hospitalitystyle.com

(November 2009) posted on Wed Nov 11, 2009 EST

Eco-friendly Courtyard design to debut next year.

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Marriott International Inc. has green-lighted its biggest green initiative to date: it plans to expand its eco-friendly hotel portfolio ten-fold over the next five years with a pre-certified LEED hotel prototype. The company says the green hotel prototype, which will be available in April 2010, will save owners approximately $100,000 and six months in design time, and reduce a hotel's energy and water consumption by up to 25 percent, based on national averages. Those savings, combined with incentives offered in many jurisdictions, could provide a payback for the LEED building investment in about two years, Marriott estimates.

The green hotel prototype, referred to by the U.S. Green Building Council as “volume build certification,” has been created for Marriott's Courtyard brand, which has a development pipeline of nearly 160 hotels worldwide. In 2010, the company expects to introduce similar green hotel prototypes for its Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites and TownePlace Suites brands, which have more than 290 hotels in the company's global development pipeline.

“Marriott's' commitment makes it among the first in the world to commit to implementing green buildings on this scale,” said Doug Gatlin, vice president of the building council, which administers the LEED program.

While many of the benefits of LEED certification, such as improved energy savings, better indoor air quality and reduced CO2 emissions, are invisible to guests, Marriott notes that others are easier to identify, including easy access to public transportation, in-room recycling and light sensors in the guest rooms. These features are becoming even more important to travelers, who said that supporting environmentally-responsible travel service suppliers is a necessity, even in an economic downturn, according to the U.S. Travel Association and Ypartnership.

“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,” said Arne Sorenson, Marriott's president and chief operating officer.

The Courtyard Settler's Ridge in Pittsburgh, which is being developed by Concord Hospitality and is slated to open in the summer of 2010, will be the first to be built using the new green hotel prototype concept. “We are very excited to have collaborated with Marriott on this significant initiative to help mold the Courtyard brand to be green for the future,” said Mark Laport, Concord's president and ceo. “We are committed to green building designs which are now being incorporated at different levels in every building we develop. We expect to build many more LEED-certified hotels using this prototype in the future.”

Marriott already has 50 hotels registered for LEED, with 15 open or set to open by the end of 2010. The Inn & Conference Center by Marriott at the University of Maryland in College Park was the first LEED hotel in North America, and Marriott's recently opened Portland Courtyard City Center in Oregon was just awarded LEED-Gold status. Other green hotels are planned in the Caribbean and Latin America, in partnership with Caribe Hospitality.