Creativity and distinction in the hotel business is essential to success. Hotel designers around the world have discovered the growing need for individuality in hotel spaces. Every day, hotel owners are ...
LEED accreditation looks great on a résumé, but it isn't the only means of shoring up your green credentials.
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A recent Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu survey found that business travelers expect hotels to be green, or at least to be moving in this direction. Of the more than 1,000 business travelers who responded, a whopping 95 percent thought that lodging companies should be undertaking green initiatives.
However, many developers and hotel owners are hedging their bets-on the one hand, expressing a desire to develop green projects, and on the other, not quite willing to accept the extra costs associated with green architecture and design. And there are definitely costs and time associated with green.
The documentation and ongoing reviews that must be updated and maintained are time-consuming and vary with project size and scale. Sometimes the owner takes on responsibility for the documentation, but other times it falls to the architect.
Unfortunately, there are too few completed projects in the U.S. that have been operating long enough to be able to track the actual cost savings data of green design against the upfront investment. (Less than a dozen operating hotels have Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design [LEED] certification, according to the U.S. Green Building Council [USGBC]).
As designers, we're often caught in the middle of this industry shift, and it can be difficult to justify the resources, time and budget involved in the extensive education and training required for accreditation.
Here are some resources to help you integrate green into your skill set according to your
level of commitment.
Low-Risk/Low-Cost Efforts
Explore resources such as the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), International Interior Design Association (IIDA), Network of the Hospitality Industry (NEWH), American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). All these groups are involved with advocacy and legislation at the national level and provide valuable information on their web sites regarding the impact and implementation of green design.
Find and join local chapters and attend their networking events on sustainability. Surf the Internet for white papers on eco-friendly design, subscribe to pertinent newsletters and search for online design tutorials. Workshops on green design are proliferating, as are round tables and break-out sessions at conferences. Take advantage of the opportunities to talk with owners and developers at financial conferences, in particular, to find out what they want and will pay for. Network with a broad range of colleagues who have first-hand experience with green projects to find out about what new demands sustainable projects made on their processes and how they responded.
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