Is eco-luxury a contradiction in terms?

It is one of the few areas where the most fervent eco-warrior and the most frivolous consumer can agree, albeit for very different reasons. For the deep green environmental campaigner most eco-luxury projects are the very definition of 'greenwash'; better than non-green alternatives, but still pandering to a system of entirely unsustainable high-end consumption. Meanwhile, many dedicated followers of fashion also regard eco-luxury as an oxymoron, although this time because they see a supposedly luxurious product or service being compromised by environmental considerations.

Both schools of thought have a point. Many high-end green products have wafer-thin environmental credentials and singularly fail to address the over-arching tension between planetary constraints and encouraging consumption. Equally, if you are anything like me you have heard plenty of horror stories from friends who visited an 'eco-lodge' or bought some 'eco-shoes', only to find that the experience was less than perfect. The best (or should that be worst) one involved a 'luxury' green hotel that charged a fortune for an experience that was so 'back to nature' it pretty much equated to spending a week living in a decrepit shed.

However, it doesn't have to be that way. And anyone seeking to dispel the notion that eco-luxury equates to either greenwash or slumming it need only travel to Cornwall's Scarlet Hotel.

The ultra-modern Scarlet Hotel and Spa lies about halfway between Newquay and Padstow on Cornwall's scenic north coast, perched above the beautiful Mawgan Porth Bay with each of its 37 rooms positioned to command a sea view. My partner and I were lucky enough to spend a few days there late last year and it would be remiss of me not to report that it was one of the best hotels I've ever stayed in.

This is a hotel that combines all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a four-star hotel with a five-star location, and the friendly and welcoming staff that characterise the best boutique hotels. You'd be hard pressed to find a fault. The rooms are stylish and modern, the views are spectacular, the pool and outdoor hot tubs are the very definition of decadence and, while 'tri dosha facials' aren't exactly my thing, the spa offers an impressive array of treatments. Add in a cosy and well-stocked bar, a fantastic restaurant overlooking the Atlantic and a giant beach, and you have a hotel that will appeal to the most demanding of guests, regardless of their views on green buildings.

In fact, it is one of the hotel's biggest strengths that it wears its eco-credentials so lightly – if you are not interested in environmental issues you would not necessarily know that the Scarlet is at the cutting edge of green design; you would just think it was a beautifully situated high-end hotel.

However, if you are interested, the Scarlet has a hell of a story to tell – a story that could prove significant to both the hospitality industry and the wider building sector.

My tour of the hotel in the company of its full-time sustainability manager Claire Beard came at the end of our stay, and I must admit that having spent three days in what looked and felt like an entirely conventional, if rather luxurious, hotel, I was fully expecting to be slightly underwhelmed by the operation's green credentials. It was unclear precisely how a hotel that felt so normal could really embody a fundamentally greener future.

My scepticism was quickly blown out of the water by two quite startling statistics: the building's carbon emissions were 73 per cent lower and its energy use 84 per cent lower than a conventional hotel of the same size. Nothing had really been compromised, the hotel still attained the highest standards, and yet its emissions were nearly three quarters lower than a comparable hotel.

Beard explained this achievement had been realised by an array of green choices and technologies that have shaped the construction and operation of the hotel.

Firstly, the old Tredragon Hotel that previously stood on the same site was carefully deconstructed with as many of the building materials as possible being reused. The new hotel was then positioned to maximise the use of light, limiting the need for lighting and optimising the location of the solar array that heats the hotel's pool. Construction materials were then selected to limit environmental impacts with FSC-certified timber, recycled content, PVC-free piping, and insulating green roofs all to the fore, while what little cement that was used was produced from local china clay mines.

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