Home Publisher's Point of View Assistant Director of Rooms Leads Brown Palace to Award-Worthy Level

Assistant Director of Rooms Leads Brown Palace to Award-Worthy Level

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This past week I posted an article on Denver’s historic Brown Palace Hotel. The 241-room property has quickly distinguished itself as one of the most ambitious green hotels in the United States. The property won the Good Earthkeeping Award in 2013 from the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Assn. and the Good Earthkeeping Award in 2014 from the American Hotel and Lodging Assn. While the property has had bee hives on its roof since 2009, it really has only been the last couple of years that the hotel has gotten its other green efforts in gear.

Hotel management made a smart move a little more than two years ago by hiring Brenna St. Onge as Executive Housekeeper. Brenna had been an eco-champion at properties she previously worked at and was eager to energize efforts at the Brown Palace Hotel. Brenna is one of the main reasons the hotel has made so much progress and a year ago she was promoted to Assistant Director of Rooms and Chair of Sustainability.

My article summarizes some of the property’s green accomplishments. The hotel’s website also lists many. In the last two years, a period when occupancy increased 19 percent, electricity consumption fell by 26 percent per occupied room. Natural gas consumption fell by 34 percent per occupied room. The hotel has been able to reduce its carbon impact significantly thanks to HVAC system upgrades, a transition to LED lighting, a laundry project called “Aquanomic,” the plugging of holes in the aging sandstone in the building’s exterior, and by doing simple things such as reminding employees to turn lights off.

Strong Improvement in Diversion Rate

Two new dishwashers are saving the hotel 1,000 gallons of water a day. Toilets, aerators and showerheads are all low-flow. Because the hotel has its own artesian well that goes 750 feet into the ground, it runs mostly independent of city water. Well water is used in guestrooms and public areas. The Brown Palace Hotel has made major strides in waste management over the last two years as well. The diversion rate increased by 390 percent from 2012 to 2014. “In August we hit an 89 percent diversion rate for that month,” Brenna says. “Year to date we are running just under 60 percent.”

I mentioned the rooftop bee hives earlier. The hotel is doing some of the coolest things with its honey. It sells pure raw honey in its spa and gift shop and Brenna designed a new in-room amenity line—soap and shampoo—that has the hotel’s own honey in it. The plastic used in the amenity containers, Brenna says, biodegrades easily. Also on the rooftop, tower gardens installed this past summer provide small quantities of herbs, lettuce and tomatoes for the property’s chefs.

While Brenna has spearheaded many of the green initiatives, it has most definitely been a team effort. There is an eight-person, all-volunteer sustainability committee. The approximately 500 employees are all trained on sustainability and all new hires get at least 20 minutes of sustainability training early on in training.

The Brown Palace Hotel is a showcase for how quickly progress can be made in an existing, historic structure. What is really exciting is that the efforts are really just beginning. Exterior improvements are not even half done and the hotel is only into the first year of its three-year run of HVAC system upgrades. Of course the hotel is also another prime example of how progress can be made when there is a strong eco-champion—in this case Brenna St. Onge—leading the charge.

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