From small, limited-service properties to deluxe accommodations, a range of properties have found innovative means to make going Green work for their bottom line. The following best practices, as well as these case studies and news stories give ideas for implementing strategies that your guests, employees, and your profit margin will appreciate. For any inquiries on Green practices within hospitality, contact Kathryn Potter at kpotter@ahla.com or (202)289-3130.
For quick tips on cost-saving, eco-friendly actions you can take today, click here to view HD Supply's top ten list.
And click here for more information on your hotel's impact on the environment and ways you can improve environmental sustainability and reduce costs.
Energy
California Hotels Go for the Green
As California strives to enact green construction standards for all buildings, offering various incentives like priority building permits, one hotel worked to be the first LEED-certified hotel in California. The Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco offers eco-friendly accommodations, achieving LEED certification in June, 2007 as the third LEED- certified hotel in the U.S and the fourth hotel in the world. Saving 12 to 25 percent in electricity costs, the hotel began using European-style key cards that control lights in the rooms, in addition to using a heat exchanger and energy efficient light bulbs.
Somerset, N.J. Comfort Suites Increases Savings and Decreases Waste
Rupen Patel has found energy-saving alternatives that help lower costs without sacrificing service in his Somerset, N.J. Comfort Suites. After changing the light bulbs in his house to a more energy-efficient type of bulb, Patel noticed a large difference in his electricity bill and decided to make the same changes in his hotel. Patel uses compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulbs in his bathroom lighting fixtures, which use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs, last up to 10 times longer and lower energy bills.
In addition to reducing energy waste through CFLs, the Comfort Suites uses Thermopane glass in all windows as well as thermostat sensors, which help to regulate the room temperature and ensure that the unit is not running while the room is unoccupied. Patel also uses air-jet showerheads and faucets to decrease water consumption, and the guestroom walls are double-layered with drywall to keep heat from escaping. With the long-term cost benefits from saving energy, Patel hopes to replace the hotel's flat-screen televisions with plasma and LCD models.
Motel 6 Makes Room Improvements with Big Results
With the goal of saving an estimated $140 per room annually and 1,100 kilowatt-hours, Motel 6 will join forces with Honeywell and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to improve energy efficiency in more than 7,000 hotel rooms in California, by installing sensors that shut off air conditioning and heating equipment in unoccupied rooms. Dan Gilligan, vice president of utilities for Accor North America, calculated that this program will yield a reduction of 10.1 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year. In addition to retrofitting 13,440 rooms total, Honeywell will replace interior and exterior lighting and vending machines as well.
Operations
San Antonio Hyatt Regency
The Hyatt Regency, one of two employers in San Antonio, distributed 375 bus passes to workers, providing free transportation to and from work through 2008. As part of the VIA Metropolitan Transit and San Antonio partnership to provide an entire staff with bus passes, each full pass used by the Hyatt Regency will remove as many as 40 cars from the roads. In addition to transportation reform, the Hyatt has also installed CFL bulbs in all guestrooms and implemented an active recycling program.
Doubletree Portland, Oregon
Centrally located near the Oregon Convention Center and Rose Garden Arena, the Portland, Oregon Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center- Lloyd Center leads the Portland hotel industry with its environmentally-sound green practices. In addition to an extensive recycling program, including the recycling of over 90% of all cardboard, paper, plastic, and glass, The Doubletree also uses fully compostable corn-based plastic products, omits Styrofoam products, and purchases in bulk to reduce packaging waste. Along with the recycling program, the hotel has realized a 33% reduction in energy units consumed over a five-year period, thanks to varying water and energy conservation programs, such as closing entire guest floors during low occupancy, purchasing CFL light bulbs, and monitoring lights when not in use.
Hilton Garden Inn® Uses Corn-Based Plastic
Hilton Garden Inn® introduced environmentally-friendly coffee cups to its hotel restaurants throughout North America, becoming the first hotel chain to offer ecotainerTM in its hotels. In more than 340 locations, Hilton Garden Inn® will provide guests with cups coated with a corn-based plastic that requires less energy and generates less green house gas during manufacturing. By coating the cups with corn-based plastic, the cups can be composted, rather than landfilled, reducing some 25 million pounds of petroleum-based plastics needed yearly for conventional coffee cups.
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Go Eco-Friendly
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts are showing their commitment to the environment by running eco-friendly and responsible kitchens worldwide. Measures are taken daily to ensure that food is organic, sustainable and local, in hopes of minimizing the brand's impact on the planet. Across the globe, Fairmont hotels regularly recycle, reuse and donate, in addition to purchasing sustainable food items from local providers. The Fairmont Chicago, for example, uses 200 lbs of organic ingredients weekly, and The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto buys over 22,000 lbs of local onions per year. To learn more about the conservation program at the Fairmont Miramar, please see the Case Studies page.
Green Suites International Partners With Two Seattle Hotels
Green Suites International, a California-based supplier, has helped two Seattle hotels save money and the environment through its environmental products and programs. The hotel's EcoRooms® feature various environmentally-friendly products like CFL bulbs, non-toxic cleaning chemicals, Nature's Mist deodorizer, a linen reuse program, and lotion and liquid soap products dispensed from refillable containers in the shower and at the sink. The programs are attractive to hotels because they highlight the hotel's efforts and save them resources and money. Green Suites® International estimates that hotels using EcoRooms® products will save 20 to 70 percent on the cost of amenities, 20 to 40 percent on water, 70 percent of lighting energy, 10 percent on waste, and 10 percent on labor.
Certification
Harrah's Tower Wants LEED Certification
The new 665-room hotel tower and 263,000- square-foot Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., hotel addition will pursue LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Octavius Tower, being added to the Caesars Palace Hotel, will be completed next year; the tower is being built to save water and energy, as well as with green material selection and indoor environmental quality in mind. As a whole, the corporation wants to foster positive and committed relationships with communities by focusing on energy conservation, recycling, and other environmentally-friendly actions. Harrah's has instituted Green Teams to encourage fellow Harrah's employees to keep the company focused on its eco-goals, and to create innovative conservation programs that can be implemented throughout the company. Since 2003, Harrah's has reduced electricity usage by 100 million kilowatt-hours per day, decreased natural gas consumption by 1.6 million therms per year, and Harrah's has installed a 5-megawatt cogeneration facility at the Rio Hotel, which is one of the cleanest natural gas-powered facilities in the U.S.
MGM Strives for LEED-Certification for New Mirage Hotel
MGM's construction of a $7.4 billion Mirage helps them "LEED" the way in the hospitality green movement. MGM will pursue certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System by recycling 80 percent of construction waste and by building a monorail to the Bellagio.
Other hotels standing out for their green efforts include the Gaia Napa Valley, the only hotel in the U.S. to have earned the Gold certificate, and the Proximity Hotel, in North Carolina, is striving to be the second Gold winner.
Florida Governor Gives Hotels Reason to Strive for Green Lodging Designation
With a big push by the governor, Florida hotels are rushing to go green. While currently only 54 Florida hotels have earned the "Green Lodging" designation from the Department of Environmental Protection, 207 more area hotels have applied for certification and are being evaluated, with additional applications coming in at about 15 per week. Many hotels are finding motivation from Governor Charlie Crist's directive, who said that beginning in January, government-sponsored conferences would only be scheduled in green-designated hotels.
States Recognize Their Environmental Footprint and Decide to Go Green
An average-sized hotel, according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, generates as much as 30 pounds of waste per room per day, and washing one pound of room linen takes approximately two gallons of water, according to Hilton Hotels Corp. With a single large, fully occupied hotel with a typical stay of two nights using more than 34,000 gallons to clean room linens, many states are joining the green movement by creating green hospitality and tourism certification opportunities. Thirty states are currently pursuing greening initiatives, while several states have already implemented programs, including Florida, Rhode Island, Maine, and Michigan.
Allied Spotlight
FIJI Water: Our Path to Sustainable Growth
FIJI Water has partnered with Conservation International (CI) to become the first carbon negative product in our industry, giving back to the environment with every bottle. We will reduce our products’ carbon footprint at least 25% by 2010, and we will offset 120% of remaining greenhouse gas emissions starting in 2008. FIJI Water is also working with CI to save the Sovi Basin, the largest lowland rainforest in Fiji. The Sovi Basin shelters many endangered species and stores 10 million tons of carbon dioxide permanently – the equivalent of keeping about 2 million cars off the roads for a year.
