Inventory analysis and carbon footprint of coastland-hotel services: A Spanish case study

Abstract

Tourism is a key industry in the Spanish economy. Spain was in the World top three ranking by international tourist arrivals and by income in 2015. The development of the tourism industry is essential to maintain the established economic system. However, if the environmental requirements were not taken into account, the country would face a negative effect on depletion of local environmental resources from which tourism depends. This case study evaluates, through a life cycle perspective, the average carbon footprint of an overnight stay in a Spanish coastland hotel by analyzing 14 two-to-five-stars hotels. Inventory and impact data are analyzed and presented both for resource use and greenhouse gases emissions, with the intention of helping in the environmental decision-making process. The main identified potential hotspots are electricity and fuels consumption (6 to 30kWh/overnight stay and 24 to 127MJ/overnight stay respectively), which are proportional to the number of stars and unoccupancy rate and they produce more than 75% of the impact. It is also revealed that voluntary implementation of environmental monitoring systems (like EMAS regulation) promotes collection of more detailed and accurate data, which helps in a more efficient use of resources. A literature review on LCA and tourism is also discussed. Spanish hotels inventory data presented here for the first time will be useful for tourism related managers (destination managers, policy makers and hotel managers among others) to calculate sustainability key indicators, which can lead to achieve real sustainable-tourism goals. Further data collection will be needed in future projects to gather representative data from more hotels, other accommodation facilities and also other products/services offered by tourist sector in Spain (like transport of tourists, food and beverage, culture-sports & recreation and others).

Environmental effects of COVID-19 pandemic and potential strategies of sustainability

“…To facilitate and accommodate them, lots of hotels, motel, restaurant, bar and market are built, which consume lots of energy and other natural resources (Pereira et al, 2017). For instance, Puig et al (2017) calculated the carbon footprint of coastland hotel services of Spain and reported electricity and fuels consumption take a key role, and 2-star hotels have the highest carbon emissions. Moreover, visitors dump various wastes which impair natural beauty and create ecological imbalance (Islam and Bhuiyan, 2018).…”

Limited effect of radial oxygen loss on ammonia oxidizers in Typha angustifolia root hairs

“…Unfortunately, nutrient concentrations in water were not recorded at the moment of sampling. Nitrate and ammonia concentrations in the two studied systems are relatively variable (ranging from undetectable to above 10 mg/L for NO 3 − and NH 4 + , NO 2 − is not detected above 0.2 mg/L) and highly influenced by the performance of the WWTP in the Empuriabrava area, or nutrient discharges due to agricultural activities in the Baix Ter area 10 , 35 , 36 . Water temperatures were around 26 °C, being slightly lower in Bassa de les Tortugues and higher in the Daró river mouth (Table 1 ).…”

Multi-Criteria, Cost-Benefit, and Life-Cycle Analyses for Decision-Making to Support Responsible, Sustainable, and Alternative Tourism

“…[95] Energy and fuel to EF See below for other papers on CF Foolmaun and Ramjeawon [96] Economic, social, and environmental impacts of plastic combined with the analytic hierarchy process Static papers on stakeholder perceptions about tourism impacts: [5,6,46,[49][50][51]61,62,73,74,77,97]. Dynamic papers on environmental impacts based on CF: [98], wastes in petroleum and tourism (kg/day); [99], GHG in transport to CF; [100], energy, water, waste in transport and accommodation to CF; [101], GHG in input and output investment to CF; [102], GHG in a holiday farm to CF; [103], direct and indirect area GHG to CF; [104], direct and indirect GHG in area to CF; [105], fuel in local transport to CF; [106], kWh and MJ in hotels to CF. Table 4 have discussed stakeholder perceptions of tourism impacts, but they were developed within a static framework.…”