What net zero looks like when it actually gets built
How net zero moves from ambition to operational, investable reality
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By the time the first guests checked into Radisson Hotel Group’s Verified Net Zero hotel in Manchester, the building had already done something quietly radical. It had moved beyond pledges, targets and glossy sustainability reports — and into the realm where net zero becomes operational, verifiable and commercial.
In a UK property landscape crowded with ambition but slowed by planning bottlenecks, grid constraints and financing gaps, the project offered a glimpse of what climate-positive development can look like when it works. Not as a futuristic showcase, but as a functioning, energy-intensive asset in a major British city.
For Inge Huijbrechts, Chief Sustainability Officer at Radisson Hotel Group (RHG), the Manchester project was not conceived as a symbolic first. It was intended as a test case: could net zero be delivered at scale, within existing buildings, and in a way that made sense to owners, investors and guests?
“The UK is making progress as a leader in leading in retrofit-led decarbonisation, and has a strong proptech ecosystem,” she says. “Industry bodies like the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) are advancing whole-life carbon and net-zero building standards towards a clearer, shared definition of what net-zero buildings mean.”
That clarity matters. For years, net zero in real estate has been hampered less by lack of intent than by ambiguity — different definitions, competing standards, and uncertainty about what counts. In hospitality, where buildings are large, energy-hungry and operationally complex, those uncertainties have been particularly acute.
For RHG, the UK offered a proving ground.
“For RHG, the UK has been an excellent testing ground,” Huijbrechts says. “Our first Verified Net Zero Hotel in Manchester has demonstrated that even large, energy-intensive assets can be decarbonised through full electrification, renewable heat sources, Scope 3 footprint reductions, all underpinned by third-party verification.”
Manchester was chosen not only for technical reasons but political ones. “We chose Manchester for the building’s suitability for full operational conversion, but also as it aligned with Greater Manchester’s climate ambitions,” she explains.
The alignment mattered. Decarbonising an existing hotel is not a single intervention but a cascade of changes — from heating systems and grid connections to laundry contracts, waste streams and food and beverage operations. Support from local authorities, utilities and partners can determine whether a project moves quickly or stalls.
“Local partners in Manchester were broadly supportive of the project, particularly regarding the hotel’s electrification, district heating integration, and transition to 100% renewable electricity, all of which align with Manchester’s own long term climate targets,” Huijbrechts says.
Yet the project’s most defining feature was not political backing, but verification. In an industry rife with greenwashing accusations, RHG opted to subject its claims to external scrutiny.
“The project benefitted from a local regulatory environment generally positive toward energy transition,” she says. “Beyond that, the verification process was driven entirely by RHG, based on the industry methodology for Net Zero Hotels, verified by third party verification partner TÜV Rheinland.”
That distinction — voluntary verification rather than regulatory compliance — points to both progress and fragility in the UK’s green real estate push. While ambition is strong, Huijbrechts is clear-eyed about where the system still falls short.
“Where the UK can still overpromise is pace and consistency of delivery,” she says. “Ambition is strong, but planning, grid readiness and financing structures still lag behind the scale of change needed for complex green real estate projects and conversions.”
It is a familiar frustration across climate-positive development. Policy frameworks gesture toward transformation, but the machinery of delivery moves slowly. In practice, net zero buildings still require individual champions willing to navigate fragmented systems.
At Radisson, translating policy ambition into a functioning asset required painstaking groundwork. “The project in Manchester entailed data collection and scoping, research into technical feasibility and engineering design, electrification CAPEX and implementation, and operational footprint reduction across F&B, waste, laundry, amenities and commuting,” Huijbrechts says. “Finally, a third-party audit was conducted by TÜV Rheinland to provide the necessary trust and credibility.”
From conception to opening, the process took nine months — relatively fast by real estate standards, but still a reminder that net zero is operationally demanding. The payoff, however, has been tangible.
“Guests have shown strong interest with a significant uplift in webpage visits and revenue,” Huijbrechts notes. “Owners have recognised that Verified Net Zero creates a future-proof, lower-risk asset, with predictable energy costs and strong differentiation.”
That commercial response is critical. Net zero will not scale if it remains dependent on moral appeal alone. Huijbrechts is explicit about the need for owner and stakeholder buy-in.
“Scaling green real estate projects require owner and stakeholder buy-in, which in turn depend on operational data and a clear mid- to long-term ROI,” she says. “Demonstrable commercial uplift through increased bookings and revenue is also essential.”
Investors, too, are paying closer attention — particularly as emissions data becomes embedded in corporate reporting.
“Similarly, we have seen growing interest from investors: Growing interest tied to corporate emission tracking requirements,” Huijbrechts says. “Verified Net Zero hotels provide demonstrable emissions data, addressing investor ESG scrutiny.”
The model, she argues, is now replicable. Radisson plans to have 100 net zero hotels by 2030, and the lessons extend beyond hospitality.
“With this achieved, the industry now has a model which can be replicated,” she says. “Examples of progress like this at scale will help to accelerate change in real estate beyond hospitality, if accompanied by better financing mechanisms for retrofit CAPEX, clearer and more consistent net zero definitions, and stronger planning incentives favouring refurbishment over new build.”
Planning remains a stubborn obstacle. Despite political rhetoric around reuse and retrofit, UK processes still tend to privilege new construction.
“From a regulatory perspective, planning processes in the UK do not yet sufficiently favour conversions over new builds, despite a slowdown in new build development across Europe,” Huijbrechts says. “Electrification and removal of gas infrastructure can require extensive approvals.”
Supply chains pose another challenge. “Radisson’s internal audits have highlighted that supply chain decarbonisation remains inconsistent, particularly in laundry and waste,” she notes.
Even so, she resists the idea that regulation is the primary brake on progress. “That said, challenges in the development of the Verified Net Zero hotels were predominantly technical and operational rather than regulatory,” Huijbrechts says, citing renewable electricity contracts, heat pump compatibility and gas-dependent suppliers.
This distinction matters. It suggests that while policy reform is necessary, the next phase of net zero will be won or lost in engineering rooms, procurement teams and balance sheets.
So what would a genuinely net zero built environment look like — not in 2050 visions, but now?
“A Net Zero built environment will look like one with greater reuse of buildings and fewer demolitions,” Huijbrechts says. “So from the outside, it wouldn’t look greatly different.”
The transformation, she argues, is largely invisible — but economically profound. “The core change will be that real estate will become electrified, energy-efficient assets,” she says. “For investors and owners, this will look like more predictable energy costs, lower risk, and the same brilliant guest or resident experience with less damage to the environment.”
It is a quietly radical vision: not gleaming new eco-districts, but the steady rewiring of what already exists. In Manchester, that vision is already occupied — one guest, one booking, one kilowatt-hour at a time.
By the time the first guests checked into Radisson Hotel Group’s Verified Net Zero hotel in Manchester, the building had already done something quietly radical. It had moved beyond pledges, targets and glossy sustainability reports — and into the realm where net zero becomes operational, verifiable and commercial.
In a UK property landscape crowded with ambition but slowed by planning bottlenecks, grid constraints and financing gaps, the project offered a glimpse of what climate-positive development can look like when it works. Not as a futuristic showcase, but as a functioning, energy-intensive asset in a major British city.
For Inge Huijbrechts, Chief Sustainability Officer at Radisson Hotel Group (RHG), the Manchester project was not conceived as a symbolic first. It was intended as a test case: could net zero be delivered at scale, within existing buildings, and in a way that made sense to owners, investors and guests?
“The UK is making progress as a leader in leading in retrofit-led decarbonisation, and has a strong proptech ecosystem,” she says. “Industry bodies like the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) are advancing whole-life carbon and net-zero building standards towards a clearer, shared definition of what net-zero buildings mean.”
That clarity matters. For years, net zero in real estate has been hampered less by lack of intent than by ambiguity — different definitions, competing standards, and uncertainty about what counts. In hospitality, where buildings are large, energy-hungry and operationally complex, those uncertainties have been particularly acute.
For RHG, the UK offered a proving ground.
“For RHG, the UK has been an excellent testing ground,” Huijbrechts says. “Our first Verified Net Zero Hotel in Manchester has demonstrated that even large, energy-intensive assets can be decarbonised through full electrification, renewable heat sources, Scope 3 footprint reductions, all underpinned by third-party verification.”
Manchester was chosen not only for technical reasons but political ones. “We chose Manchester for the building’s suitability for full operational conversion, but also as it aligned with Greater Manchester’s climate ambitions,” she explains.
The alignment mattered. Decarbonising an existing hotel is not a single intervention but a cascade of changes — from heating systems and grid connections to laundry contracts, waste streams and food and beverage operations. Support from local authorities, utilities and partners can determine whether a project moves quickly or stalls.
“Local partners in Manchester were broadly supportive of the project, particularly regarding the hotel’s electrification, district heating integration, and transition to 100% renewable electricity, all of which align with Manchester’s own long term climate targets,” Huijbrechts says.
Yet the project’s most defining feature was not political backing, but verification. In an industry rife with greenwashing accusations, RHG opted to subject its claims to external scrutiny.
“The project benefitted from a local regulatory environment generally positive toward energy transition,” she says. “Beyond that, the verification process was driven entirely by RHG, based on the industry methodology for Net Zero Hotels, verified by third party verification partner TÜV Rheinland.”
That distinction — voluntary verification rather than regulatory compliance — points to both progress and fragility in the UK’s green real estate push. While ambition is strong, Huijbrechts is clear-eyed about where the system still falls short.
“Where the UK can still overpromise is pace and consistency of delivery,” she says. “Ambition is strong, but planning, grid readiness and financing structures still lag behind the scale of change needed for complex green real estate projects and conversions.”
It is a familiar frustration across climate-positive development. Policy frameworks gesture toward transformation, but the machinery of delivery moves slowly. In practice, net zero buildings still require individual champions willing to navigate fragmented systems.
At Radisson, translating policy ambition into a functioning asset required painstaking groundwork. “The project in Manchester entailed data collection and scoping, research into technical feasibility and engineering design, electrification CAPEX and implementation, and operational footprint reduction across F&B, waste, laundry, amenities and commuting,” Huijbrechts says. “Finally, a third-party audit was conducted by TÜV Rheinland to provide the necessary trust and credibility.”
From conception to opening, the process took nine months — relatively fast by real estate standards, but still a reminder that net zero is operationally demanding. The payoff, however, has been tangible.
“Guests have shown strong interest with a significant uplift in webpage visits and revenue,” Huijbrechts notes. “Owners have recognised that Verified Net Zero creates a future-proof, lower-risk asset, with predictable energy costs and strong differentiation.”
That commercial response is critical. Net zero will not scale if it remains dependent on moral appeal alone. Huijbrechts is explicit about the need for owner and stakeholder buy-in.
“Scaling green real estate projects require owner and stakeholder buy-in, which in turn depend on operational data and a clear mid- to long-term ROI,” she says. “Demonstrable commercial uplift through increased bookings and revenue is also essential.”
Investors, too, are paying closer attention — particularly as emissions data becomes embedded in corporate reporting.
“Similarly, we have seen growing interest from investors: Growing interest tied to corporate emission tracking requirements,” Huijbrechts says. “Verified Net Zero hotels provide demonstrable emissions data, addressing investor ESG scrutiny.”
The model, she argues, is now replicable. Radisson plans to have 100 net zero hotels by 2030, and the lessons extend beyond hospitality.
“With this achieved, the industry now has a model which can be replicated,” she says. “Examples of progress like this at scale will help to accelerate change in real estate beyond hospitality, if accompanied by better financing mechanisms for retrofit CAPEX, clearer and more consistent net zero definitions, and stronger planning incentives favouring refurbishment over new build.”
Planning remains a stubborn obstacle. Despite political rhetoric around reuse and retrofit, UK processes still tend to privilege new construction.
“From a regulatory perspective, planning processes in the UK do not yet sufficiently favour conversions over new builds, despite a slowdown in new build development across Europe,” Huijbrechts says. “Electrification and removal of gas infrastructure can require extensive approvals.”
Supply chains pose another challenge. “Radisson’s internal audits have highlighted that supply chain decarbonisation remains inconsistent, particularly in laundry and waste,” she notes.
Even so, she resists the idea that regulation is the primary brake on progress. “That said, challenges in the development of the Verified Net Zero hotels were predominantly technical and operational rather than regulatory,” Huijbrechts says, citing renewable electricity contracts, heat pump compatibility and gas-dependent suppliers.
This distinction matters. It suggests that while policy reform is necessary, the next phase of net zero will be won or lost in engineering rooms, procurement teams and balance sheets.
So what would a genuinely net zero built environment look like — not in 2050 visions, but now?
“A Net Zero built environment will look like one with greater reuse of buildings and fewer demolitions,” Huijbrechts says. “So from the outside, it wouldn’t look greatly different.”
The transformation, she argues, is largely invisible — but economically profound. “The core change will be that real estate will become electrified, energy-efficient assets,” she says. “For investors and owners, this will look like more predictable energy costs, lower risk, and the same brilliant guest or resident experience with less damage to the environment.”
It is a quietly radical vision: not gleaming new eco-districts, but the steady rewiring of what already exists. In Manchester, that vision is already occupied — one guest, one booking, one kilowatt-hour at a time.
