Independent hotels and major chains have planted a crop of green hotels, with a few beginning to open, that stem from national guidelines constituting environmentally friendly construction.
Starwood Capital, Starwood Hotels, InterContinental and Fairmont have green hotel properties under construction or are seeking ways to retrofit existing properties.
To achieve true green classification, buildings must adhere to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards set forth by the U.S. Green Building Council. Those standards apply to sustainable site development, water and energy conservation, selection of materials and the quality of the indoor environment. Although there are specific LEED standards for several construction project types—schools, homes, neighborhoods and campuses—there are no such standards specific to hotels, which blurs the green distinction to an extent.
A longtime stumbling block to completing green builds is the added cost of construction. As PKF Consulting noted in a recent study, high construction costs already are preventing a number of planned hotel developments from ever breaking ground
(BTNonline, March 16). However, green builds are becoming more economically feasible for hotels, analysts said. Not only does following certain standards provide tax breaks for developers, but returns from investments in energy efficiency can more than make up for the additional construction costs, John Fox, senior vice president for PKF in New York, said.
"It adds on the front end, but over the life of the project, it might be worthwhile," he said. "Just look at what happened with energy costs this last year alone."
The first hotel in California to be built in line with the green building council's standards opened last year: the 86-room Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco. The hotel, in which more than half its wood-based products were certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, achieved LEED certification and was approved by San Francisco as a green business.
Starwood Capital Group late last year launched a new deluxe brand, "1" Hotels and Residences, which is positioning itself as the first global, eco-friendly luxury hotel brand
(BTNonline, Oct. 18). With its new builds in the works in Seattle; Mammoth Mountain, Calif.; Scottsdale, Ariz. and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the structures and their interiors will be built to LEED standards, and the Natural Resources Defense Council has signed on as an environmental advisor, according to Starwood Capital Group leader Barry Sternlicht.
"While some hotel brands pay lip service to the environment by asking guests to reuse towels and adding plants to a lobby, '1' is not using eco-friendly jargon simply as a marketing tool," Sternlicht said in a prepared statement. "Our intention with '1' is to build hotels and residences that are truly green and minimize their impact on the environment."
Meanwhile, Seattle-based Candela Hotels is positioning itself as another green brand on the luxury tier. Although development details are vague at this point, Candela plans to have its hotels built to the LEED silver level—the step above the certified level—and claims to be the first hospitality member of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Hotel lawyer Jim Butler on his Hotel Law Blog pointed out several other luxury developments underway, such as the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa that was built with recycled materials, a ductless energy system, certified lumber and solar lighting tubes.
"The hotel industry, like society in general, is beginning to become more aware of these kinds of issues, but that's not to suggest that there's been any massive movement," Fox said. "It's in its genesis, but I don't think it's as far along as some of the publicity about the whole concept would indicate."
Even though industry watchers said there's still a long way to go before the truly green hotel is widely available on the market, they also said the industry generally is moving in the right direction as they incorporate more of the standards in their builds and operations.
"I suggest that they're more like guidelines," Fox said. "Everybody's doing it, and everybody's trying to address it."
The movement itself has been around for years, as hotels have taken such steps as trying to decrease their laundry loads by urging guests to indicate which towels need washing. Starwood Hotels & Resorts has put those steps at the forefront of its new select-service Aloft brand, for example. It's combined some green construction standards like using recycled teak wood throughout the property and is taking other such steps as providing special parking spaces for hybrid cars and using dispenser units for shampoo and soap in showers in lieu of disposable bottles. "Our vision is to empower each guest to make ecologically responsible choices and to provide the operators the tools to help reduce our overall impact on the environment," according to Aloft vice president Brian McGuinness.
InterContinental Hotels Group recently awarded a contract to Pepco Energy Services to supply wind power electricity to its Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. and also piloted energy efficient training in 10 of its European hotels last year, according to David Jerome, IHG's senior vice president of global corporate social responsibility. Such moves are coming from guest demand, he said.
"They are gaining policy and increasingly impacting consumer preference," Jerome said. "Given that these trends are deeply embedded and long-term, IHG would expect that eco-friendly hotels will increasingly become an expected part of the way business is conducted."
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, meanwhile, has made a green meeting program available at all its properties to meeting planners, the company said last month. The Eco-Meet program gives meeting planners such options as in-room recycling, energy-efficient lighting, organic food service and reusable cutlery and decorations
(see story)."The industry does deserve credit for these important incremental steps," said Bjorn Hanson, head of the hospitality practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "There are many things that are clearly being done better than before."