Home Energy Management Atman Hospitality Group’s Wen-I Chang Publishes ‘World’s LEED Hotels’

Atman Hospitality Group’s Wen-I Chang Publishes ‘World’s LEED Hotels’

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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.—Wen-I Chang, founder and president of Atman Hospitality Group, Inc., has published a book that profiles 23 green hotels—both pre-LEED pioneer green hotels and the LEED certified hotels that followed. The creator of the book, called “World’s LEED Hotels: Innovation, Renovation & Development,” is Ling Ling Chang, project manager with Atman Hospitality Group. Twenty of the hotels profiled in the hard cover book are in the United States, one is in the U.S. Virgin Islands, one is in Sri Lanka, and the other is in Chile.

Hotels profiled include: Post Ranch Inn, Big Sur, Calif.; Maho Bay Camps, Saint John, U.S.V.I.; Heritance Kandalama, Sri Lanka; Hilton Vancouver Washington, Vancouver, Wash.; Orchard Garden Hotel, San Francisco; The Ambrose, Santa Monica, Calif.; Gaia Napa Valley Hotel, American Canyon, Calif.; Gaia Shasta Hotel, Anderson, Calif.; The Brasada Ranch Inn, Powell Butte, Ore.; Proximity Hotel, Greensboro, N.C.; The Nines, Portland, Ore.; Explora Rapa Nui, Easter Island, Chile; CityFlats Hotel, Holland Mich.; Montage Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, Calif.; Courtyard by Marriott Portland City Center, Portland, Ore.; Hotel Arista, Naperville, Ill.; Hotel Carlton, San Francisco; Hotel Terra, Teton Village, Wyo.; Hotel Indigo San Diego Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego; Sandpearl Resort, Clearwater Beach, Fla.; and Cavallo Point, Sausalito, Calif.

The book includes a foreword by Tim Cole, chair, U.S. Green Building Council Board of Directors, and an introduction by Wen-I Chang.

“This book of hotel projects, though not all LEED projects, offers a view of some of the leadership within the hospitality industry and their commitment to the triple bottom line approach (environment, economic and social equity),” Cole says in the book’s foreword. “The facilities featured in this book have all contributed to the reduction of energy use, CO2 emissions, water use, and solid waste at the same time realizing lower operating cost, increased building value, a higher return on investment, and a higher occupancy ratio.”

Aspiring to Inspire

“My hope is that this book will educate, inspire and illumine a path for those who want to join this green mission,” Wen-I Chang says in his introduction. “This book invites you to rise to the challenge, to become part of a new energy breakthrough that will supersede the old energy breakdown. The future does not happen. We make it happen. Once the global consciousness expands, it will never go back to its previous dimensions.”

Developers, owners and managers of the properties profiled in the book were asked to submit essays describing their projects. Photographs illustrate the essays. The book leads off with a profile of the Post Ranch Inn, an eco-friendly inn first envisioned in 1984 and opened in 1992. Mike Freed, the inn’s co-founder and managing partner, tells the story of how a ranch first homesteaded in the 1860s became home to one of the first environmentally designed and operated luxury hotels in the United States.

“I am often asked whether being green attracts hotel guests,” Freed says in his essay. “I think green is the new luxury and hotels that aren’t green will lose guests….Most travelers want an authentic guest experience, and there is no doubt that our being green helps guests return home feeling good about their stay here.”

Also in the book, Stanley Selengut, owner and developer of Maho Bay Camps in Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands, tells the story of his property—considered the world’s first eco-resort. Selengut details the challenges he faced in building an inn without negatively impacting the fragile environment of a national park.

“Sustainability is the necessary direction we are all headed,” Selengut says in his essay. “In the long run it is cheaper and better for the planet. Customers like it more and feel better about supporting it. How soon we get on board is up to each of us.”

People Passionate About Their Projects

Ling Ling Chang says the book was about a year and a half in the making.

“It was an exciting project to work on,” she says. “What struck me most while working on the book is how passionate everyone was about their projects.”

She added that a website is in the works that will list LEED certified hotel projects. It will be located at www.worldleedhotels.com.

“Eventually, it would be great to do another book,” she says.

For more information on obtaining a copy of “World’s LEED Hotels,” click here.

Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.

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