Electric vehicles are becoming an essential part of a hotel’s sustainability programme. As their popularity continues to grow, Virta showcases the importance of a sufficient charging infrastructure.
Sustainability is rightfully the pressing topic of today. Consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious, and hotels everywhere are setting sustainability goals and introducing so-called ‘green initiatives’. Electric vehicles (EVs) are an essential part of helping the environmental crisis, and they can play a vital role in hotel’s sustainability programmes.
The growth of EV sales is bringing us closer to the decarbonisation of transport, which is crucial in fighting climate change. However, we must develop a sufficient charging infrastructure to support all these electric vehicles. Hotels have the power to make a difference by installing EV charging stations and expanding that infrastructure to meet the demand
Hotels are striving to lower their CO2 emissions and carbon footprint by setting up comprehensive environmental programmes and implementing various sustainable practices. Smart EV charging can be essential to a company’s sustainability programme, establishing the hotel’s brand as a sustainable leader and ensuring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are met.
A great example is Virta’s customer Scandic, Nordic’s biggest hotel chain and one of the leaders in sustainability in the hotel sector, which started offering EV charging services in 2020. Scandic satisfied its guests’ charging needs, secured happy clientele, and moved closer towards meeting its sustainability goals all at the same time.
We also see that the growing adoption of electric fleet vehicles strongly powers EV sales. Fleet electrification is rising globally and is often part of corporate sustainability programmes. This leads to additional demand from corporate fleet customers wanting to charge their EVs at hotels conveniently.
It’s worth mentioning the electricity used to power our electric vehicles. Generally, EVs are better for the environment than their ICE counterparts as they don’t emit harmful greenhouse gas emissions. But it’s important to know how the electricity powering these EVs is generated . The electricity source is crucial in determining how environmentally friendly electric vehicles actually are. If a hotel invests in its own EV charging infrastructure, it can provide certified renewable electricity to power up customers’ EVs. At Virta, we offer a service called ‘Virta Origin’ that ensures certified renewable electricity for all of our EV charging stations. This is an important extra step that hotels can take to provide a service that’s as environmentally friendly as possible.
To summarise, electric vehicle charging has the power to present a hotel’s sustainability credentials from the moment a customer enters the car park.
