MILAN — Since its conception, the Hotel Milano Scala project has focused on environmental quality. The hotel has been committed to reducing energy consumption and wastage wherever possible. This eco-friendly vision has led to noteworthy achievements: zero CO₂ emissions to the external environment for the past nine years, equivalent to a reduction of 400 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually, and energy savings of 35 percent with respect to a traditional natural gas system. This year, indoor air pollutants will be reduced by approximately 80 percent. 

Hotel Milano Scala has recently installed a new Mitsubishi Electric filtration system. Fresh air entering the interior spaces is treated in four air handling units — three rated at 5,000 m3/h plus one at 10,000 m3/h for a total air treatment capacity of 25,000 m³/h — composed of a class G4 pre-filter and a class F9 final filter (the same ones used in hospitals to prevent contamination).

This system filters the air in all rooms day and night, providing high purity air and the associated health benefits, such as deeper sleep and easier breathing.

To verify effective achievement of this goal, Hotel Milano Scala hired LabAnalysis, a consulting company specialized in chemical, physical, and microbiological testing, to assess the actual quality of the air in the rooms. The results prove that the filtration system reduces particulate concentrations by 80 to 90 percent after one hour of operation.

This is a pilot project for LabAnalysis in the hospitality and tourism sector. The objective is to promote similar indoor and outdoor air quality testing as part of the ecosustainability efforts within the hotel sector as a whole, with a minimal investment by the hotels themselves bringing tangible benefits for guests and the environment.

“I consider this to be a further important milestone in the push for ecosustainability that the hotel undertook in 2010,” said Vittorio Modena, founder of Hotel Milano Scala. “Our vision is producing noteworthy results: In nine years, we have succeeded in zeroing our emissions of fine particulates to the external air and greatly improving the quality of indoor air. We do this for our guests and for the city.”

“Milan is committed to improving environmental quality for those who inhabit or visit the city,” said Marco Granelli, commissioner for the Environment and Mobility. “Diesel vehicles will be banned by 2030, and this coming Feb. 25, with the new Area B, we will institute Italy’s largest restricted traffic area [Zona a Traffico Limitato — ZTL], thus progressively excluding the most-polluting vehicles. With the same objective we are working to overhaul heating plants and investing 32 million euros in public works projects to benefit the city dwellers by reducing pollution. In just a few years, people’s awareness of environmental issues has changed tremendously. They help us and bear witness to initiatives such as yours, a clear best practice that must serve as an example.”   

“Hotel Milano Scala has been a pioneer in the use of air conditioning and filtering systems and waste-heat-recovery boiler systems for hot water, based on Mitsubishi Electric’s innovative technology that operates without releasing any pollutants to the atmosphere,” said Simone Molesini, project engineering section manager of Mitsubishi Electric. “The advanced technology of the heat-recovery pump now combines two important aspects in modern property management: the practical aspect of significantly reducing energy consumption (approximately 45 percent with respect to traditional systems), and the ethical aspect, consisting of affordable and unobtrusive systems for reducing pollutant emissions.”

“We know that the tourism industry has an impact on the evolution of contemporary society, with implications also in terms of sustainable development,” said Giorgio Palmucci, president of Associazione Italiana Confindustria Alberghi. “For this reason we have always supported and promoted initiatives and best practices that advance the principles of ecosustainability. It is important to be here today because concern for the environment is now an essential driver of growth in the tourism market.”

Hotel Milano Scala has long represented a success story in these efforts, and now complements its zero emissions status with Pure Indoor Air.

Publication date: 2/18/2019

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