Associate, LEED
U.S. Green Building Council
Nothing makes for a good old fashioned hotel party quite like the efficient use of cooling tower water and improved outdoor air intake flow rates. Not enough to quench your party-going thirst? How about some building-level energy and water meters to liven up the occasion?
Nerdy LEED jokes (which are commonplace here at the USGBC office) aside, consumer demand for green hotels is driving hotel owners to rethink the way they do business, leading to an increase in LEED certifications for both new and existing hotels around the world. Major companies like Marriott, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), and Starwood are leading this effort and setting the bar high by participating in USGBC’s LEED Volume Program.
 |
| LEED-certified Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, NC |
While this growing momentum could signal a coming paradigm shift in the hospitality industry, hotels still face a number of key challenges due to their uniqueness as a space type. For example, a hotel’s occupancy can vary daily as people check-in and out of their rooms, and they usually operate around the clock in order to provide the best level of service for their guests. Hotels also typically include a variety of on-site amenities like restaurants, bars, gyms and pools. These amenities, partnered with the need to supply energy and water to every individual guest room, result in drastically different water and energy needs compared to a typical commercial office building.
