LAKE TAHOE, CALIF.—Approximately 80 people, including exhibitors and speakers, attended the first day of the West Coast Green Lodging Conference at the Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe—Hotel & Ski Resort. Conference activities included a keynote presentation by Glenn Hasek, publisher and editor of Green Lodging News, as well as presentations by the following: Randy Gaines, vice president of engineering for Hilton Worldwide; David Hansen, chief engineer, Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe—Hotel & Ski Resort; and Gary Golla, LEED AP, Sera Architects, Inc.
In his presentation, “The ‘Green’ State of the Lodging Industry,” Hasek elaborated on the 10 trends he sees driving the growth of green lodging. These trends include: concern about climate change, rising operational costs, government regulation, chain mandates and policies, consumer demand, increasing interest in certification, corporate and government travel demand (green meetings), industry peer pressure and the drive for marketing advantage, innovations (new products, materials, technologies, and design and building techniques), and leaders inspired to reduce waste, conserve resources and push the envelope when it comes to green building design and operations—all while remaining focused on the bottom line.
“Proof of the lodging industry’s commitment to do its part to address climate change is the many systems rolled out to measure environmental impact,” Hasek said, citing Hilton Worldwide’s LightStay program and the InterContinental Hotels Group’s Green Engage.
Hilton recently revealed that in LightStay’s first year, it had reduced carbon output by the equivalent of taking more than 34,000 cars off the road.
Getting More Efficient Pays
“Our industry’s biggest companies are taking the issue seriously—because their customers are, and because there is gold to be mined from becoming more efficient and producing less CO2,” Hasek said.
In regard to certification, he listed four reasons it is desired within the lodging industry:
1. The industry is conditioned to expect it, thanks to its history with star and diamond types of rating systems. Standards are the norm, and there is a desire to establish the definition for what is “green.”
2. The industry understands how a certification program can push a team of employees to improve operational efficiencies and create benchmarks for further improvement. The result of increased efficiency? Greater profitability.
3. There is a genuine desire to create mechanisms to help the industry reduce its environmental impact.
4. The industry understands the marketing and public relations value in having certification programs.
Hasek summarized the many green lodging certification programs available to hoteliers and pointed out that even though several thousand hotels have been certified, the vast majority of lodging establishments have not.
“Really, there has been little research to indicate whether or not consumers are seeking out certified businesses—especially hotels,” Hasek said. “In addition, no studies that I am aware of have measured hotelier and innkeeper attitudes toward certification. This is an area ripe for research—by a university or other organization.”
“In the next few years, it will become clear which certification programs will thrive or die,” Hasek added.
LightStay Already Successful
Hilton’s Randy Gaines, in his presentation, summarized the history of his company’s commitment to sustainability and demonstrated how LightStay works. LightStay, which will be a required standard at all Hilton properties worldwide by the end of next year, covers 200 operational practice areas. It costs a Hilton hotel owner nothing extra to participate. LightStay allows Hilton owners to benchmark the performance of other Hiltons with comparable square footage. In its first year, LightStay reduced the energy consumption in 1,300 hotels by an average of 5 percent.
David Hansen, chief engineer, Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe—Hotel & Ski Resort, described the many steps the Embassy Suites property has taken to reduce waste-related costs and reduce energy consumption (see related article). By simply removing cardboard from its dumpsters and recycling it, the hotel was able to save more than $2,000 a week. A food composting program is reducing overall waste by 50 percent with no additional labor and saving the hotel $5,000 a month. All food-to-go containers are made from plant-based products and cooking grease is sent to Reno for rendering.
Hansen, in 2009, convinced the hotel’s owners to spend $200,000 on projects to reduce energy consumption. He told the owners the payback would be no more than two years. It took just seven months, however, to recover their investment. The savings came thanks to variable frequency drives, an energy management system, ozone laundry system, motorized dampers on outside vents, and many other measures taken by Hansen and his supporting staff.
Laundry Drying Time Cut in Half
“We are no longer heating water for 95 percent of our loads,” Hansen explained, in regard to the ozone laundry system now in place at the hotel. “Our drying time has been cut in half. Our sheets go straight to the ironer.”
Overall, the Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe—Hotel & Ski Resort reduced its electricity consumption by 30 percent in 2009.
“You need to find the person at your property who is passionate about this,” Hansen advised to those in attendance looking to start sustainability programs.
Sera Architects’ Gary Golla presented case studies of two hotels in downtown Portland, Ore.: The Nines Hotel (see related article) and the Courtyard by Marriott-Portland City Center (see related article). He detailed the hard and soft costs each project accumulated in order to obtain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and explained how the developers were able to take advantage of grant programs to reduce those costs. Ultimately, The Nines had a LEED cost premium of just 0.5 percent and the Courtyard premium was eliminated after taking into account Oregon incentives for energy efficiency.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
