The team at Connecticut's Hotel Marcel took a risk when it set out to be the country's first 100% electric hotel, operating free of fossil fuels. Nearly two years after opening, the strategy is paying off.
Hotel Marcel, a Tapestry Collection by Hilton, opened in New Haven in May 2022. The hotel is managed by Charlestowne Hotels.
General Manager Ben Webster said the hotel's owner, Becker + Becker, pulled inspiration from Europe, as countries throughout the continent have been early adopters of sustainability initiatives.
He said that hotels similar to Hotel Marcel already exist in Europe, but not in the U.S.
Webster and the Hotel Marcel owners have had several conversations with vendors, hoteliers and experts in Europe about systems, machines and other aspects of operations.
Their goal was to be a "test subject" and take a risk on converting a historic building into the zero-emissions hotel that it is today.
Not only did the team pull inspiration from other countries, but they also spoke with several cruise lines about the equipment they use such as induction stoves, which are more energy-efficient than conventional electric or gas stoves.
"We're not fully reinventing the wheel; we're just doing it at this size and scale in a hotel for the first time," he said. "How did we get it done? We were committed."
To learn what a zero-emissions hotel is, how Hotel Marcel achieved it and the lessons learned along the way, read through this Q&A with General Manager Ben Webster.
Hotel Marcel is billed as the country's first 100% electric hotel, operating free of fossil fuels. What exactly does that mean?
It's kind of exactly what is sounds like. We just don't have any fossil fuels in the building. We don't have a gas line connected to the building.
So what does it truly mean? To us, [sustainability] is about decarbonization. We hear a lot about companies and mission statements saying we want to reduce our carbon imprint or now there's certain mandates — New York City is going to start fining buildings [for every emissions ton above the limit] — we have zero. We just kind of went the easy route and said, "Let's just not use any, and we don't have to worry about reductions."
All of our systems [are electric], whether that's how we heat and cool the building, how we cook our food, do our laundry, how emergency services run. We are solar-powered, primarily by on-site renewable sources; we have our own solar canopies. Our owners are actually just pulling permits as we speak to add a wind turbine as well.
We are connected to the grid [in case of bad weather days], but we've bought into a program with the [local] power company where all of the grid energy we receive comes strictly from renewable sources. We will get to the point some day, with some additional solar and turbine, where 100% of [our energy] comes from renewable sources on our property.
How much of a risk was this, and what's the payoff?
We did it in a historic building, in the middle of a pandemic. If you say it can't be done, we have a model. I think that's what it takes for people who have these challenges. If they have it in Europe, how come we don't have it here in the U.S.?
Most of the systems we brought in ... we are an early adopter of many of those new systems. We were the first one in the U.S. to have three or four of our primary systems. You needed someone who's willing to try it.
There are cost concerns. People would say, "Oh, that's going to be cost-prohibitive putting in that version of a domestic hot water system versus another version." There's so many incentives from a federal and state [level], so I don't think public policy was there yet. Some of those incentives didn't exist, some of the technologies didn't exist, but they do now.
Two, three times a week the owner and myself are hosting these tours to show people [our property]. Now public policy is mandating in Boston and New York, if you're trying to do certain buildings a certain size, you're not even allowed to have a gas line in the building. We've gotten a lot of phone calls [asking] "How do you guys do it?" We're happy to give the guests an option who are committed to that and want to be true to what they say their messages are. We're also happy to give tours and be a model to hotel developers.
Tell us a bit about some the unique technologies implemented.
From a technology perspective, it's a two-fold. There's the guest-facing version and there's the back-of-house version.
Guest-facing, we have blackout drapes that help us control the climate in the rooms. We brought in triple-glazed windows from Sweden for the building. These windows not only help us achieve our passive-house requirements — we are the only passive-house certified hotel in the U.S. — of how we insulate our building and how much fresh air [is brought] into the building, those windows also make [rooms] super quiet.
I have 24 total [electric vehicle] chargers. We use that to charge our EV shuttle. It also allows us to give staff free charging if they own or lease an electric vehicle.
Our location and the availability of chargers due to the number we have, we see many guests that are coming in from New Hampshire and Maine going south or head to Boston, Cape Cod or Newport that stop in for a charge. Many even stay overnight and break up the longer trips.
Something especially unique is the hotel established its own microgrid. Can you tell us more about that?
We have about 1,100 solar panels. They generate a lot for us. We have elevators that brake like an EV car that contributes power back to the microgrid. We also have 1.5 megawatts of battery storage for us. That's what runs emergency services for us if for some reason there's a grid failure or it's a rainy day. We have to keep a certain amount saved for emergency services.
There's a technology out where there's an inverter system that allows us seamlessly to run between solar grid or battery at any given time. [We're] to the point where our building load is so low, we're exporting the excess off to [a local] grid or charging our battery depending on what the need is.
How is your team spending this Earth Day?
Every day is Earth Day. We're going to take the staff out a little bit, and we're going to do some local cleanup. It's also really close to our two-year anniversary, May 16, so we're going to do a celebration for our team because they celebrate earth every day, and they need that recognition.
We do so much within the four walls, it's time to get out and do a little more outside.