ATLANTA—IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group), the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, announced that The Hotel Management Group, the company’s Americas Operations division, will launch a new environmental initiative to replace more than 250,000 incandescent light bulbs with new energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFL) in guestrooms at over 200 company-managed hotels across the Americas. This is the first of several new environmental programs, both global and regional, that the company is scheduled to introduce throughout 2007.
According to Energy Star, a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, a CFL’s lifespan is up to 10 times longer and they use two-thirds less energy than incandescent light bulbs. IHG’s program will result in an annual reduction of almost 50 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, which is the equivalent of removing more than 17,000 cars from American highways.
From a cost perspective, the typical savings per CFL is at least $30 over its lifetime. The incandescent light bulbs will be changed over to CFLs within one year. Over the course of the year, an additional 15,000 CFLs will be distributed to employees of IHG’s company-managed properties for use in their homes so that they have the opportunity to adopt the same practice being implemented at hotels.
On the Road for Energy Conservation
The program is a part of The Hotel Management Group’s “Chase The Extraordinary” road tour during which IHG executives will visit company-managed hotels and rally employees around new initiatives slated for 2007, of which the light bulb changeover is the lead effort.
“Chase the Extraordinary is our pledge to go beyond what is ordinary or usual by implementing best practices and innovative initiatives for our guests, owners and communities,” says Tom Murray, chief operating officer, the Americas, IHG. “Replacing the old incandescent light bulbs in hotels with energy-efficient, longer-lasting CFLs is an important step in doing our part to respect and improve our environment while at the same time improve our profitability.”
In keeping with the tour’s environmental theme, a 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid will be driven by the group of executives who will include Tom Murray, chief operating officer, the Americas and Alvaro Diago, area president—Latin America. The tour, which will reach over 30 states and 12 countries, launched from IHG’s Americas region headquarters in Atlanta on May 1 and will conclude at IHG’s annual Americas Investors & Leadership Conference in Dallas on Oct. 23.
IHG is partnering with TCP, Inc., on the new environmental initiative. TCP, Inc., an industry-leading lighting innovator and manufacturer of energy-efficient CFLs, is based in Ohio.
