SAN FRANCISCO—When the upscale Hotel Griffon in San Francisco receives its October water bill, they can anticipate a pleasant surprise. That’s because the boutique building’s 57 rooms and five luxury suites have recently been retrofitted with Perfect Flush dual-flush systems by Brondell. This dual-flush functionality will reduce the Hotel Griffon’s toilet water use by upwards of 18,000 gallons monthly, thereby saving the establishment close to $3,500 dollars per year.
In 2007, the Hotel Griffon underwent a full renovation. While that makeover included the installation of 1.6-gallon toilet tanks in all of its rooms, the popular Bay-area hotel wanted to continue its quest to conserve even more water. Now, those heavily used toilets are in the process of being revamped with Brondell Perfect Flushes. As a result, the hotel expects to save 37 percent of the water it previously used for flushing. At full occupancy, that figure represents a savings of 595 gallons per day or 217,175 gallons annually.
As a certified member of the California Green Lodging Assn., the Hotel Griffon engages in best practices for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. It has an extensive environmental policy in place, the aims of which include limiting chemical usage, reducing energy consumption, reducing solid waste, reducing its environmental impact to zero and reducing water waste. The installation of water-saving Perfect Flush systems is the establishment’s capstone effort to achieve those latter two aims and provide its guests with eco-friendly bath amenities.
Hefty Savings Anticipated
Just how much water and money can the Hotel Griffon expect to save from this retrofitting initiative? According to the Earth Easy blog, the average person flushes a toilet eight times per day. Multiply that figure by an average of two guests per room using the old 1.6-gallon toilets and the hotel was using almost 48,000 gallons of water per no-vacancy month just with its toilets.
Indeed, the establishment’s July 2009 water bill attests to that waste. Totaling a hefty $4,230, the invoice revealed that the Hotel Griffon used 266,288 gallons of water over the course of just one month. With the newly installed Perfect Flush, the hotel should see both numbers decrease significantly in October. Best of all, because the Perfect Flush system can be installed on the hotel’s existing toilets, the retrofitting will cost the establishment far less than the installation of completely new dual-flush toilets.
“Hotel Griffon is fully committed to reducing our overall environmental impact,” says Hotel Griffon’s general manager, Norbert Mede. “Perfect Flush was an easy way to reduce our water bill and guest response has been very positive about the product and our proactive eco efforts.”
Go to Brondell.
