At the Beyond Green Global Leadership Summit in early March, Trina White, the general manager of the Parkside Hotel & Spa in Victoria, British Columbia, showcased a unique approach to sustainable hospitality that distinguishes her hotel from other luxury resorts. While many participants at the summit represented high-end properties with prices often exceeding $1,000 per night, the Parkside operates from an urban setting with more accessible rates, starting around $400 for a weekend stay in June.
White emphasized the potential for sustainability within a city-center hotel. “The whole goal of the Parkside is to showcase how you can be sustainable and even move toward being regenerative in a city center mass hotel. It can be done,” she stated.
Trina White
Affectionately known as “Green Girl” among industry peers, White’s journey into sustainable tourism began with a passion for reforestation. After working as an Outward Bound tour guide, she transitioned from sciences to ecotourism, earning a master’s degree in sustainable tourism management. The opening of the Parkside in 2009, as Canada’s first LEED Platinum building, became a perfect fit for her vision.
The Parkside Hotel & Spa features innovative systems aimed at reducing its environmental impact. A standout element is its climate control system, which utilizes koi ponds for a “continuous water loop.” White explained, “We don’t have any air conditioning; we are cooled by a water loop that runs through the hotel.” The chilled water circulates through the building, absorbing heat before returning to the ponds, where fish benefit from the warmth.
Additionally, the hotel employs a HeatSavr Liquid Pool Cover on its 82-foot lap pool. This invisible layer combats evaporation and helps maintain temperature without requiring extra energy. “When you swim, the molecules separate, and then they come back together again, creating this sort of unseen film across the top of the pool,” White mentioned, ensuring no impact on the guest experience.
Looking to the future, White and her team are in the advanced stages of developing a groundbreaking concept: dynamic pricing tied to carbon footprint. This system would provide guests with information on each room’s carbon intensity during the booking process, allowing for informed choices based on environmental impact alongside price.
The proposed system would consider various factors, such as natural gas usage, electricity consumption, and staff commuting patterns. White highlighted that hotels operate most efficiently at full capacity due to economies of scale, suggesting that a high-demand stay could have a lower carbon footprint than a less occupied night, even while maintaining operations.
This innovative pricing approach would also provide transparent information for guests. For instance, a standard rate including daily housekeeping might have a higher carbon footprint than a “green rate” that offers no housekeeping, clearly reflected in both the pricing and environmental data.
White concluded with a thought-provoking insight: “There’s this perception that very sustainable properties are those smaller, boutique properties that are more exclusive in their rates. But to really make a change and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as an industry, it’s about focusing on larger tourism operators like large hotels and how they can reduce their footprint.”
