Spa visits carry measurable carbon footprints that vary with energy use and renewables

Abstract Spa and wellness centres constitute a fundamental aspect of contemporary health and lifestyle infrastructure, yet their environmental impacts remain under-assessed. This study presents a dynamic emissions calculator tailored to spa and wellness facilities, designed to generate transparent per-visitor emissions and support decarbonisation and benchmarking. By combining metered data such as energy and water with normalised non-metered sources including waste and staff travel, the model quantifies per-visitor emissions across Scopes 1, 2, and 3 and provides time-resolved profiles showing daily and seasonal patterns. Validation uses data from a large wellness resort and a small university sports park wellness zone. The results show that a typical visit results in average emissions of ~5 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent at the large facility and ~3.5 kilograms at the small facility, with on-site renewable energy in 2024 reducing emissions by ~33% and ~14% respectively.