FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.— TOPS’L Beach & Racquet Resort in Destin, Fla., owned and managed by ResortQuest Northwest Florida, has been awarded the EcoGreen Award following their “Go Green” initiative. The resort wanted to rethink the way it did business and look at ways to help the environment, while saving money in the process. They discovered a large portion of energy consumption is related to lighting and discovered that it made sense, on a cost-saving level, to commit to the EcoGreen Award online program, pioneered by Tropical Lights, Inc. in Fort Lauderdale.
The 52-acre property is comprised of gulf-front and gulf-view high rise buildings; townhomes; single-family homes; gulf-front restaurant and bar; fitness center and tennis courts; commercial kitchen; conference rooms; nature trail; half basketball court; putt-putt golf course; onsite maintenance and housekeeping departments; guest registration building; ResortQuest-owned buildings and ResortQuest-managed units, and Association-managed buildings. The entire resort took a little more than a month to transform from regular lighting to environmentally-friendly light bulbs and fixtures.
“ResortQuest Northwest Florida officially began its green initiative in February 2008,” says Melonee Lund, Green Team chairperson and owner relations manager. “With so many different structures and services at one property, TOPS’L was the ideal choice to spearhead this green initiative. Since eco-friendly lighting plays a significant part in acquiring Green Lodging certification through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, we decided to acquire the EcoGreen Award as our foundation for further green policy developments.”
“Replacing current non-green lighting with green lighting was minimal compared to the overall savings in the life of each bulb,” says Phil Tumminia, general manager of TOPS’L. “Also, we donated the functioning incandescent bulbs to Habitat for Humanity to help with their building needs.”
Tropical Lights Acts as Provider, Resource
Tropical Lights developed the EcoGreen Award Certification for the hotel, hospitality and restaurant industries to specifically reduce energy consumption by converting to efficient lighting technologies. Tropical Lights acts as a provider and resource, and the facility owner/operator reduces its energy consumption and benefits with a payback of reduced operating costs.
“The effort was certainly worthwhile,” says Tumminia says. “The transition took several weeks and did cost a few thousand dollars, but we believe it was a worthwhile investment.”
Stephen Leach, TOPS’L maintenance manager, was very positive toward the transition and said, “Tropical Lights, Inc. was very helpful in answering specific questions concerning the EcoGreen Award requirements. Time wise, it took about six weeks to list all fixtures, order the appropriate bulbs, wait for the bulbs to arrive, and then install them. The EcoGreen Award website (www.EcoGreenAward.com) was very easy to use, consultation with the Tropical Light’s inspector went very smoothly, and the whole process was seamless. On one single visit, the inspector informed us that everything had been completed perfectly, and before leaving, he granted us certification. That was exciting news. I was told that so often when inspectors come out to properties, they don’t have everything in place and sometimes he has to go back three or four times in order to grant certification.”
According to Tropical Lights, the United States could reduce energy consumption by 20 percent in just a single year with simple light bulb changes. U.S. buildings consume 65 percent of total electricity generated with lighting being more than 50 percent of that use. Efficient lighting technologies can reduce usage by almost 70 percent immediately, making it quite clear that this area is the place to start.
