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Lighting is the second largest energy expenditure in a hotel and is the easiest area for saving energy and money.  According to the Florida Power & Light Company, interior lighting accounts for 19% of electric usage in hotels and exterior lighting accounts for 4%

Thus, many hotels have realized a significant decrease in solid waste, energy and water consumption by making these small changes. It is not easy to be green in this sector, but the hotel industry now has a new environmental conscience.

Green hotels are designed to control and monitor indoor air quality which has been a growing concern within the hospitality industry. Many green hotels have opted to pursue LEED certification which addresses major design concerns in order to improve health and wellbeing while lowering operating costs.

Waste disposal is becoming a growing operational expense across many industries and these practices are not only environmentally friendly but they improve the bottom line of green hotels as well.

Not only does the system produce heat and electricity but it converts the food waste into a nutrient-rich fertilizer as well.

This open-source data sharing program has been pinnacle in gathering information and creating company-wide green solutions and practices that not only improve Fairmont’s value but unites their company globally.

The Rubens at the Palace hotel in London installed the city’s largest living wall in an effort to combat the chronic stormwater run-off problem they’ve been experiencing due to vanishing green spaces.

Chances are that your IT department is directly and indirectly one of the largest power consumers in your company.

The benefits range from lower costs to happier employees:

Reducing environmental impact.

Lower operating costs.

Improved morale and workplace health.

Improved company image.

Lower capital costs.

Consolidate

Rightsize.

The five principles of green IT

use devices that perform more than one function so that you only have one device to power.

Virtualize.

Virtualization is one tool you can use to consolidate multiple workloads onto a single server while making it easy to move them from server to server in order to balance workloads or take systems offline for maintenance or replacement.

“Where to start?” You start by taking a baseline measurement of where you are today, making incremental improvements, and measuring the impact you’ve had.

Manage your waste stream

Your network connections (and power) come in at the top, meeting a core router that’s probably in your data center. (You may have a data center, or you may have a closet, but you probably have some place with a set of central switches, servers, storage, and backup devices). The tree gets wider as your network fans out to your offices, where you may have an IP phone and workstation in each office, plus copiers, fax machines, and printers in common areas.

Techniques for greening your office space.

Use one PC per employee, and size the machine to the task being performed.

LCD monitors are the norm today.

Set up sleep schedules on your PCs and your monitors;

Consider the waste stream that office equipment generates.

Measure.

Measure your energy consumption

Set goals

Make incremental changes

Measure again to evaluate

Repeat.

Control.

Get Experienced Help.

Immediate and long term savings

Attract employees.

A number-one reason people don’t return to a restaurant is a “perceived attitude of indifference on the part of the employee,” reports the Hospitality Times Group5

Bardessono has a darker green approach to sustainability. Guestrooms here have auto controls triggered when a guest enters the room. Lights come on, sunshades rise, the television turns on to a welcome screen, and depending on the time of year the fireplace will light up.

“When you walk in room you can see it happen. It’s a cool experience. And the system will remember how lights are set and if the fireplace is on and will shut down 20 minutes after the guest leaves and come back to the same setting when guest returns.

Solar shades keep the room warm in winter and cool in summer. Incao said these measures and others such as 940 photovoltaic panels on the roof and geothermal heating and cooling were all implemented with the goal of reducing external demand of energy supply to at least half typical use.

When all said and done it’ll take five years or less payback to the property. Over the expected 25 year life of project we will offset emissions of more than 24,000 tons of dangerous pollutants by producing our own power. Great things are possible when you put your mind to it. Ask what the government can do and most definitely what power companies can do. Without their assistance these projects wouldn’t be possible or have the payback they have

operational areas and sustainable practices, including community outreach efforts.

1-5 Green Key rating based on a comprehensive evaluation

Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver is one of only 30 distinguished hotels worldwide to be recognized as a Five Green Key Hotel.

Sempa Hybrid Heating System, which reduces the hotel's green house gas emissions by 20% to 50% per month

comprehensive recycling program and by newly installing energy-efficient, LED lighting sources designed to last up to 40 years.

Eco-Luxury program, which allows them to choose how often their bed linens and towels are refresh

sustainable dining options, from catered group functions to private dining in YEW restaurant + bar.

donates food, shampoos, soaps, bedding and linens to local social assistance organizations and charities.

Energy-efficient technology might be costly initially, but the hotel industry is acknowledging the long-term benefits that can be made through savings being made on rising energy costs.

With the hotel industry wrestling with tighter profit margins, more demanding guests and fiercer competition, hotels need to employ a lean management principle and make decisions based on long-term perspectives, which makes introducing green technology the foreseeable choice

22kg of toxic chemicals, 240kg of fossil fuels and 1,500 kg of water.

consuming 15% of the total electricity used in offices

50 million tons of e-waste was generated worldwide, but only 13% was recycled. US Environmental Protection Agency

Reusing working computers is up to 20 times more energy-efficient than recycling them

hich utilises the naturally cool environment below ground to reduce power consumption, and increase energy efficiency.

o date, more than 28,761 IT assets have been recycled (waiting for latest stats), which equates to 629,408lbs of e-waste diverted from landfill.

Big hotel companies have wised up to the costs involved in operating inefficient hardware and are driving system changes to cut wasteful expenditure.

nt. A data centre’s life expectancy is relatively long so it is imperative it is built to the highest standards in terms of efficiency as any excess energy use will lead to significant cost implications over the years.

most energy-efficient data centre possible.

Get the right equipment.

Only get the data storage capacity that is currently required and forecast for the lifespan. Many d

Don’t have servers or equipment that will not be used.

, such as water cooling.

allows a single user to access several physical devices on one terminal. A computing device dedicated to an individual member of staff or allocated for one software application is highly inefficient and expensive. Virtualisation consolidates resources, requiring less power and cooling.

cloud computing

e. Once you know what’s using the power, focus on why and whether it’s possible to reduce consumption. Spotlight on Fairmont Hotels & Resorts - T

into account not only the initial outlay cost of hardware, but also the running costs.

e up to 30% more energy, making it significantly more expensive when looking at the total cost of running that appliance during its lifespan.

investigate options to upgrade with the latest energy-efficient components to extend appliances’ working life and efficiency

Green labels

Data centres last 30-odd years and you can’t go back in and fix them, so they need to be efficient. Over time, this saves money as they run efficiently. Servers have to be Energy Star-compliant or I won’t even talk to vendors.”

is to reuse, not recycle

and flat screens often being replaced well before the end of their shelf life and ending up in landfill, it’s imperative that the most is made of these materials by reusing them productively.

Dumping e-waste on developing countries was until recently commonplace, and it has caused huge environmental problems and harm to human health in countries such as Ghana and China. But new legislation, including the EU WEEE Directive and the 2010 US Responsible Electronics Recycling Act, has stopped countries from being able to export e-waste.

dopted a scheme where the cost of recycling an electronic item is included in the purchase price. In Switzerland, they’ve been able to return all electronic waste to their place of purchase since 2005, and in the European Union, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan manufacturers must by law recycle 75% of the e-waste they produce.

Smaller, more efficient processors.

which have greater memory storage capacity while requiring less energy and space. They are due to be on the shelf in about three years.

pecialist data centre design.

all sizes are starting to view IT outsourcing as a viable option to gain flexibility and reduce short-term costs and increase transparency of cost structures and processes.

6. Water cooling

A data centre is a facility used to house computer systems and their components, and it can be far and away the biggest contributor to an organisation’s carbon footprint. A data centre’s life expectancy is relatively long so it is imperative it is built to the highest standards in terms of efficiency as any excess energy use will lead to significant cost implications over the years.

1. Build the most energy-efficient data centre possible. This will save energy and costs over its lifespan. 2. Only get the data storage capacity that is currently required and forecast for the lifespan. Many data centres have excess capacity that burns energy (and therefore costs) unnecessarily. Don’t have servers or equipment that will not be used. 3. Cooling data centres. Traditionally cooling has been done by air circulation, which is very inefficient. Larger data centres already use other technologies to cool more efficiently, such as water cooling. 4. Virtualisation technology. Improve your system’s resource utilisation through virtualisation technology. Virtualisation is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an operating system, server, network, etc. and allows a single user to access several physical devices on one terminal. A computing device dedicated to an individual member of staff or allocated for one software application is highly inefficient and expensive. Virtualisation consolidates resources, requiring less power and cooling. 5. Consider cloud computing. This is a location-independent IT service, typically available over the internet, where shared servers provide resources, software and data to computers and other devices on demand, increasing IT capacity and capabilities without an organisation having to invest in new infrastructure. Keeping data virtually, or “in the clouds”, means less information stored on IT systems and therefore less energy being used to run the systems. Systems such as BT’s Virtual Data Centre, a hosted data centre that enables businesses to create, deploy, monitor and manage their own service through a self-service portal, claim to offer savings of up to 40% of the total cost of running one’s own data centre as well as reducing the space required, the level of emissions produced and the power consumed.

6. Measure and monitor power usage. Once you know what’s using the power, focus on why and whether it’s possible to reduce consumption.

1. Upgrade. Before buying new, investigate options to upgrade with the latest energy-efficient components to extend appliances’ working life and efficiency. 2. Green labels. Look out for the certification labels denoting more energy-efficient equipment, from Blue Angel in Germany to TCO in Sweden and Energy Star in the US (see below). 3. Screens. Opt for flat screen monitors, which reduce energy use by over two-thirds. 4. Get the right equipment. Consider your information technology needs against the tasks required. For example, laptops may be a better option in some circumstances because they have been developed to be energy-efficient and generally match the computer to the task required. Remember: not all staff have the same needs. 5. Consider running costs. Look at the life cycle costs, not just the purchase cost. Take note of running and standby costs of equipment. These can vary enormously.

Top 10 Tips to reduce running costs of office equipment (source: Carbon Trust) 1. Computers. Activate energy-saving features. In fact, most office equipment will have these features, so make sure they’re activated. 2. Standby features. Introduce a policy to activate standby features, don’t assume employees will do it. 3. Turn it off. Buy seven-day timers. These can save up to 70% on energy costs. 4. Monitor and manage the equipment that is peripheral to computers, such as speakers, printers, etc. and consider installing intelligent switch-off solutions. Printers can consume 30%-40% of their peak power demand when idling between printing and standby modes, so minimising this can produce cost savings, reduce heat output and increase its operating life. 5. Educate your staff. Consider a screen saver with an energy-saving message. 6. Rationalise your equipment via networking to reduce the number of printers (for example) in any office area. 7. Printers Use only black and white for internal documents and colour only when absolutely necessary. Consider the benefits of inkjet printers v laser printers. Inkjet energy use is much lower than that of a laser printer. Encourage staff to use print preview functions. Set default printing mode to double-sided. Use lower-specification printers, such as inkjets, for internal documents and encourage staff to use these for day-to-day use.

8. Photocopiers High volume copiers use more energy so should be used sparingly. Use low melting point inks (available from stationery suppliers). Encourage staff to copy in batches to increase standby time. Stick to black and white copiers and only use colour when absolutely necessary. Set default copying to double-sided. 9. Invest to save and purchase only what you need. 10. Don’t forget to motivate staff. Keep repeating the message of the importance of energy saving in ways that they can understand (for example, a computer monitor switched off overnight saves enough energy to microwave six dinners).

WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), or e-waste, is the term used for old or disposed electronic equipment. It covers both the toxic and valuable materials found in appliances. The most important lesson is to reuse, not recycle. With so much e-waste, and electrical devices such as computers and flat screens often being replaced well before the end of their shelf life and ending up in landfill, it’s imperative that the most is made of these materials by reusing them productively.

Options to investigate when trying to reduce e-waste are: 1. Can you upgrade your equipment with new energy efficient components? 2. Can it be used by someone else in the company? 3. Can it be given to a charity? (Note: charities must be registered to take WEEE.) 4. Will the manufacturer take back the old equipment and reuse parts in new products?

Developments on the horizon include: 1. Smaller, more efficient processors. The continuing development of microprocessors means a mobile phone can have around the same computational power as the average desktop computer back in 2000. 2. Memristors. Electronics giant HP is in the process of developing “memristors” (see photo above), which have greater memory storage capacity while requiring less energy and space. They are due to be on the shelf in about three years. 3. Specialist data centre design. Siemens recently launched its transformational Data Centre Solution, a groundbreaking strategy in data centre energy-efficient design and operation. It claims the system, which uses virtualization and efficient power and cooling, offers many benefits for businesses, including up to 50% energy savings through ground water cooling and IT costs reduced by 30%. 4. Outsourcing. Hotels of all sizes are starting to view IT outsourcing as a viable option to gain flexibility and reduce short-term costs and increase transparency of cost structures and processes. 5. Optimisation of resources. This will become a necessity either through virtualisation, networking or cloud computing. 6. Water cooling. IBM is currently working on a supercomputer that is cooled by water (a given volume of water can hold 4,000 times more waste than air), which claims to be 50% more energy efficient than the world’s leading systems. The Aquasar stacks many computer processors on top of each other with cooling water flowing between each one. IBM’s Dr Bruno Michel told the BBC in November 2010: “We plan that 10 to 15 years from now, we can collapse such a system into one sugar cube — we’re going to have a supercomputer in a sugar cube.”

nearly two-thirds of travelers reported plans to make more environmentally friendly choices over the next year

Extensive energy savings were realized through the insulating properties of a 16,000-square-foot green roof.

LEED-related incentives

Cooling demand is greatly reduced by having more than 60 percent of its roof area covered with highly reflective materials.

Highlights include 100 percent onsite wastewater treatment, 100 percent nonpotable irrigation

Recent advances in technology related to renewable sources of energy (solar, geothermal, wind, etc.) have improved the economics of using these kinds of alternative energies at the property level.

As hoteliers begin to realize that they can provide an enhanced guest experience by integrating natural elements, there has been an evolution in “green thought” in the community inspired by multiple factors:

Cost is always a driving factor and reducing operating costs provides a compelling incentive for hoteliers

Our government has enacted a variety of economic incentives to encourage the development of environmental retrofits and the construction of “green” buildings.

Current environmental regulations targeted toward the hotel sector are largely focused on facility operations such as storm-water management, hazardous materials handling, and environmental health and safety.

A greater number of hoteliers understand that investments in environmental technology can have a direct positive impact on guest experience.

Adopting a sustainable corporate culture can provide a distinct advantage in terms of attracting and retaining talent.

Most major hotel brands have incorporated some level of sustainability platform into their brand definition. Several brands have been repositioned to cater to a younger generation of more environmentally and socially active customers.