Dennis Quaintance, the CEO and CDO (Chief Design Officer) of Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels, must be a football fan. During a conversation with him this past week, he kept on using the phrase “go deep” when asked what advice he would give to a hotel developer pursuing green building. Quaintance had every reason to be excited when we spoke—Super Bowl level excited. He just learned that his Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, N.C., had earned LEED for New Construction Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The Proximity Hotel is the first hotel in the United States to reach the Platinum level. Dennis and his development team have every reason to be excited and proud.
Being the first to Platinum is huge for many reasons. It means that the Proximity earned at least 52 points on the USGBC’s LEED points scale that ranges from zero to 69 (Dennis said they are at 55.). It also means that from an operations standpoint, the hotel building is highly efficient. In fact, it uses 41 percent less energy than a building of comparable size. Finally, it means that the Proximity is due for a landslide of publicity.
If you have any doubts about building a green hotel, I strongly suggest you talk to Dennis. He has developed a template worth repeating. His company’s 147-room hotel features 100 solar panels on the roof that help to heat the property’s water. Since the Proximity opened a year ago, the solar thermal system has met 60 percent of its water heating needs. “I think it is an urban legend that pursuing sustainable practices with new construction is too expensive,” Dennis says.
Additional Green Attributes
Here are just a few more things you should know about the Proximity Hotel:
• A $7,000 investment in water-saving devices such as high-efficiency toilets has already resulted in a $13,000 savings. Dennis says the hotel, in a year’s time, will use 2 million gallons less water than it would have had it not been for the investments in water-saving products.
• A $40,000 investment in a four-pipe HVAC system will be recovered in just two years.
• Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels took advantage of available tax credits and renewable energy credits to offset some of its costs.
• The hotel’s restaurant, Print Works, is included in the LEED certification.
• Long before the hotel’s certification was official, it had garnered publicity on the Today Show and in publications such as Travel & Leisure, Southern Living, Fortune, Outside, The New York Times, Travel Weekly and numerous other publications.
• Dennis attributes $400,000 in additional business the first nine months the hotel was opened to the fact that the hotel opened as a green building.
• Just by using energy-efficient lighting, the hotel will reduce its air-conditioning demand by 3 percent to 4 percent. By developing a highly integrated green building, air-conditioning demand will be 33 percent less than it otherwise would have been.
• Most of the property’s resource-saving features are unknown by guests, except those such as a master switch in each guestroom that turns all lights off.
The list of green practices at the Proximity Hotel is long. Visit the Proximity site or do a search on “Proximity” on Green Lodging News for additional information.
Again, for those developers thinking about building green, Dennis had this to say: “Do it. Don’t let anyone convince you that it is too expensive. Use the USGBC as your guide and don’t rely just on your consultants. Learn the vocabulary and know what it means. If you are not sincere, don’t do it. Hotels are a great place to get a start on the green building movement.”
GLN Earns Second Place Honor from Ohio SPJ
In the annual Ohio Society of Professional Journalists publication awards competition, Green Lodging News won second place in the “Best Trade Publication Web Site” category. The award presentation is scheduled for October 18 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. In its January 2008 edition, Northeast Ohio’s Inside Business Magazine named Green Lodging News the best business website in Northeast Ohio.
New Green Lodging News Blog
Be sure to bookmark the new Green Lodging News Blog in your browser. The address for the blog is http://greenlodgingnews.blogspot.com. More importantly, participate with your comments.
Plan Now for Fall, 2009 Advertising
If you are a supplier selling green products, be sure to call me at (440) 243-2055 to discuss your advertising plans for the fall and winter. Thank you to all of those companies that consistently support Green Lodging News.
As always, I can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
