The fee financial savings of sustainability are properly appreciated within the hospitality trade, and oftentimes these may be achieved by inside applications that drive employees practices, procurement methods, and constructing renovations that enhance power and water effectivity and cut back waste. Acquiring a certification that validates the property’s sustainability is an added problem, because the standards of an exterior group will now need to be glad. However many hoteliers discover that stringent course of fairly worthwhile.
“Licensed sustainability offers a sturdy framework that not solely yields operational value financial savings but additionally enhances marketability, reduces threat, and doubtlessly opens up new income streams,” noticed Stefan Mühle, vp, regional managing director, Noble Home Lodges & Resorts. “Inner sustainability applications can obtain some related objectives however could lack exterior validation, which impacts model notion, consistency in operational enhancements, and entry to sure markets or incentives.” Marianne Balfe, vp, sustainability, Highgate, confirmed the enterprise benefits of certification: “Licensed properties see optimistic impacts on fame and model desire, translating to elevated visitor loyalty and sometimes larger reserving charges.”
Bruce Becker, proprietor, architect + developer, Resort Marcel in New Haven, Connecticut—a LEED Platinum-certified, one hundred pc electrical resort—added that certification has a “sturdy advertising profit … significantly in reserving further group enterprise with the growing variety of organizations which can be measuring and reporting their progress in assembly sustainability objectives.” Balfe additionally noticed that “company RFPs more and more ask whether or not every respective resort has achieved a globally acknowledged third-party inexperienced certification.”
Selecting a Certification
With these business-driving benefits in thoughts, it’s necessary to pick out a sustainability certification that’s well-known and revered within the journey trade—by each eco-conscious company and resort manufacturers. Crescent Lodges & Resorts had this criterion in thoughts when it chosen Inexperienced Key International, which is collectively operated by the AHLA and the Resort Affiliation of Canada. “This certification is acknowledged internationally and focuses on varied facets of sustainability, making it a complete selection for our properties. As Crescent Lodges & Resorts manages properties of many various manufacturers, it was essential to find out which certification applications had been accepted by these manufacturers,” defined Abdi Mohamed, regional director, gross sales and advertising, Crescent Lodges & Resorts. Noble Home Lodges & Resorts additionally chosen Inexperienced Key International “after doing intensive analysis into the certification course of, necessities, and fame inside the hospitality trade. Inexperienced Key International was chosen as it’s the resort and lodging trade’s sustainability certification program of selection,” mentioned Mühle.
Amongst certifications for inexperienced buildings, LEED has essentially the most cachet, which was an element within the Resort Marcel staff’s resolution to pursue it. “As essentially the most extensively revered inexperienced constructing customary, LEED conveys the best profit by way of advertising and substance—there are various meaningless certifications and requirements, a few of which may be earned with none verification in as little as 48 hours,” Becker famous. “Most people is more and more conscious of and skeptical about ‘green-washing,’ and fewer rigorous inexperienced constructing certifications can do extra hurt than good, in the identical method that offsets are actually been seen as undermining substantive sustainability progress.”
Along with the certification’s pedigree, alignment with the imaginative and prescient and objectives of the certifying group is a key consideration for hoteliers. For instance, Noble Home has “dedicated to being one hundred pc enrolled in Inexperienced Key International’s Eco-Ranking Program” partially as a result of this system “helps training and consciousness of sustainable practices for resort employees and company, making a tradition of duty and respect for the planet,” mentioned Mühle. The corporate has additionally chosen to embark on Inexperienced Seal, certifying a number of of its inns and resorts with Inexperienced Seal’s Commonplace for Resort and Lodging Properties (GS-33). “Inexperienced Seal is a nonprofit group whose mission is to make use of science-based applications to empower customers, purchasers, and firms to create a extra sustainable world. Inexperienced Seal units management requirements that purpose to scale back, to the extent technologically and economically possible, the environmental, well being, and social impacts all through the lifecycle of merchandise, companies, and firms. This was of explicit curiosity to Noble Home,” he defined.
Highgate, whose North American properties are primarily licensed via Inexperienced Key International, has discovered that the requirements align with Highgate’s sustainability priorities, whereas offering thorough help and instruments whereas nonetheless being budget-conscious, mentioned Balfe. “We worth GKG’s alignment to the 17 UN Sustainable Improvement Objectives and sourced enter from WSHA, Travalyst, and ISO, offering a complete framework that covers essential areas equivalent to decarbonization, power and water conservation, waste discount, and group engagement.”
Operational Advantages
As Mühle identified, assembly exterior sustainability requirements can result in extra “consistency in operational enhancements” than an inside program, and that rigorous steerage can translate to raised outcomes. The operational affect on Crescent’s inns is an instance. “The certification course of primarily helped us with persevering with our groups’ deal with their sustainability efforts. Inexperienced Key International offers a present ranking and a transparent plan for enchancment,” Mohamed associated. “This plan helps our inns prioritize actions for each short- and long-term success. In consequence, lots of our inns have improved their rankings from 3 Keys to 4 Keys, and some have even achieved the very best ranking of 5 Keys.”
Mühle detailed a number of enhancements to the sustainability of Noble Home’s properties that resulted from complying with Inexperienced Key International and Inexperienced Seal in areas equivalent to power effectivity, water conservation, waste discount, moral sourcing, and indoor environmental high quality. Examples embody:
- Important reductions in power consumption, resulting in decrease operational prices and diminished carbon footprint;
- Decreased water utilization, particularly in landscaping and guestroom operations, which is essential for areas going through water shortage or excessive utility prices;
- Decrease waste disposal prices, improved recycling charges, and a diminished environmental footprint via round economic system initiatives;
- Higher alignment with the expectations of eco-conscious company; and
- Enhanced visitor satisfaction as a result of higher air high quality and luxury, in addition to improved worker well being and productiveness.
A first-rate instance of the power value financial savings that may consequence from implementing a certification program comes from Resort Marcel, the nation’s first Passive Home-certified resort and the most important Passive Home-certified resort on the planet. “We dedicated to assembly Passive Home requirements primarily based on the underlying constructing science of the Passive Home system, which permits one to construct a constructing that makes use of lower than half the power as a traditional code compliant constructing,” Becker defined. “We did this out of self-interest because it minimize our power invoice by 75 p.c. A typical resort within the Northeast spends over $15 per occupied room per night time on power. Resort Marcel spends lower than $3, saving us over $300,000 annually.”
Help Alongside the Method
Ideally, a certifying group doesn’t depart its enrollees in a vacuum in the course of the means of getting ready the property for evaluation. However it needs to be famous that “processes differ,” mentioned Mühle. “Whereas certifications with some organizations are primarily based on preliminary self-audits that might be verified at a later level, organizations equivalent to Inexperienced Seal observe a really outlined path to eventual certification, which has been tremendous useful for our properties. Whereas a really detailed step-by-step method can take months to finish, it serves as an unbelievable coaching software alongside the way in which.” Inexperienced Key International provided strong help alongside the trail to certification. “We needed a associate that may help our groups all through the evaluation course of. Inexperienced Key International stood out as a result of they provide extra than simply certification; they act as a sustainability associate,” mentioned Mohamed. “They perceive our sustainability and certification objectives and have assigned an account supervisor to assist us obtain them. Moreover, we’re organizing a name sequence to maintain certification efforts high of thoughts for our inns in 2025, making certain steady progress and engagement.”
Becker famous that the U.S. Inexperienced Constructing Council (the certifying group for LEED) affords “glorious help and training, equivalent to on the annual GreenBuild convention,” whereas the Passive Home Institute, Passive Home Community, and Passive Home Accelerator “present glorious on-line sources and coaching.” By benefiting from these sources, hoteliers can set themselves up for fulfillment in assembly intensive certification standards.
Nonetheless, Becker nonetheless recommends hoteliers associate with a third-party marketing consultant to “coordinate the design necessities with the challenge staff on the outset and all through the design and building course of. It’s the marketing consultant employed to supervise the certification course of that an proprietor would work with most carefully, and for Resort Marcel we engaged Steven Winter Associates for each certifications and had an awesome working relationship with each certification groups.” Balfe confirmed that “for inexperienced constructing certifications like LEED and BREEAM, third-party consultants are sometimes important for assembly certification requirements. The advanced scoring methodologies for ranking dedication have to be thought of all through the design-build course of for each facet of the challenge.” Moreover, a third-party marketing consultant can conduct a mock audit, which “permits groups to establish any gaps or weak areas earlier than the formal audit,” she added (see the sidebar on web page 19 for extra tips about the certification course of).
A Calculated Choice
Whereas there are a number of nice certification applications which can be extensively revered and supply well-supported pathways to a brand new stage of sustainability, whether or not to embark on such a course of ought to nonetheless be fastidiously weighed in gentle of a number of elements. “The selection between certification and inside sustainability needs to be primarily based on long-term objectives, the will for exterior validation, and the way a lot your market values licensed inexperienced practices,” Mühle suggested. “Certification usually delivers larger ROI by way of fame and enterprise improvement, whereas an inside program would possibly focus extra on value effectivity with out exterior benchmarking.”
