GRAN MELIA AIMS FOR NET ZERO IN MENORCA

MELIA HAS OPENED Villa Le Blanc Gran Melia, its 15th hotel in the Gran Melia collection and the first carbon-neutral luxury hotel in Menorca, Spain. The hotel is located on Santo Tomas Beach on the Migjorn coast, halfway between Mahon and Ciutadella.

The hotel, which is also a member of Leading Hotels of the World, is the only such hotel on the island of Menorca, and the Spanish hotel brand’s first energy-efficient, carbon-neutral operations hotel.

The renovation of what was once the Sol Beach House Hotel was led by the architect Alvaro Sans. It has 159 rooms and a building management system that creates “intelligent buildings”. The system controls the newly installed biomass boilers and the photovoltaic solar panels. The existing air-water chiller has been replaced and instead geothermal energy is used for its condensation for total and partial heat recovery, which also heats the outdoor pool. There is also a SATE External Thermal Insulation System in the buildings’ envelope to minimise thermal demand.

Also in place are circular models in water resources – water recovery includes greywater for toilets and washdowns, rain water for garden irrigation, digitisation of water consumption and calculation of the water footprint to improve water cycle efficiency.

The hotel aims to achieve a carbon neutral footprint by incorporating facilities and technologies that will enable it to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 87 per cent. In addition, the hotel will explore alternatives to offset the remaining emissions and thus ensure its full carbon neutrality status (net zero), contributing to Melia’s decarbonisation objectives. Note: ‘carbon neutral’ claims refer to hotel operations, not embodied carbon