Is This New Carbon-Positive Hotel in Denver the Future of Sustainable Travel?

The team that created the Populus Hotel in downtown Denver, Colorado, isn’t banking on the “sustainable travel” trend for success. Seven years in the making, the already buzzy hotel, with its all-white exterior created to look like an Aspen tree trunk, is promising to be the first carbon-positive hotel in the United States. Through a series of initiatives like composting and tree planting (more on that later), they promise to offset more carbon than the hotel emits.

Yet it isn’t the promise of sustainability they see customers coming for—though that will surely be the case for many visitors—it’s the stunning architecture, decor, and service. According to Jon Buerge, president of Urban Villages, the development company behind the hotel, building with the environment in mind is the responsibility of the business owners first. When people get there, they can learn about all the choices made to create it that way—hopefully taking away information about why it’s so important.

Thankfully, the building itself is a 13-floor, triangle-shaped wonder. The scalloped windows and bright white color make it stick out against the nearby Colorado State Capitol building and its surrounding parks. When you walk in the front doors, you’re immediately greeted with an upscale restaurant to your left and a high-end coffee shop to your right. Receptionists sit behind an upcycled giant oak tree desk, excited to tell you all about how your room key fob is actually a hidden wild tree seed that you can plant when you get home.