GATLINBURG, TENN.—The Hilton Garden Inn Gatlinburg, adjacent to The Great Smoky Mountain National Park, is on its way to becoming the first LEED certified hotel in Tennessee. The 118-unit property opened on May 28. According to Logan Coykendall, part owner of the hotel and owner of Hospitality Management Solutions, the Sevierville, Tenn.-based management company that operates it, the Hilton Garden Inn should achieve a “solid Silver” LEED rating later this year. LEED, a certification program for new and existing buildings run by the U.S. Green Building Council, offers four levels of certification: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
The decision to pursue LEED was not an easy one for Coykendall and his development team. He first learned about the certification program in 2007. With the assistance of D&S Builders in Sevierville, Trotter and Associates Architects in Gatlinburg, and Ross/Fowler, an architecture firm in Knoxville, Tenn., he learned about the LEED process and eventually visited hotels that already had earned the LEED designation. One of the hotels he visited was the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, N.C., the first hotel in the United States to earn LEED Platinum. The owners of the hotel ultimately decided LEED was a worthwhile endeavor, even though it eventually would increase the hotel’s overall cost by from 5 percent to 7 percent.
Construction on the hotel began late last year and within eight months it opened. The hotel was built on the former site of a parking lot and strip mall.
“We were able to recycle 90 percent of the debris from the demolition,” Coykendall says. “Seventy-five percent of construction waste was diverted from the landfill.”
Paving Stones Allow Water Penetration
The hotel was built to respect its natural surroundings. It sits close to The Little Pigeon River. To minimize water runoff from the property, the owners spent $60,000 beyond what an asphalt parking lot would have cost and put in a parking lot made with paving stones. The stones allow the water to seep into the ground. Coykendall says he tested the stones by bringing out a fire hose and shooting water over the drive. The water never made it to the sewer drain, he says. Another upside to stones is that they reduce the heat island effect around the property.
Where possible, materials were procured from within a 500-mile radius of the hotel. The owners’ goal was to purchase 20 percent regionally but they exceeded that goal.
“We tried to get everything locally, even if we did not have to,” Coykendall says.
In some cases, Hilton, because of its brand standards, had to make an exception to allow a specific purchase. In regard to case goods, for example, Coykendall says there was at first no local vendor available through Hilton. Eventually, however, Hilton agreed to allow the hotel owners to buy their case goods from a vendor in Indiana.
The building is highly efficient. Thanks to dual flush toilets and other low-flow water devices, the hotel uses 30 percent less water than a typical hotel building its size. The building owners’ goal is to achieve 17.5 percent energy savings but Coykendall says they could reach 21 percent. Room sensors ensure that PTACs and VTACs do not run unnecessarily and every attempt has been made to eliminate incandescent lighting. Ninety percent of the lighting in the hotel is provided by fluorescents and LEDs.
Emphasis on Indoor Air Quality
The 100 percent nonsmoking Hilton Garden Inn Gatlinburg will earn the maximum amount of LEED points for low-emitting materials. The carpet and wallpaper used in the building includes recycled content, guests are given the option not to have their towels and linens laundered, and recycling containers are placed in every guestroom.
Once the hotel does earn its LEED rating, it will fit in even more perfectly in Gatlinburg, a community that has its own “Gatlinburg Goes Green” program. Pursuing a LEED development has been a great experience, Coykendall says. What he learned is that going green is a balancing act—one that involves considering the needs of the guest, the requirements of the franchisor, the requirements of the U.S. Green Building Council, and the need to run a profitable business in a responsible manner.
Here are just a few more green initiatives being carried out at the Hilton Garden Inn Gatlinburg:
• The hotel site provides several incentives to promote modes of transportation other than individual automobile use. Because the Gatlinburg trolley and aerial tram systems are just outside the hotel’s front door, public transportation is encouraged. By providing bicycle storage and changing facilities, the hotel encourages guests and staff to commute on bicycle. The use of low-emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles is encouraged by providing preferred parking for such vehicles. The parking lot has been sized no larger than the minimum allowed by local zoning requirements.
• The hotel’s owners selected all-native planting materials that can be sustained in the local climate without artificial watering. This completely eliminated the use of potable water for irrigation.
• An independent commissioning authority will test to see that the building’s heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration systems have been properly installed and calibrated, and perform according to the owner’s project requirements, basis of design, and construction documents. The benefits of commissioning are reduced energy use, lower operating costs, reduced contractor callbacks, better building documentation, and improved occupant productivity.
• At least 35 percent of the building’s electricity will be provided by renewable sources from the local utility company.
• The hotel compiled an educational display for the building lobby to share knowledge about LEED to help encourage others to implement similar practices.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
Go to the Hilton Garden Inn Gatlinburg.
