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these areas. He urges the property manager to hire local lighting, mechanical, and electrical contractors to audit the hotel’s lighting, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning equipment, and electrical equipment. In addition:

Energy-saving lighting retrofits have always been the most popular energy-saving projects for hotels, for obvious reasons. Insist that the contractor individually address the guestrooms, the corridors, the public space and the back-of-the house as separate categories. For example, the corridor operates twenty-four hours a day, while guestrooms operate on the average of four hours per day.

Typically, older [mechanical] equipment brings in an excessive amount of outside air which must be either heated or cooled. This includes areas such as bathroom exhaust from guest rooms, kitchen exhaust, and air handling units that close at the end of the work day.

Electric motors that are five horsepower or greater can easily [be] replaced with new energy-efficient electric motors that have a very good return on investment, especially motors in air handlers such as those that serve corridors and operate twentyfour hours a day.

The variable frequency drive allows the hotel to speed up or slow down a motor depending on the needs of the area that it serves. Slowing down a motor by just twenty percent provides a fifty percent reduction in energy consumption.

Sometimes it is necessary to install capacitors at a hotel’s main electric vault to correct the Power Factor, a term used by utility companies to measure the efficiency with which each of its commercial customers uses electricity. An electric contractor can resolve the problem for less than $2000 and under a one-year return on investment.20

The Greening of the Lodging Industry

Businesspeople should reflect carefully on the responsibility to take care of environmental resources. This is not only a responsibility the organization owes future generations but also another opportunity to make profits for the organization. The money saved in laundry cleaning products, energy to operate washers, dryers, and other pieces of equipment in the laundry, water to launder bedding and towels, and labor in personhours can add up.

Many hotels place a printed card on the pillow of an unmade bed asking guests to indicate their preference for bed making as an option. This can save many thousands of gallons of water, energy, and cleaning products per day if guests are inclined to participate with this program.

Ishmael Mensah reports, “Studies conducted by the International Hotels Environment Initiative (IHEI) and Accor revealed that 90% of hotel guests preferred to stay in a hotel that cared for the environment.” He adds, “Cost savings seem to be the prime motivation for the increasing adoption of environmental management practices [energy and water] in hotels.”21

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Executive housekeepers work in conjunction with chief engineers to find green clean products to use in the laundry.

In December 2007, a roundtable discussion of several lodging industry leaders gathered to discuss the future trends for 2008. At that discussion, Jim Butler, a hotel lawyer and business advisor specializing in creating solutions for hotel owners, developers, and lenders for Global Hospitality Group® of Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP, stated the year 2007 will go down as the year the hotel industry hit the tipping point on going green.22 Since then, the greening of the lodging industry has taken on a product significance of its own for guests seeking value in their guest stay; investment and property managers searching for ways to manage costs; and chief engineers investigating ways to evaluate the effectiveness of front-line methods used in conserving water and electricity, and using ecological friendly products and promoting a healthy facility. David M. Green, president of Cre 8 Hospitality, an organization that specializes in consulting and training for the hospitality industry, offers easy steps for housekeeping managers to begin developing and implementing a green cleaning program.

Create your own green library with books, publications, websites, newsletters, etc. Purchase green cleaning products by visiting www.GreenSeal.org and clicking on

“Find a Certified Product/Service” [to] find product classifications for sanitation, cleaning and floor care products with information to clarify their intended use.

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Use green paper/plastic products—check the website www.GreenSeal.org for standards.

Introduce green equipment by finding information on the Carpet and Rug Institute website, www.carpet-rug.org. This site will provide information about [the] Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) Seal of Approval and Green Labeled equipment. By using certified equipment a hotel can increase the number of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating points it earns.23

It is to be noted that Marriott was the first [October 6, 2005] major hotel company in the U.S. with a LEED certified hotel—The Inn and Conference Center by Marriott at the University of Maryland in College Park. “LEED certification gives these hotels a ‘green’ stamp of approval that our customers recognize and look for,” says Arne Sorenson, Marriott’s newly appointed President and Chief Operating Officer and cochair of the company’s Executive Green Council. “Saving energy and reducing waste saves money and helps the environment—it’s good for business and a key part of our growth strategy.”24

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

Here are highlights of the U.S. Green Building Council website, www.usgbc.org, concerning LEED certification.

LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

LEED provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

LEED is flexible enough to apply to all building types—commercial as well as residential. It works throughout the building lifecycle—design and construction, operations and maintenance, tenant fit out, and significant retrofit.

LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in key areas:

1.sustainable sites (discourages development on previously undeveloped land; minimizes a building’s impact on ecosystems and waterways; encourages regionally appropriate landscaping; rewards smart transportation choices; controls storm water runoff; and reduces erosion, light pollution, heat island effect and construc- tion-related pollution);