Web exclusive: Painting the town... green?

Charles Molineaux

February 1, 2008

In 2007 Georgia barely avoided setting a new low record for rainfall. The northern third of the state is under "extreme" drought conditions and climatologists forecast the situation will persist and continue to be a problem throughout 2008.

"Some meeting planners are scared," Erica Qualls, GM of the Marriott Marquis, says. "They can go so far as to say, ‘What will my meeting attendees experience in Atlanta?' They want to make sure they are going to come and be able to take showers.'"

Qualls says guests generally appreciate the situation as hotels roll out familiar conservation measures and requests such as limiting the laundering of towels and linens or providing ice water only upon request. "No one wants to be the one who says, ‘You're in a drought but we're going to use up all the water,'" she smiles. "We're asking them to be great partners with us, some of the steps you'll read about anywhere. Take shorter showers, just like home. If you like to reuse your towels, we're happy to do that. Many of our guests are saying ‘we're there for you.'"

The drought does offer hotels a chance to highlight this year's growing shift towards environmental consciousness in the hospitality industry. One of the new luxury properties now under construction in Buckhead, Barry Hotel Partners' 1 Hotel project, strongly emphasizes its earth-friendly credentials. The 1 Hotel brand sets a high bar, billing its products as the worlds first "green" luxury hotel properties. The developers promise 1 Hotel will be LEED certified, meeting the criteria of the U.S. Green Building Council. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.)

But even short of that standard, many other hotels are launching their own, more modest, plans to lighten their footprints on the planet. The InterContinental Buckhead, for one, now promotes its use of hybrid Lexus RX400s as guest service cars. The Marriott Marquis' rebuilding project has large scale water and energy conservation built into its infrastructure. Qualls claims a new recycling system in the hotel's laundry department has already saved 5 million gallons of water since its 2006 installation. She says the measures continue as the renovation does. "We're making sure we have more energy efficient light bulbs. The chillers that we use don't use as much energy and we use all the means that we can to look for ways to recycle and reuse resources."

Debra Cannon, director of the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality at Georgia State's Robinson College of Business, detects a compelling industry wide trend, even if participation may vary. "Water usage, electricity usage, housekeeping, lighting, the major hotels are doing some pretty sizeable things," she observes. "It's not just doing it so you can say you're ‘ green.' You can actually make money with this. You can save money doing this."

Advocates for more ecologically focused construction assert buildings that go all the way to LEED certification can cut their energy use in half and water use by 40 percent.
Highlighting the issue's prominence in 2008, GSU is now establishing a new "green hospitality consortium" which will track the industry's sometimes varied and diffuse efforts. The hospitality school is currently setting up an advisory board as well as working on a website. Cannon says the signs are already apparent that environmental initiatives do pay off at the bottom line for hoteliers. "I'm seeing figures and anecdotal things from a number of the larger chains and some of the midsized hotels too. They were impressive. Not only were they doing it but they were able to show a concrete demonstrable return. Will the guests ever know? Maybe if they ask. And we may see more groups that say ‘we prefer to do business with a green hotel.' I think it's a win-win."

Qualls says she's already noticed such demand. "Yes we have had customers ask for it."

"This notion of sustainability, those are things we're seeing more of, and that's very positive for the industry as a whole," Woodworth agrees. Still, he withholds judgment on whether a green star on a room is something large numbers of guests will seek out, let alone pay extra for. "What we're not necessarily seeing much is that it's coming from the consumer side, that customers are saying ‘that's what I want.'"

"Yes it's become a selling point, but will the greening of the industry have the same impact on consumer preferences as (Westin Hotels' 1990s marketing blockbuster) the ‘Heavenly Bed?' It's hard to tell. The jury's still out on that."