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LEED prototype to hit market in summer 2010
Marriott Intl. Inc. (Bethesda, Md.,) plans to expand its green hotel portfolio over the next five years by introducing a green hotel prototype that will be pre-certified LEED. The prototype is expected to hit the market in April 2010 and the company says owners will save approximately $100,000 and six months in design time, while reducing a hotel's energy and water consumption by up to 25 percent. When combined with incentives offered in many jurisdictions, Marriot says the payback in investment could be two years.
"The green hotel prototype gives Marriott a competitive edge with guests who prefer a green hotel experience, and with the growing number of owners and franchisees who want to provide it," Arne Sorenson, Marriott's president and chief operating officer, stated during the annual USGBC's Green Build conference held this week.
The green prototype is being designed using the USGBC’s volume build certification program for the Marriott's Courtyard brand. The first prototype location is expected at the Courtyard Settler's Ridge in Pittsburgh in the summer of 2010. Marriot also expects to introduce similar green hotel prototypes for its Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites and TownePlace Suites brands in 2010. The hotel chain currently operates 50 LEED-registered hotels, with 15 more open or set to open within the next year.
"Marriott's' commitment makes it among the first in the world to commit to implementing green buildings on this scale," says Doug Gatlin, vp, USGBC.
Among the benefits in the LEED design are improved energy savings, better indoor air quality, reduced CO2 emissions, easy access to public transportation, in-room recycling and light sensors in the guest rooms.
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It would be great if all the hotels would implement these ideas, I saw something similar at Fort Lauderdale airport hotels and I liked it very much. I hope in the near future more hotels will adopt this strategy; they will have only to win from this because this trend is like a magnet for people willing to feel they made something good for the environment.