I just returned from the 2010 Hospitality Design Exposition and Conference. It was held at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. Approximately 7,000 registered for the event that featured more than 900 manufacturers and service providers. Highlights for me were Green Day—the first day of the conference—and having an opportunity to meet with so many vendors, each with their own fascinating green story to tell.
If you ever want to get a sense of how the industry is faring, attending one of the annual big events is one way to do it. My conclusion after chatting with suppliers at HD Expo is that the economy is indeed recovering but not fast enough for most. Few suppliers were giddy about 2010 but there were some. Deals are getting done but there are still cost premiums to some green products that are delaying their acceptance. Show floor traffic could have been much better but many said the quality of attendees was high. The trade show floor was smaller than in previous years, not unlike other industry trade shows.
On Green Day, the keynote speaker, Jason F. McLennan, captured his audience’s interest by talking about growing up in the town of Sudbury, Ontario. Sudbury is known for its smoke stack that is taller than the Eiffel Tower. The stack is 1,247 feet high (380 meters). It was this stack, which sits atop a nickel smelting operation, that helped inspire McLennan to pursue sustainable design. Today, he is the CEO of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, The Council is a chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Canadian Green Building Council. McLennan is also author of the “Living Building Challenge” and co-creator of Pharos, a building material rating system.
Far Beyond LEED
The Living Building Challenge is not a contest but a certification program run by Cascadia Region Green Building Council that complements and goes beyond USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. There are currently no certified projects as the program is still quite new; it was launched in November 2006. The Living Building Challenge is comprised of seven performance areas, or “Petals”: Site, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity, and Beauty. Petals are subdivided into a total of 20 imperatives. Buildings can only be certified after proving their performance for 12 months.
Living buildings generate their own energy, depend entirely on harvested water (rain water) and recycled on-site water to meet water needs, and process their own waste. For many good reasons, there are currently no lodging owners or developers participating in the Living Building Challenge—or what McLennan calls “deep green hospitality.”
During his presentation, McLennan said technology is changing rapidly but we still build “very dumb buildings.” “Most green buildings today are still bad for the environment,” he said. “This industry has extra responsibility because it interfaces with so many people. When people come to our hotels, they should leave transformed. We must go farther and faster than LEED Platinum.”
Agree or disagree with McLennan’s compelling words, it is visionaries like him who are needed to push the building community closer to sustainability. (Click here to access the Living Building Challenge 2.0 document.)
Sustainable Suite at the Trade Show
The Sustainable Suite, the result of a competition organized by USGBC, the American Society of Interior Designers, and NEWH—the Hospitality Industry Network, was unveiled at HD Expo. WATG and IDEO were the winners with their “Haptik” suite. Haptik is a Greek word meaning to experience interactions based on sense of touch. Highlights of the suite included a wall in the shower that captures solar heat to help warm the shower water and a graywater irrigation system that filters and recycles shower water to outdoor gardens and landscaping. (Click here for more information.) When asked if the competition would be repeated in 2011, a USGBC spokesperson was not sure but seemed to lean against the idea.
GLN Welcomes Grant & Sons as Product & Service Directory Partner
Green Lodging News welcomes Grant & Sons Co., the Personal Care Division of Erwyn Products, as a Green Product & Service Directory sponsor. The division of Erwyn Products recently introduced My Earth, an amenity line featuring 100 percent compostable bottles that contain no petrochemicals. The soaps and accessories are packaged in recycled cardboard and printed with vegetable-based inks. Specific items that are part of the My Earth line include: shower cap, dental kit, convenience kit, nourishing shampoo, hydrating conditioner, cleansing body wash, moisturizing lotion, facial soap, moisturizing bar, and bath soap. For more information, call (800) 331-9208, e-mail rusty.grant@erwyn.com, or go to www.erwyn.com.
Advertising Opportunities in 2010
There are still some excellent Green Lodging News advertising opportunities available for 2010, including ad spots on the website and in the weekly e-newsletter. There are also many Green Supplier Spotlight dates available throughout the year. If your company has a product or products it would like to feature in Green Lodging News in 2010, be sure to contact me at (440) 243-2055, or by e-mail at editor@greenlodgingnews.com. The 2010 media kit is available by request or by clicking here. Thank you to all of those companies that consistently support Green Lodging News.
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As always, I can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
