Sustainable Glamping: Merging Luxury and Environmental Responsibility for future-proof hospitality business
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.
