Green Lodging, Get Certified Before Your Competition

Nov 17

The 411 on Top Green Hotel Certifications

The race continues as hotels strive to one-up their competition. In January we had published an investigative article on green hotel certifications exploring various anglesof “why certify” and details of major certification programs. As the number of green certification programs continues to grow, we want to revisit some of the prominent certifications that continue to lead the hospitality lodging industry on the green trend.

Compared to the beginning of the year, hoteliers have more options than ever when it comes to selecting which green lodging certification program to participate and obtain. From established worldwide green certification programs to the recent state versions, analyzing the options could be overwhelming. The key factor in selecting the appropriate program is to ensure it provides absolute value through quantifiable results (ie. energy usage, cost reduction, guest satisfaction, etc). We recommend our clients to start with a hotel energy benchmarking and tracking system.

Are you in? Standing on the sidelines can cost you money in the long run. While obtaining a green certification is not mandatory, it could mean you are missing out on some great benefits, which include:

green hotel news

  • Reduced operating costs
  • Improve the bottom line
  • Demonstrate leadership in sustainability
  • Enhanced reputation, brand and market value
  • Federal and state tax benefits
  • Reduction of green house emissions
  • Attract eco-conscious travelers
  • Healthier environment for employees and guests
  • Attraction and retraction of talent

There are a variety of green certifications that can denote that a hotel is implementing specific green practices, however each program has a different focus, different priorities and different standards — no two are alike. In a recent article published by Hotel & Leisure Advisors, four aspects have been identified to distinguish the focus of green certification programs: “These broad categories consist of certifications for overall building structures, the building fixtures themselves, building operations, and overall management practices.”

Keeping these categories in mind, the following are top green lodging certification programs (in alphabetical order):

  • Audubon Green Leaf™ Eco-Rating Program: (www.greenleaf.auduboninternational.org) This program works with hotels to ensure that they are using green practices in their upkeep and everyday running of the establishment.A tiered certification program where environmental measures are evaluated according to: water quality, water conservation, waste minimization, resource conservation, and energy efficiency.

    • Rating: One to Five ‘Green Leafs’

    Recognized/Chosen by: The State of New York as statewide hospitality ‘greening’ goal.

  • EcoRooms® & EcoSuites™: (www.ecorooms.com) Certified properties must meet eight strict eco-criteria for membership and certification. The criteria includes: use of Green Seal certified cleaning and paper products, towel and linen reuse program, recyclable waste program, energy efficient lighting, high efficiency plumbing, and 100% smoke-free properties.

    • Rating: Must meet all eight program requirements

    Recognized/Chosen by: American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) and the American Automobile Association (AAA).

  • EPA’s Energy Star label: (www.energystar.gov) The Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program enables buildings to qualify through meeting strict energy performance standards. Energy Star labeled properties use less energy, have reduced operating expenses, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. To be certified, the property mustattain a minimum score of 75, the top 25%, based on EPA’s National Energy Performance Rating System. As of November 2010, there are 426Energy Star labeled U.S. hotels.

    • Rating: Must obtain a score of 75 or higher

  • Green Globe Certification: (www.greenglobecertification.com) This is a certification label for sustainability in both management and operations. Certification criteria cover several areas, including sustainable management and social economic, cultural heritage, and environmental aspects of sustainability.The program’s criteria are also updated annually to ensure international compliance.

    • Rating: Must achieve threshold of at least 35% of the total 1,000 points

  • Green Key®: (www.green-key.org) The is an international eco-label for leisure organizations including hotels, conference centers, youth hostels, and campsites. As a graduated rating system, hotels are given guidance on how to “unlock” opportunities to the next level. The program assesses the five main operational areas of a property and covers nine sustainable practices.

    • Rating: One to Five Green Keys

    Recognized/Chosen by: Carlson Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, Motel 6, and Accor North America. The state of Indiana as statewide green initiatives program.

  • Green Seal certification: (www.greenseal.org) This tiered certification is presented to those lodging properties that achieve various levels of compliance with GS-33, Green Seal Environmental Leadership Standard for Lodging Properties. Properties must demonstrate science-based evaluation of sustainable practices in following areas: waste minimization, energy efficiency, conservation and management, management of fresh water resources, wastewater management, hazardous substances, and environmentally conscious purchasing.

    • Rating: Bronze, Silver or Gold Levels

    Recognized/Chosen by: The city of Los Angeles through its Green Business Initiative, as well as Chicago through its Green Hotels Initiative.

  • USGBC LEED® certification: (www.usbgc.org/leed) The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. Promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

    • Rating: Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum Levels

About Author
Susan Patel, VP of Technologies & Communications. Leads business development and operations and is the Site Director and Managing Editor of EcoGreenHotel online publications.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
Filed Under: Uncategorized

Foundation for Successful Energy Management

Oct 26

energy managementNationwide we’re seeing growth in the green economy, but hurdles still remain as hotels, companies, and other businesses look for resources and funds.

One growth area that we have noticed is the emergence of opportunities around energy. With Obama focusing on green and clean technology, we’ll be seeing more funds (tax rebates, federal energy incentives, etc) allocated to help businesses move towards our national goals. Case in point, over the next three years, $900 million in federal and state grant money will be going to Chicago for energy efficiency work according to Chicago’s Department of Environment.

Good news for the future, but what about now? Not only are resources needed, but money is needed. With banks virtually putting a freeze on grants to small businesses including hotels, more and more hotels are struggling to either meet budget goals, or even sustain their financing, forget about trying to fund an energy project.

So what can green hotels do now with limited funds? Aside from the simple measures such as replacing incandescent lighting to CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) or LEDs, we, at EcoGreenHotel,also recommend green hotels to prepare for an energy efficiency project.

energy starEnergy Usage & Benchmarking
It is astonishing to see how many properties are still not tracking their energy/utility usage. As a company focused on helping hotels stay in business, we don’t start any hotel energy projects without benchmarking it in ENERY STAR Portfolio Manager. Tracking and managing your energy performance is critical.

It is very simple, if you do not know where you are starting, the baseline, how do you know how far you have gone? How do you quantify energy savings or monitor your energy usage? How do you know if your most recent energy conservation measure reduced your usage? You have to evaluate progress, measure results and benchmark against your competition to know exactly where you stand. Otherwise it is going to cost you.

The key action hotels seem to overlook is they can start benchmarking and tracking energy usage anytime – even today. Hotels don’t have to wait until they have secured funds for an energy efficiency project or wait for senior management approval or new budgets. On the contrary, understanding current and past energy use is how many organizations identify opportunities to improve hotel energy performance and gain financial benefits. It can pay for itself by highlighting which hotels use the most energy, pointing to areas of greatest opportunity, and even identifying errors in utility bills, such as overcharges, that might have otherwise gone unnoticed and paid.

Assessing your energy performance helps you to:

  • Categorize current energy use by fuel type, operating division, facility, product line, etc.
  • Identify high performing hotels for recognition and replicable practices.
  • Prioritize poor performing hotels for immediate improvement.
  • Understand the contribution of energy expenditures to operating costs.
  • Develop a historical perspective and context for future actions and decisions.
  • Establish reference points for measuring and rewarding good performance.

In the end, starting sooner than later is going to benefit in the long run. Not only will the tracking system for maintaining the ENERGY STAR portfolio be established, but it will also become a standard process that your staff will be familiar with when you do start implementing your hotel’s energy efficiency projects, which will then allow free time for other things.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
Filed Under: Green Hotel Products, Sustainable Hotels

The Drive for Energy Efficiency

Oct 21

A Road Map for Your Green Hotel

ROBBINSVILLE, N.J. –According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, American hotels spend an average of almost $2,200 per available room on energy each year, representing about six percent of all operating costs.

A reduction in energy consumption of just ten percent is the same as raising the average daily room rate at your green hotelby $.062 to $1.35. That savings can really add up – look at what it did for Marriott International.  Just by changing lighting and laundry systems at its green hotels, the company was able to save almost $6 million in 2006 alone, not to mention reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 70,000 tons!

What’s that you say?  Your green hotel is nothing like Marriott International so this information doesn’t apply to you?  Okay…maybe the Willard Intercontinental in Washington, D.C. is more your type. Just by changing to CFL lighting in guest rooms and commons areas, the Willard saved a whopping $100,000 in one year!  The upgrade paid for itself in just six months, and guest complaints about lighting quality actually decreased after the property made the switch.  Who said that guest satisfaction goes down when hotels go green?

There’s never been a better time to increase energy efficiency at your green hotel. The savings are real, the benefits are quantifiable, and the expert help is right here.  EcoGreenHotel has guided green hotels from coast to coast through the process of benchmarking, certification, upgrading, and funding. They’re pros at helping properties just like yours locate and obtain the federal, state and local tax incentives, rebates, grants and loans to get the job done, quickly and cost-effectively.

We’ve got the roadmap to energy efficiency and major cost savings for your green hotel, and we’re ready to roll!

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
Filed Under: Green Hotel Products, Sustainable Hotels

Five Tips Before Your Green Hotel Selects a LED Lighting System

Oct 19

The advancement in lighting technologies now means that there are a spectrum of energy-efficient light bulbs including LED bulbs available to purchase. LED retrofits can offer your green hotel two key benefits: (1) some fixtures can deliver up to 85 percent energy savings and (2) the life span of LEDs average about 50,000 to 100,000 hours, reports Retrofit Magazine. Before making a decision on a retrofit however, green hotels first have to evaluate their current lighting layout and future requirements.

With seven percent of all energy consumed in the U.S. being for lighting (stated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)), even the Obama Administration has been setting energy conservation standards for certain types of fluorescent lamps and incadescent reflector lamps, and is investing $346 million in energy-efficient building technologies.

LED, lighting emitting diode, lights are the most efficient type of lighting and can last up to 100,000 hours. LED bulbs are new and more expensive technology that is not as commonly used as either incadescent or CFL bulbs, but they are steadily decreasing in price. Due to the initial cost, hotels first need to consider several factors including the condition and voltage of the hotel’s existing wiring and circuitry before making the investment. Certain LED fixtures may not be compatible with the voltage rating and control preferences such as for dimming and/or motion control.Therefore, having a professional energy auditor can save you time and money from potential expensive mistakes.

Other aspects include downtime for the installation, how much energy savings the hotel expects from the retrofit, manufacturers’ warranties, who will install the new lighting systems and whether it’s necessary to take before and after light-level and energy readings.

Operators implementing hotel energy-efficiency measuresshould also call local utilitiy companies to check on rebates for energy-efficient lighting and/or tax deductions or credits. This can significantly save on the initial investment cost.

The followiing are five tips for selecting LED systems suggested by Retrofit Magazine:

  1. Understand the fixture manufacturer’s claims including the performance of the products, up-front equipment costs, ongoing energy and maintenance costs and after-sale support
  2. Evaluate the quality of the LEDs by comparing the light output and efficiency to the green hotel’s benchmarking tests [Benchmarking is critical to evaluating any energy conservation measure]
  3. Evaluate the performance of the LED lighting fixture with your Energy Star benchmarking data and the manufacturer’s metric reports
  4. Verify the claims by the manufacturer for light and energy performance
  5. Review the installation requirements for LED lighting fixtures and ensure that your new fixtures are compliant to the National Electric Code requirements for installation of light fixtures
SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
Filed Under: Green Hotel Products, Sustainable Hotels

Five Robust Steps to Prepare and Ensure Energy Success

Oct 18

Whatever the driving force, energy efficiency will be an integral part of staying successful in this competitive business environment. The phrase, “going ‘green’ to make ‘green’” holds true. Global Business Network (GBN) in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and with the help of twenty major U.S. company senior executives have identified a set of strategies that will help businesses act now to prepare for future energy-related risks.

Plan for the Future
Scenario planning is a strategic planning tool that has been in existence for a while. Industry leaders have implemented this strategy to identify and develop plans for coping with some of the major risks the future might hold. The aim is to highlight the risks and uncertainties of the future that one should be starting to deal with now.

For example, Shell used scenario development as a basis for formulating strategies to cope with the possibility of OPEC reducing oil supply and raising prices, an eventuality no other oil company foresaw. When this happened in 1973, within two years Shell went from the world’s eight largest oil company to the second largest.

The executive group participating in GBN’s workshops created the following four plausible “roads” ahead, each posing a specific challenge:

  • The Same Road – where the world continues much in the same direction it appears to be going now in regard to energy and environmental concerns around climate change
  • The Long Road – where the world undergoes a significant shift in the economic, geopolitical and energy centers of gravity
  • The Broken Road – where the world continues much in the same way as today, but is then hit by a severe event that overturns established systems and rules
  • The Fast Road – where reasoned decisions and investments about energy efficiency and climate risk are made early enough to make a difference

Take Action Now
All twenty-business leaders were asked to explore the impacts of these four “road” scenarios in regards to energy strategy and management in their companies. “Our group of business executives looked to the scenarios and considered the strategies that would enable a company to successfully travel along whichever future actually emerges,” write Erik Smith and Peter Schwartz, authors of GBN’s ‘Energy Strategy for the Road Ahead’ article.

The group concluded all businesses should take the following five robust steps to prepare and ensure energy success regardless of the future:

  1. Master the fundamentals of energy efficiency.
    Build the culture through leadership and with the help of experts. Set goals, measure and track energy performance, establish accountability and other systems across the business.
  2. Take both a longer and broader view of investments and strategic decisions about energy.
    Make major strategic decisions (e.g. technology choices, facility location for new builds) with energy cost, use and supply in mind. See the entire Energy Value Chain, including upstream inputs from suppliers (into internal operations) and downstream outputs to customers (from internal operations).
  3. Search out business transformation opportunities in the way the business manages, procures and uses energy.
    Frame energy as a lever for positive growth and change within the business, not simply a cost. Be innovative and aggressive in pursuing and publicizing new product and service offerings based on new energy technologies and supplies.
  4. Prepare contingent strategies for emergent future scenarios.
    Rehearse specific aspects of the “road ahead”, including substantial and sustained swings in energy price and supply, severe weather events and penalties or incentives around energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Actively manage exposure to risks and ready plans. Monitor for signs of which “road ahead” is emerging.
  5. Take personal action.
    Both corporate leaders and employees can take numerous green actions today whether at work our outside.

Content and information retrieved from the following source (credited to):
Smith, Erik & Schwartz, Peter. (2007). Energy Strategy for the Road Ahead (Global Business Network, a member of the Monitor Group). Retrieved from http://gbn.com/articles/pdfs/GBN_EPA_Energy%20Strategy%20Scenarios.pdf.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
Filed Under: Green Hotel Products, Sustainable Hotels
Next Page »

Tip of the week

Idling wastes money and gas, and generates pollution and global warming causing emissions. Except when in traffic, turn your engine off if you must wait for more than 30 seconds.
Eco Green Hotel Products
Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge