A new tool that calculates the carbon footprint of an individual spa or wellness visit in real time has been published by researchers from the University of Surrey and Therme Group.
In a study published in Nature’s Communications Sustainability, researchers detail how the Dynamic Emissions Calculator for Spa and Wellness Centres (SPA-DEC) combines live metered data (such as energy and water use) with normalised figures for waste and staff travel, so that a facility’s total emissions can be allocated to each individual visit across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
The calculator was validated using data from two different and contrasting sites – Therme Bucharest and the University of Surrey Sports Park. A typical visit produced average emissions of around 5 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) at the large facility and around 3.5 kilograms at the small facility. On-site renewable energy reduced these emissions by around 33 per cent and 14 per cent respectively during 2024.
Because SPA-DEC is designed to work with the metered and operational data facilities already collect, the researchers say it can be adopted directly by operators of any size, without further development.
The research was carried out through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Surrey and Therme Group, co-funded by UKRI through Innovate UK. The University’s Centre for Environment and Sustainability and Centre for Sustainability and Wellbeing in the Visitor Economy led the scientific methodology and analysis, Therme Group contributed sector expertise, access to live operational data from its facilities and co-financing, and Innovate UK co-funded the partnership as part of its work translating research into practical use.
Dr Robert Hanea, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Therme Group, said:
“Our SPA-DEC is a world-first. Our industry now has a carbon footprint calculator of its own: peer-reviewed, real-time, bottom-up and dynamic, going beyond anything that existed before, and the methodology for a true carbon intelligence tool. It empowers spas, wellness centres and even theme and amusement parks, small and large alike, to manage carbon as an asset and build agile sustainability strategies, factoring carbon into daily operations.”
Professor Jhuma Sadhukhan, the academic lead of the KTP project at the University of Surrey, said:
“Life cycle assessment is a fundamental tool for engineering systems design and decision-making. However, a spa visit’s life cycle assessment does not follow the standard approach and needed out-of-box thinking. Working out how to divide a whole building’s emissions fairly between the people using it in real time is what makes this work significant and real-world application-oriented, as it can be adopted to a wide range of facilities in the tourism sector to assess and mitigate emissions.”
Dr Shona Campbell, of Innovate UK Business Connect, said:
“This publication evidences the quality and credibility of the innovative SPA-DEC tool, a practical output from a Knowledge Transfer Partnership that will deliver both commercial impact and sustainability benefits. This achievement highlights the value of the collaboration between an ambitious business and an expert academic team.”
SPA-DEC builds on a growing portfolio of dynamic, real-time emissions calculators for the visitor economy. It follows ATP-DEC, the Air Travel Passenger Dynamic Emissions Calculator, published in Nature’s Communications Earth & Environment. Further calculators covering accommodation, food and beverage, and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) are in development, working towards a common, science-based carbon standard across the visitor economy.
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