Pebblebrook Hotel Trust releases fifth ESG report

by: Mark Caswell | February 6, 2024

US: Hotel and resort owner Pebblebrook Hotel Trust has published its fifth ESG Report, covering the company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance performance in 2022.

Pebblebrook is the largest owner of urban and resort lifestyle hotels and resorts in the United States, with a portfolio of 12,000 rooms across 46 properties.

Around half of these are located in California, including Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter, Mondrian Los Angeles, Le Méridien Delfina Santa Monica, W Los Angeles West Beverly Hills and 1 Hotel San Francisco.

The last of these is part of luxury eco-conscious 1 Hotels brand, and the report highlighted that the San Francisco property recently applied for LEED Gold Certification for operations and maintenance.

For our FOCUS ON feature looking at LEED certification, see:

FOCUS ON: LEED Certification

Portfolio-wide Pebblebrook achieved a 57.9 per cent reduction in waste generated per occupied room in 2022, compared to the baseline of 2018, and a 36.7 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emission intensity per square foot.

The group has also appointed ‘Green Ambassadors’ at all hotels, who set and make progress towards property-level energy, water, carbon and waste goals.

Other achievements include the installation of low-flow toilets and other waste-saving measures at 92 per cent of properties, and the elimination of plastic straws at 84 per cent of properties.

Total Scope 1 emissions were 22,440 metric tonnes in 2022, compared to 28,890 metric tonnes in 2017 (the first year figures are detailed on the report), and total Scope 2 emissions were 47,580 metric tonnes in 2022, compared to 56,120 metric tonnes in 2017.

For our FOCUS ON feature looking at Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, what they mean and how they can be managed, click here.

“In 2022, we put into place multiple initiatives to achieve our goal to reduce carbon emissions intensity by 35 per cent by 2030 and to progress toward net zero emissions by 2050,” said Jon Bortz, chairman and CEO of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust.

“We focused on benchmarking our environmental footprint, analyzing opportunities for resource efficiency, as well as investing in energy, water, and waste efficiency projects to reduce our environmental footprint.

“We remain committed to engaging and training our team members to identify opportunities and leverage resource efficiency opportunities that will help us get closer to our environmental goals.”

To read the report in full click here

Image: Vincent Creton on Unsplash