ITHACA, N.Y.—More than 25 hotel industry leaders gathered on October 29 to 30 at Cornell University’s Statler Hotel for a Sustainability Roundtable. The Roundtable was sponsored by Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research. Roundtable participants discussed the following topics: “The Role of the Sustainability Department in Hotel Companies,” “The Impact of Emerging Codes, Laws and Regulations,” “Guest Engagement and CSR (corporate social responsibility),” and “Carbon.”
In the first session on “The Role of the Sustainability Department in Hotel Companies,” David Jerome, senior vice president, corporate responsibility, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), said sustainability is about helping people understand what’s possible. “It is a business issue,” he said. “It is already here, whether you understand it or not. It is not a threat if you look at it properly.”
Jerome and Hervé Houdré, regional director of operations at the Barclay InterContinental Hotel in New York, both talked about InterContinental’s “Green Engage” program. Green Engage consists of Web-based software that gives representatives of IHG properties access to a 108-point checklist that is a guide for greening their hotels. Jerome told Green Lodging News earlier this year that he believes Green Engage eventually will help IHG hotel owners save at least $200 million.
Houdré, who recently worked as general manager of the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C., said Green Engage is now the foundation for sustainability at IHG. When with the Willard, Houdré led an effort to publish one of the lodging industry’s only sustainability reports for an individual property. He also challenged his sales team to generate $1 million in new business based on their sustainability commitment. At last count, more than $800,000 in new business had been brought in thanks to the hotel’s green emphasis.
Push for Triple Bottom Line Approach
“Every organization in the world should have the triple bottom line as the basis for their business strategy,” Houdré said, adding that he believes every corporation should also have someone on the board representing sustainability.
Not every large hotel company has a corporate level sustainability or CSR officer but five were represented at the Roundtable: IHG’s Jerome; Michele Diener, director of corporate sustainability strategies, MGM Mirage; Faith Taylor, corporate vice president, sustainability & innovation, Wyndham Worldwide; Mari Snyder, vice president, social responsibility and community engagement, Marriott International, Inc.; and Brigitta Witt, vice president environmental affairs for Global Hyatt Corp.
In discussing the role of the sustainability department at Global Hyatt Corp., Witt said the emphasis is on conserving energy and water and reducing waste. “Any time you conserve resources and reduce waste, you save a lot of money,” she said. Witt explained that there are times when recycling cannot be done because of a lack of infrastructure for it. MGM Mirage’s Diener said, however, that when her company was faced with recycling the waste from the soon-to-open CityCenter project, it helped finance a recycling company that could handle the waste.
Wyndham’s Faith Taylor, who said she believes it is her role to move the sustainability conversation forward in her company, said the lodging industry needs development models that prove the financial value in sustainability strategies. She added that those working in banking and finance also need to be educated about the value in developing and operating green buildings.
Certifications, Codes Discussed
In discussion of “The Impact of Emerging Codes, Laws and Regulations,” topics ranging from certification programs to building codes were addressed. Marc Heisterkamp, director, commercial real estate for the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), said at least two cities—San Francisco and Washington, D.C.—are using USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building rating system as their green building code. “Mostly on the design and construction side, not on the existing building side,” Heisterkamp said.
Taylor pointed out that there is a proliferation of certification programs in the lodging industry and the industry does not yet have a standard for how it should report on climate impact. David Sherwyn, associate professor of law at Cornell University, posed this question: “Is it necessary to write standards or will the market take care of it?”
Patrick Maher, partner, The Maher Group, LLC, said that the American Hotel & Lodging Assn. approached AAA earlier this year about including a hotel’s green attributes as part of its diamond rating system but AAA passed on the idea, saying that there has not yet been enough of a push from industry CEOs for such a rating addition.
During the “Guest Engagement and CSR (corporate social responsibility)” discussion, the topic of carbon offsetting was discussed and whether or not travelers are making the effort to offset their hotel stays. “I have not seen widespread acceptance of this,” said Marriott’s Mari Snyder. When asked whether guests are expressing interest in participating in Marriott’s Amazon rainforest protection program, Snyder added, “We are not yet seeing substantial interest from our guests.”
Getting Guests to Participate
Mark Boekenheide, senior vice president-hotel development for the Related Companies, asked Roundtable participants this question: “How do you get your guests to aggressively participate [in green programs]?” Global Hyatt’s Witt responded, saying, “At Hyatt, we don’t see it as part of our responsibility right now. We see the 60,000 people who work for us as our agents of change.”
“Training employees is a major CSR component,” added Eric Ricaurte, managing partner, sustainability analytical services, EnviRelation, LLC.
In the final session on “Carbon,” Ricaurte said that in the lodging industry carbon can be measured at the corporate level, individual hotel level, or on a per-room-night basis. He believes the per-room-night metric will become more common.
Roundtable participants briefly discussed the cap and trade (emissions trading) concept, agreeing that eventually it will consist of a patchwork of systems. Scope one, two and three emissions were also defined (click here for definitions).
Do most in the lodging industry even understand carbon issues? Wyndham Worldwide’s Taylor said, “It is an ongoing education process to get franchisees to understand carbon.”
Representatives of Cornell wrapped up the Roundtable by pledging to repeat the event in 2010.
Click here to access the School of Hotel Administration website at Cornell.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
