Urban Villages, a Denver-based real estate company, revealed updated plans to build what company officials call “the first carbon-positive hotel in the nation.”

The company’s goal is to be a leader in sustainable real estate that brings in profit while being good for the planet, an effort that has been in the process for two decades now, according to a news release.

Urban Villages broke ground on Populus in April 2022 and is expected to open early 2024. The real estate company has several projects under its belt, including the Railspur in Seattle — a revitalization project of three historic warehouse buildings in Pioneer Square — and the Sugar Block in Denver where the SugarCube mixed-use building sits.

Chief Development Officer Jon Buerge said the builders are learning as they go. But as the development process began on what would become the Populus building near Civic Center Park, the development team increasingly focused on how to reduce the building’s construction carbon footprint.

The team considered both embodied carbon footprint — or the carbon emitted through the development process — and the operational carbon footprint, which refers to the operation of the building once open.

Builders plan on “sequestering” much of the carbon emitted during the building process and once the building is open. The developers can’t literally catch the carbon as it is emitted. Instead, the carbon footprint would be offset by supporting ways to collect carbon instead. By supporting carbon-collecting plants, like trees, carbon sequestration helps remove carbon from the atmosphere.

In coming months, Buerge said the company will publish a report that clearly outlines the approaches Urban Villages is taking so that it can be an example to other developers on how to do similar projects.

While Urban Villages officials said they have always had some level of conscious behavior regarding the environmental impacts of its work, the company has become more aware of the carbon produced in real estate development. The awareness of carbon’s effects on the Populus project has spurred the continued efforts on lowering the environmental impacts of development, according to Buerge.

“At our core, we are environmentalists that do real estate,” Buerge said. “So, every project we’ve done, we’re constantly evolving our way of thinking about how do we build projects that are better for the planet.”

Even the architecture nods to nature through the work of Studio Gang, led by architect Jeanne Gang, who focuses on biophilic design — meaning sustainability and nature-inspired design, the company said.

This will be her first project in Colorado, so she went into the Colorado mountains to look for inspiration and began studying aspen trees as a core design for the building, the company said, adding the scars on the bark of an aspen tree create “aspen eyes,” which led to the unique design of the shapes in the building and window outlooks.

Buildings account for roughly 45% of greenhouse gas emissions in the nation, according to the news release from the company. But deploying “green” building techniques are more expensive, and typically cut into the bottom line.

Buerge breaks down seven ways developers can become more eco-friendly for existing and upcoming developments: carbon, water, landscaping, energy, reuse, branding and placemaking.

Companies should find out how much carbon is being emitted during construction, reduce that output as much as possible and then find way to neutralize the remaining carbon emissions, Urban Villages said.

“When you look at the kind of earth emergency we’re facing today of climate change, it really comes down to too much carbon in the atmosphere,” Buerge said. “There’s obviously a lot of factors … you have too much carbon that’s being admitted and not enough carbon that’s being sequestered.”

Water use in real estate can be lowered through the use of low flow appliances, using reclaimed water for indoor plants and using hooded windows to send rainwater down to naturally clean the building, according to company officials.

Beyond the obvious changes made for energy conservation, such as LED lighting, changes can be made in building materials, and construction workers can be more conscious about what lights remain on. Reusing building materials, or salvaging existing buildings can help as well, since over 60% of landfill materials are from construction waste in the U.S., according to the news release. The number varies, as other sources, such as the city of Lakewood, estimate that number to be around 35%.

While educating clients on environmentally-friendly solutions, businesses can show that these buildings can be a solution rather than a problem for the planet, the company said.