LAS VEGAS—About 400 people, including hotel developers, designers, architects and others were in attendance on the first day of the UNLV & JMBM Hotel Developers Conference here in Las Vegas. The event at the Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa was packed full of educational sessions and networking opportunities—all geared toward helping attendees understand the true cost of green hotel development, as well as the ins and outs of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.
The conference began with a keynote speech by Dan Esty, Director, Center for Environmental Law and Policy, Yale University and co-author of “Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage.” The title of Esty’s presentation was “The Business Case for Going Green.”
Esty discussed some of the drivers behind the greening of business: the coming of market-based regulations to control greenhouse gas emissions; rising energy prices; public demand; and the fact that it can lead to increases in profitability.
“Companies increasingly are taking the environment on as a core business strategy,” Esty said. “Corporate environmental strategy is critical to competitive strength. The world of stakeholders that cares about the environment has expanded considerably. It is not always easy and it is not always win-win.”
Esty said hotel companies should integrate green into all aspects of the business and hold managers accountable.
“It requires leadership from the top of the organization,” he said. “You have to have metrics and targets. Track progress and incentivize people to make good on it.”
CityCenter Project in Spotlight
MGM Mirage Inc.’s $8 billion CityCenter project was the focus of one session that included developer, designer and construction team members. MGM Mirage is pursuing LEED Silver certification for the mammoth project that eventually will employ 12,000 people.
“We wanted to do something that was a stretch,” said Cindy Ortega, Senior Vice President of Energy and Environmental Services for MGM Mirage. “We brought together architects who typically compete with one another. The sustainable aspects of the project are front and center. What pursuing LEED has done is make it hard for everyone to abandon environmental principles.”
Buildings in CityCenter will be powered with the assistance of a 10-megawatt heat and power plant. Low-flow fixtures will ensure that water consumption is 30 percent below code, and drought-resistant plants will be planted in exterior areas. During construction, cooling tower blow-down water from another casino has been used to control dust. A total of 2.5 million gallons of water has been used so far.
Nellie Reid, Director of Sustainable Design for Gensler, said one of the most challenging aspects of the project has been applying LEED standards—ones originally created by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for office buildings—to a mixed-use project.
“It has been a learning process for us,” Reid says.
Trying to Define Green
During a luncheon session, some of lodging’s top hotel developers addressed questions regarding LEED, its merits, and whether or not it should be the lodging industry standard for green development.
“I would like to have a LEED certification process that is hotel-centric,” said Tom Corcoran, Chairman of the Board, Felcor Lodging Trust Inc. and current Chairman of the American Hotel & Lodging Assn. “LEED may not get us where we need to be from an operations perspective.”
“LEED does not work as well in the select service segment,” added Marty Collins, president, Gatehouse Capital Corp.
“Our industry is still trying to get its arms around what green really means,” Corcoran concluded.
Demystifying the LEED Process
In a session entitled, “Demystifying LEED: What’s All the Fuss About?”, individuals who already have worked with LEED discussed their experiences. Stefan Mühle, general manager of the LEED-certified Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco, said it took his property just nine to 12 months to reach a steady 80 percent or more occupancy rate at an average daily rate of $180.
“The LEED process added discipline and ensured that we documented what we did,” added Philip Sherburne, president, Sherburne Development Group.
Sherburne is currently constructing the luxury 62-room Bardessono Inn and Spa in Yountville, Calif. The property will feature a 200-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system on its roof to generate electricity and ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling.
“There is no contradiction between luxury and green,” Sherburne emphasized.
Gary Golla, an architect with SERA Architects, Inc. in Portland, Ore., helped dispel the belief that LEED projects typically cost 5 percent to 10 percent or more than non-LEED projects. His company did a careful analysis of The Nines, a hotel project in Portland, Ore., and determined that construction costs will be just 1.2 percent more. Payback on that additional cost will be just 19 months after the 331-room hotel opens this summer.
Why do some developers choose not to build green? At this same session, the Orchard Garden Hotel’s Mühle explained: “Developers will often build a hotel and then flip it,” he said. “It can be difficult for short-term investors to realize the [benefits from building green].”
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
