Sustainable glamping – the environmental responsibility and luxury integration by design
Running a multifaceted high-end hospitality business is a challenging act of balancing profitability and sustainability. I know this first-hand having renovated a historic watermill in Andalusia, Spain which housed The Centre for Natural Design and Innovation. It was a mixed-use development with glamping accommodation.
Glamping is light, tented and timber structures that can be entirely sustainable. However, glamping business is more than lavish tents; it is the overall design whose impact counts. Glamping sites feature platforms to mount eco structures on and various outbuildings that house amenities. In dryer climates, with little or no sustainable forestry and expensive imported timber, owners look for more cost-effective solutions. Availability of biomaterials means that ‘eco’ glamping sites can and should use the most ecological, carbon-neutral alternatives to build with instead of concrete.
Hempcrete vs concrete -which to choose?
Though cement is an easy pick as most people can master its use, fast, it is environmentally disastrous. The production of every ton of cement emits 900 kg of CO2, Cannabis sativa on the other hand is a plant whose growing and processing requires fewer energy inputs. To make hempcrete, a builder adds hydraulic lime to the hemp-sand mix, following exact calculations. Hence, this practice is more involving, though with the guidance of a hemp-trained design team anyone can get the technique right.
We faced the same ethical and financial choice: do we go with environmentally costly yet ‘cheap’ concrete, or do we create a better, benign luxury with the material that doesn’t cost the Earth?! We chose hempcrete! Hemp composite either built or restored all our structures, including a large dip pool and driveway.
Crafting luxurious energy-efficient building designs
Hempcrete lends itself perfectly to creating all lavish indoor common areas for dining and entertaining, and wellness spa facilities that an upmarket glamping cannot do without. Making all utility storage as well as paved areas, using this all-purpose material, will add to a seamless, carbon net design. To align with sustainable practices further, supplying a hemp-built glamping site with solar or battery-powered energy makes for an ultimate, eco luxury experience! Clear communication of thus achieved sustainable fusion of eco materials and appropriate technology will only reinforce the business’s kudos.
Contrary to popular belief, being sustainable doesn’t break the bank! Going green from the offset actually lowered our costs and maximised the modest resources we had. This outlay converted into reputational gain that, overtime, we recouped in sales. Furthermore, our international building teams found hempcrete to be superior to concrete in two ways: easier to apply and lighter to carry. As a result, we completed the build with the cost savings of 30% less than originally estimated by the UK property experts. Partly thanks to the ecology of this versatile biomaterial.
Harnessing the potential of plant-based solutions
Here are key advantages of incorporating hempcrete instead of concrete:
- It makes the healthiest buildings that are carbon negative – your structures become CO2 sinks as the hemp-lime composite draws down the CO2 and stores it.
- It’s outstanding thermal, strength and durability properties gives an all-around construction material
- It’s biodegradable – a demolished structure doesn’t pollute the air, soil or water, unlike concrete which, on top of polluting, damages the topsoil.
- It’s a highly renewable crop, as it absorbs carbon as it grows. An added benefit – it repairs soil by reversing erosion and loss of fertility.
- Sustainable glamping – aligning experiential business with the needs of people and the planet
Sustainable glamping – aligning experiential business with the needs of people and the planet
So to sum up: hemp’s entire cycle is beneficial: it’s good for the Earth before it is harvested and processed into a building material, whilst is being built with and at the end of the product cycle, once the structures reach their serviceable life. The same goes for other plant-based solutions such as bamboo, flax and upcycled products that offer high efficiency-to-cost ratios. A little caveat here; they require some know-how to work with and may not be always applicable.
The green choices pay off: our restoration project, featuring a glamping site, won a sustainability kitemark. What a brilliant way to launch an ecotourism business! What’s more, going green leveraged our company resources and those of contractors. How? It empowered our building teams with new skills and confidence to work with natural materials that actually protect the climate. To top this up, our tourism business directly contributed to the green job creation. That’s a strategic positioning that doesn’t only make financial sense, it meets the triple bottom line, (TBL): it cares for people and the planet whilst ensuring prosperity.
From luxury canvas to sustainable comfort
So, are glamping resorts built with tented structures more compatible with our fast heating up world than traditional hotel developments? What about their carbon footprint and socio-economic impacts, both at home and far? And, what type of ‘luxury’ do modern travellers seek? Is it purely about a high-end quality aspect of everything in the outdoor hospitality, from the décor to fine-dining, to exclusive transport options including private planes. Or, is it primarily driven by the aspiration to tangibly enhance the nature and the community the travellers have a privilege to be immersed in? These are questions for both project owners and developers that require a serious consideration backed with socio-environmental literacy and foresight.
How does a glamping venue create luxury? Does it achieve it by converting luxury of a venue and wellness of nature, it capitalises on, into the wellbeing of all its stakeholders?! Various alternative, eco building materials and methods exist to help upmarket glamping business operators become 100% sustainable. Models that champion conservation as a purpose rather than a by-product of the profit are set to create a 360° holistic glamping business. How? By enhancing nature-community dynamics through a deliberate integration of sustainable principles in their operations. And planning advice and expertise is on hand.
A whole-system approach to sustainable glamping
Today, several metrics can help eco-conscious ecotourism companies determine the scale and performance of their positive impact on the world at large. But before measuring how sustainable we are, we need to make things sustainable. This is especially true of businesses focussed on developing experiential products and services that aim to be aligned with people and nature whilst directly tackling the climate degradation. This is no small feat in a highly competitive luxury tourism. The market that is poised to capture the modern, eco savvy traveller with a taste for luxe, nature-immersed destinations that are authentic and above all sustainable.
For all your SR and Regenerative consulting, design and development needs and services contact Kinga MonicaBSc (Hons) at Earthvoice.eu
Bibliography
Main Image: Dzikolas Glamping, Kransobrod, Poland. Photo courtesy of Glamping Guide, Poland.
Images of Centre for Natural Design and Learning, Almeria, Spain Adobe render; Hemp driveway; Upcycling materials in design. Copyright Earthvoice.eu
Opportunities & challenges of hempcrete as a building material for construction: An overview.
A Map of Annual emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from cement, measured in tonnes, 2022. Global Carbon Budget (2023) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
Hempcrete: A Green Revolution in Sustainable Construction
Why is concrete so damaging to the environment?