In the third and final video in our series with GROHE X that celebrates the winners from The Brit List Awards 2022, editor Hamish Kilburn meets Robert Godwin, Managing Director of Lamington Group, the company that opened the world’s first net-zero hometel…
As we heard from Neil Andrew, Head of Hospitality at Perkins&Will, going truly embodied carbon net-zero is no easy feat. Robert Godwin, Managing Director of Lamington Group and winner of Hotelier of Year at The Brit List Awards 2022, took net-zero beyond a blue-sky-thinking concept in hospitality when he and his team opened room2 Chiswick, the world’s first net-zero ‘hometel’.
The modest-sized boutique hotel in West London’s leafy neighbourhood of Chiswick fully accounts for its entire carbon footprint, using 89 per cent less energy compared to other hotels by rolling out various sustainable initiatives.
Aside from the brand’s eco ambitions – room2 is expected to open three new net-zero hotels between now and 2026 – its ‘hometel’ DNA centred around socially and environmentally driven design. “We looked at new and old definitions on ‘what is home’, from east to west, because home is never the same anywhere else,” the hotelier told me in an interview on GROHE X. “When we go to a new neighbourhood, we have to get the flavour of each space.” For Godwin and his team, it is about designing human-centric spaces emotionally, with feeling.
Godwin, who is only the start of his journey in hospitality, has built a strong foundation of a brand – its more than a concept, it’s a hospitality first – that will do as well as feel good each time a guests checks in. The judges of The Brit List Awards 2022 were impressed by the data that the brand had managed to calculate, as well as the hoteliers plans for the future. As part of Godwin’s commitment to being net zero, for example, the company will also be tracking and minimising scope three emissions both within their company as well as encouraging their suppliers, employees and guests to reduce their private emissions. The team at room2 Chiswick are also working with a nature based reforesting partner in Nicaragua to calculate their footprint and offset for the unavoidable emissions.
“The standard was internationally renowned, and I am super honoured, and touched, to have that recognition – it really is for the team to be proud of,” concluded Godwin. “These awards definitely help to nudge our industry to do better, and allow the sustainability movement to to continue.”
Applications / nominations for The Brit List Awards 2023 will open in the summer. The process to apply is free for all designers, architects, hoteliers and suppliers alike. This is one of three videos that Hotel Designs has launch in association with GROHE, Broadcasting Partner of The Brit List Awards, to amplify a handful of the winners from last year’s campaign.
Main image credit: Lamington Group
