The hotel GREEN development movement - what needs to be done?

Author: Sorin Ionescu, Managing Partner - Fivestar Hospitality
Contact: sorin.ionescu @ fivestar-hospitality.ro

The Green Hotel is still, generally, regarded as a special class of hotel involving an entire set of gibberish measures used as marketing tools. On an international level, one will notice the awareness of international chains and their alignment to this movement, through a series of measures meant to reduce their hotels’ pollution over the environment. We will discuss today about those measures that are no longer a trend, but have become part of the industry best practices.

While providing assistance in elaborating the hotel concept and guidance to the architect implementing the project, Fivestar Hospitality has developed best practice guidelines for hotel development. These guidelines not only are adapted to the hotel’s classification, but also consider the environmental friendly, sustainable development requirements.
Let us welcome on stage the future generation of hotels:

CHOOSING THE LOCATION:

Rarely, the hotel beneficiary has a choice when it comes to choosing the location. Generally, he owns the land and finds the optimal solution for using its maximum potential. The investors starting from scratch and that are looking for the optimal investment solution within the real estate sector, must take it step by step to avoid jeopardizing the whole GREEN concept that was planned.
Analyzing the local culture and its unique characteristics and highlighting them should be the first step of the process. Generally, the developers omit or avoid consulting the local community’s interest. An environmental impact study should be performed, thus helping to identify the optimal solutions and the best way to integrate the project into the environment. An accurate and precise study identifying the optimal measures is by far more important than a formal environmental authorization. 

ARCHITECTURE:

The building’s outside architecture as well as the landscaping must rally to the region’s local traditions, to the cultural and historical heritage, thus integrating into the environment’s cultural identity. Special attention must be paid to large green areas (such as: golf courses), swimming pools, ornamental basins – due to the water treatment, irrigation issues that occur.

ENERGY:

Energy is responsible for the heating, cooling, illumination processes, as well as for the water’s internal circulation, providing the unit inside comfort. Energy overuse might cause damages to the environment. Global heating is a top-notch subject nowadays, and although interesting, this is not the article’s main subject.

The “green” planner or the planner that has received “green” requirements, must consider all the other alternative energy sources, such as: photovoltaic or passive solar systems used for heating the water, biogas, transforming waste material into energy, geothermal energy, aeolian energy, marine energy (i.e.: waves).

If these alternative sources are not at hand, choosing an actively-aware energy supplier might be the right solution. The energy system in our country still has a long way until consumers will be able to sell energy back to the provider and so on. We spotted a beautiful example of green development at Albota Trout-farm close to the Fagaras mountains.  
One should rather use natural gas instead of any other fossil resources, due to their low CO2 / toxic emissions as compared to LPG, diesel, crude oil etc.

Every time it is financially feasible (starting with 4****/upscale), a Building Management System, BMS must be considered.
Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning System, HVAC, is another important element of the building’s energy efficiency. Should it be designed appropriately, this can turn into a highly effective system saving a lot of utility cost. Why then not take care of such an important matter affecting the hotel’s profitability or the return on investment etc.?
The planners should always consider different options, such as: heat pumps, CHP (Combined Heat and Power) systems – which are more efficient than the usual heating units by producing both electric power and heat which can be distributed to the building needs (the unused electric power should be sold back to the grid; moreover, there’s no need to use a generator for grid failure times). 

Lighting drains 20 to 25% of the building’s entire power consumption. Thus, the architect must use the natural light at full potential. The designer should remember to use all around the place, power efficient lighting systems (fluorescent lamps indoor with cold or warm light, and sodium low pressure lamps for outdoor), to install motion detectors, timer systems, variators. The designer should take full advantage of the artificial light, by using appropriate interior colors, and draw a clear line between business and leisure areas.  

WATER:

Water is an essential resource for every hotel guest, the kitchen personnel, swimming-pools or landscape maintenance etc. By using it cautiously you may save a lot of money. You may find useful to use the so-called Grey-Water Systems (used water recycling systems) in those places where water is an expensive resource. You can widely use devices that are saving water by introducing air into the water flow at faucets, shower heads, reduced volume of the toilet reservoir, sensor faucets and urinals in public bathrooms, rain water capture systems, moisture sensors for irrigation systems, etc.
Let’s not forget about the common practice in the bathrooms to post the announcement regarding changing the laundry, a measure that makes around 99% of the hotel owners in Romania feel environmentally friendly enough.

WASTE:

The unit’s waste waters can be sloped into the local sewage system or treated through a water treatment station within the hotel. Every large hotel (exceeding 400 rooms) having a sewage system can become more environmentally-friendly by developing its own waste water treatment station. Waste waters may be treated up to 3 times before being used for irrigations, where no sewage system is available. A hotel’s life cycle involves other types of waste, such as debris, or any other category related to the construction, operation or the refurbishing stage. Operation waste is weighting a lot in the total amount of waste produced along the lifetime of a hotel. The employees should be environmentally-friendly trained. At the same time, it is advisable to introduce the so-called “good practices”, such as selective recycling of waste materials and diverting them to special recycling centers. The main waste categories are: white glass, colored glass, metals, office paper and newspapers, cardboard, plastic, cooking oils, organic waste. 

MATERIALS:

Choosing the construction materials take a lot of time and consideration. Shortly speaking, these have a great impact on the environment. The whole construction process should be initially studied before choosing long-lasting materials. Those materials that cannot be reused (i.e.: marble) should be parsimoniously used. It is advisable to use environmentally friendly suppliers and materials, especially when it comes to main materials (i.e.: adhesives, aluminum, concrete, flooring, glass, isolations, stonework, metals, painting, steel, finish, wood, cables). It is also advisable to avoid any kind of toxic substances (acrylic, asbestos, synthetic resins, lead etc.)

NOISE:

It is advisable to have control over noise within the hotel building, so that the guests can enjoy their stay and feel comfortable. The architect and his planners should co-work for respecting the hotel industry’s standards focusing on the specific areas: windows, room-to-room, bathroom-to-bathroom, room-to-corridor, ventilation, compartments, kitchen-to-restaurant, kitchen-to-halls, conference flexible walls, and equipments.

AIR QUALITY AND EMISSIONS:

The environmental impact study should reveal the optimal emissions level and the appropriate solutions. Another important aspect is the usage of different substances damaging the ozone layer. CFC and HCFC substances are forbidden. HFC doesn’t cause damage to the ozone layer, but leads to the global warming effect. These are to be replaced by ecologic refrigerants (i.e.: ammonium, propane, butane etc.).
The indoor air quality also depends on a proper building design. There also has to be said that “green” hotels are in fact always non-smoking hotels.

INTERIOR DESIGN:

Interior design has a great impact on creating a memorable experience for the guests. Wrong choice of materials (organic solvents) may cause nausea or vertigo to some of the guests. It is advisable to use recycling materials for flooring, ceiling and walls finish. Therefore, a green room should start with the corridor’s motion detector activated lights / the entrance’s energy saver slot and continue with the energy saving light bulbs, proper colors, an efficient heating / ventilation / AC system, ecologic materials. The TV set and the mini-bar should also be ozone layer friendly. The bathroom should encompass cosmetics dispensers and water consumption saving systems. It is advisable to, why not, educating our guests to sort the waste materials / garbage by themselves.  

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

A particularly important chapter, not only for our subject today, is measuring performance. Most of the times we take measures, but we forget to make sure those measures are fully applied, that they subsequently produce the desired effects and so on. It’s the management task to plan and to demand specific measures to be taken, but also to control the way those measures were implemented.
In our case, from the planning stage, control systems should be set up to monitor the facilities consumption for each department, and even for different areas within the same department.

We should always calculate some indicators to be able to benchmark ourselves against others, such as: kWh/sqm, tons of CO2/year, liters of water/sqm, tons of waste/year, amount of recycled waste etc.

In addition to all that, there is an international trend to counterattack the lack of action (because of old hotel, lack of alternatives on the market etc.), by paying “CARBON-OFFSETTING” taxes. In advanced economies, there are companies specialized in analyzing the carbon emissions of each economic unit. A hotel that, for several reasons, can no longer take the necessary measures to prevent the above mentioned shortcomings, or wishes to become “CARBON NEUTRAL” can pay taxes to companies that are involved in GREEN projects (alternative energy, re-foresting etc.). “CARBON OFFSETING” already has its adversaries who say this possibility generates “laziness” in adopting all the appropriate measures that we already mentioned.

In Romania, the responsibility for complying with all the above chapters belongs to the consultant, whose role is to ask the architect and the designers to do “what must be done” on behalf of the beneficiary. The aspects depicted in this article are just a popular approach to the matters. In reality, each subject has a more technical dimension that requests a certain knowledge degree of the technical systems that altogether make a hotel work.

The right design of the hotel spaces, the effective and efficient solving of the issues related to the construction and the technical systems of a hotel, all contribute to the precise mechanism of this Swiss watch, the hotel, as I like to consider it. Many hotel owners in Romania are exposed to the danger of building or buying beautiful watches that don’t work. Once the construction and the furnishing of a hotel is finished, once the management system is in place, and once the personnel gives life to the hotel, everything has to go like “clockwork”. To this objective we, the hotel consultants, endeavor to make our contribution.

Sorin Ionescu

Managing Partner
sorin.ionescu @ fivestar-hospitality.ro

Sursa: Fivestar Hospitality [07.07.2008]