hotel IT and sustainability executives, this opens the door to thinking about sustainability in terms of destination infrastructure, not just in-room technology.
Second, these technologies create new opportunities for guest-facing digital integration. Nicholas spoke about hotels enabling visitors to contribute to sustainability initiatives through small, opt-in actions, like energy-saving choices or waste-reduction programs. He emphasized that these contributions only succeed if guests understand both the purpose and the impact, which places the technical implementation squarely in IT’s domain — from PMS folio logic to CRS/IBE prompts, apps, and dashboards. In this way, IT transforms destination-level sustainability into a tangible, engaging experience.
Third, technology also underpins the credibility and transparency of sustainability efforts. Nicholas noted that many initiatives are superficial: “They seem to be doing something, but in reality, they don’t achieve very much.” Systems like HTL and similar platforms generate measurable data — gallons of bio-crude produced, tons of waste diverted, PFAS destroyed — which satisfy the growing expectations of corporate travel buyers, investors, and brands for verifiable environmental impact. IT and sustainability teams are often responsible for capturing, validating, and communicating this data, moving sustainability from aspiration to evidence-based results.
At the end of our conversation, Nicholas reiterated that hoteliers need to shift their thinking from property-centric to destination-centric sustainability goals. “Remember,” he said, “hotels don’t just operate in a destination, they depend on it.” And that destination’s resiliency, increasingly depends on new approaches to waste, water and energy.
Why Partner With Us
GRN unites leaders across public and private sectors to deliver practical solutions for resilient, competitive, and future-ready tourism. Our programs turn insight into action, creating measurable impact worldwide.
