Room for Luxury and Energy Efficiency: Hospitality Goes Green
In October 2008, The Global Sustainable World Conservation Congress presented a set of 37 voluntary standards representing the minimum that any tourism business should aspire to reach in order to protect and sustain the world's natural and cultural resources while ensuring tourism meets its potential as a tool for poverty alleviation. The Global Sustainable Tourist Criteria was developed by the Global Sustainable Tourist Council (GSTC) as part of an initiative led by Rainforest Alliance, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Foundation, and the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Over 40 of the world's leading public, private, non-profit, and academic institutions joined together to analyze thousands of worldwide standards and engage the global community in a broad-based stakeholder consultation process.12 GSTC is a global coalition of public and private sector members comprised of UN bodies, research and academic institutions, social and environmental non-governmental organizations, certification programs, and sustainable travel providers. The mission of the Council is to foster increased knowledge and understanding of sustainable tourism practices and the adoption of universal sustainable tourism principles. These 37 standards encourage:
- Effective Sustainable Management Practices-including the design and construction of sustainable buildings
- Maximization of Social and Economic Community Benefits
- Maximization of Benefits to Cultural Heritage
- Protection of natural resources-including the conservation of energy and water
Clearly, sustainability is a growing movement that has a global influence on the hospitality industry and its construction practices.
Hotel owners are listening and responding to this movement. As an example, in 2010, the Marriott Hotel Corporation announced that it had renovated its Bethesda headquarters to win LEED Gold status pledging that 300 of its 3000 hotels worldwide will receive LEED Certification. By April of 2010, over 63 hotels, conference centers and lodges had received LEED certification and over 1,000 hotel projects were in the pipeline for certification. According to the USGBC, "in the United States alone, hotels represent more than 5 billion square feet of space, nearly 5 million guest rooms, and close to $4 billion in annual energy use. Business travel in the United States constitutes a $250 billion industry, and Americans make more than 400 million long-distance business trips each year."13 With these statistics, it is evident that the hospitality industry can have a significant impact on the environment.
These doors are manufactured complete with hardware and mounting equipment to facilitate easy installations. Photo courtesy of The Sliding Door Company |
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The USGBC provides a "Green Venue Selection Guide" for information directed toward meeting planners and associations for event planning. This guide contains a checklist that meeting organizers can use when selecting a location for conventions and conferences. The checklist helps organizers identify operations that have reduced their environmental impacts.14 When used with other green meeting guides such as those provided by the Green Meeting Industry Council, organizers can choose meeting locations that provide environmental benefits to attendees. From hotel rooms to meeting rooms, there are numerous opportunities to choose healthy environments with good views, access to fresh air and daylight to travelers. Some of these environmental initiatives are obvious to hotel customers like the new green hotel rooms. Some of these initiatives are only apparent to the owners who are learning that being green has an impact on their bottom line. For now, the market is driving a movement that benefits everyone by providing healthier places for the vacationing tourist and business traveler, as well as energy savings for building owners.
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