The Refinishing Touch Blog

As we’ve seen through our clients as well as through organizations worldwide, there are any number of ways to go green. Often times the great work of big companies can seem overwhelming to everyday individuals who want to do their part for the environment as well. The Goldman Environmental Foundation recognizes those individuals who, in their everyday lives, have fought to preserve the environment with its Goldman Environmental Prize, which honors grassroots environmentalists. Last week, the Foundation announced the 2010 award recipients who hail from six regional areas: Africa, Asia, Europe, Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America.

The six individuals who received the award range from a lawyer in Poland, who fought to protect sensitive ecosystems in the Rospuda Valley from being destroyed by a highway project, to an animal activist who worked to prevent the death of Asian elephants by teaching farmers to keep the animals at bay using fences, fireworks, and horns, to a farmer in Michigan, who stood up to large industrial farms nearby that kept its animals in cramped spaces and produced huge amounts of manure that damaged the quality of air and water. Learn about all the award recipients here.

The sustainable work of big companies is important, however the work of individuals is just as important, if not more. Congratulations to this year’s awards recipients, whose efforts have improved the environment and serve as great examples of how everyday people can make a difference.

Labels: Goldman Environmental Prize, Green awards

Earlier this month, Wyndham Worldwide was recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for its corporate responsibility and its commitment to the environment with a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification. The hotel chain received the honor for its headquarters in Parsippany, New Jersey, which meets LEED standards in areas including energy use, lighting, and water use. The building also employs other sustainable policies such as using recycled materials, paints, carpets and furniture throughout the building.

This newly LEED-certified building is just one example of Wyndham’s commitment to sustainability. It has even organized a separate program, called Wyndham Green, that strives to achieve sustainable goals throughout the company in six specific areas: energy conservation, water conservation, recycle/reuse, education, community and innovation. Wyndham, which boasts 70,000 properties worldwide, has also received other accolades, (including one from Newsweek as one of the top 100 greenest companies in the country) and is a finalist in the Corporate Commitment category USGBC's fourth annual "Building a Greener New Jersey" award.

With all these achievements under its belt and its continued commitment to green initiatives, Wyndham is a great example of sustainability both within the hospitality industry and throughout the corporate landscape.

Labels: green hotels, LEED, Wyndham

You might not realize it, but today’s a pretty significant milestone for organizations with a commitment to carrying out business in an eco-friendly fashion. Today is Earth Day, and this year it’s the 40th Anniversary of the annual event.

Since it began in the US in 1970, this celebration of all things environmental has become a rallying point for concerned citizens of all nations. From its position on the fringes, Earth Day has become a mainstream event, an opportunity for politicians and companies to show off their green credentials. And as a business with a genuine focus on recycling, reusing and upgrading, we like to mark the event. As we, amongst others, have shown, green business is good business. It makes sense to reuse and upgrade, whether we’re talking about computers, waste materials or land. The savings in terms of cost and resources are significant, and it’s an opportunity to do both the right thing and the smart thing.

Labels: Earth Day 40th Anniversary, Environmental Protection Agency

As fuel costs continue to rise and the high environmental cost of air travel becomes ever more apparent, people are increasingly looking for relatively local, relatively inexpensive holidays. Whether it’s camping, hiring a motor home or making the journey part of the holiday experience, something relatively inexpensive and authentic has an increasing edge over a lot of the more expensive options. Out of season is always going to have the edge in terms of low cost holidays (and is ideal of you’re not shackled to the school holidays), but there are lots of options for those willing to do a little research. Craigslist is a good place to start, and a lot of inventive people are renting out spare rooms to those looking for a more homey feel.

One of the many great things about our homeland is its infinite variety, and taking the opportunity go get off the beaten track a little and experience something new and interesting can broaden the mind and bolster the bank balance – and help the planet.

Labels: Budget vacations, Green holidays, Green travel

We’re committed to delivering value for money to all our customers, and always have been. In the current climate this is more important than ever, and most forecasts predict that the years of simply replacing outdated or worn furnishings are gone. The new watchword for the hotel industry is renew.

From Marriott to Starwood, all the major chains are rolling out significant reburbishment plans alongside their global construction plans – and in the case of Choice Hotels, they’re refurbishing almost to rooms for every new room they bring online.

Good news for us at TRT, certainly, but also recognition of the fact that, whilst the worst of the financial crisis of the past couple of years may have passed, the effects of 2008 – 2009 will linger for some time to come. Refurbishing and refinishing rooms shouldn’t be seen as a lesser option, however. With the techniques we use, it’s a quick, cost-effective way to keep your rooms looking their best, and clean, well appointed rooms can be the difference between a recommendation and a lukewarm review. Even the Las Vegas resort hotels, famous for being in a constant state of change, are opting for renewal – with the high-end Wynn Las Vegas about to renovate every single one of its 2,700 rooms. The only question for hotel mangers is this: if everyone else is doing it, why aren’t you?

Labels: Choice Hotels, Hotel Industry, Marriott, renovation, Starwood, Wynn

As anyone in the industry will tell you, the financial crisis of 2008/2009 hit the hotel hard industry on two fronts. Firstly, custom took a sudden, steep dive. All of a sudden hotel owners had to cut rates to unprecedented levels just to keep up occupancy rates, and there weren’t enough customers to go round. And then, perhaps more seriously, capital all but dried up. All of a sudden financing for construction, refurbishments and overhauls was seriously hard to come by.

Fortunately, the hospitality industry finally seems to be getting a break. It’s early days, for sure, but there are signs that investors are returning and construction is beginning again. Growth is cautious, and concentrated on certain areas perceived as lower risk, but it’s a definite improvement on recent times. We’ve been seeing substantial activity across all our lines of business, and momentum is certainly growing.

So what can the industry expect? In the short term, higher service coverage ratios. Investors may be starting to return, but they’re understandably wary, and that translates into higher charges. Nevertheless, with some industry experts suggesting that RevRAR falls will bottom out in 2010 and then grow next year and beyond, investments look likely to return in force over time. Not to the levels of a decade ago, but enough that smart, customer-focused business owners can finance future growth and development. That’s something that we at The Refinishing Touch welcome along with others in our industry.

Labels: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, construction, hospitality industry

Schools with green design are nothing new. Neither are schools with a green curriculum. Schools that use their green design as a key component of a green curriculum, though, are much harder to find.

The Valley View Middle School in Snohomish, Washington does just that. The building follows all of the tenets of green design, but uses its architectural and sustainable features to teach students. All of Valley View’s mechanical equipment, ranging from boilers to water systems, is color-coded and visible to students. This allows the students to, for example, watch rain water travel through pipes to be reused in bathrooms.

The Da Vinci Arts Middle School in Portland, Oregon uses the same teaching methodologies. In addition to a net-zero music room and a water garden for collecting storm water, Da Vinci Arts allows students to track energy use from the school’s photovoltaic solar panels, donated by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.

With an environmental slant, school buildings themselves can turn into a teaching tool, an able supplement to the lessons learned inside, and teachers can see both students and their buildings at work.

Labels: Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Da Vinci Arts Middle School, Education, Green, Valley View Middle School

Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants are on track to achieve an environmental milestone. Based in San Francisco, CA, the lifestyle boutique company has announced its goal for all 50 of its hotels to achieve 100 percent Green Seal certification at the silver level, which would make it the first of its kind in the U.S. to obtain this honor.

For a hotel to be considered Green Seal certified, it must pass both an initial evaluation and on-site audit as well as demonstrate sustainable practices in waste minimization, energy efficiency, fresh and waste water management, hazardous substances and environmentally conscious purchasing.

Roughly half of Kimpton’s hotels have already been certified, with an additional 20 awaiting certification within the next 90 days. The four remaining hotels will begin the certification process sometime this year.

Kimpton has incorporated environmental awareness into its operations since its foundation in 1981. It was among the first in the hospitality industry to include in-room recycling bins and use non-toxic cleaners. The results of its conservation efforts are impressive. For example, statistics show that sustainable practices at Kimpton hotel properties in Chicago have already prevented an estimated 1500 tons of greenhouse gases and diverted about 116 tons of recyclable materials from ending up in landfills.

By working to achieve this goal, Kimpton is setting a great example in how to think big for the environment.

Labels: green hotels, Green Seal, Kimpton Hotels

Today we’re excited to continue our series of guest bloggers with a post from Diana Driscoll. Diana is a principal of Ridgeline Hospitality, a developer of upscale hotels in the Southwest.

Diana's work at Ridgeline includes the launch of HotelRescue, which provides hoteliers with strategies to make their hotels more efficient, increasing cash flow and evaluating and utilizing 'green' initiatives while maintaining an excellent guest experience. HotelRescue helps hoteliers incorporate green practices, lowering operating and energy costs, creating higher hotel value and earning incentives for eco-friendly initiatives. Diana's work aligns with our core values - helping hotels become sustainable and environmentally viable, improving both customer experience and the bottom line. Diana was kind enough to pen a guest post for us about the costs of going, or not going, green in the hospitality industry.


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Going Green for Profits
By Diana Driscoll

We all know that going 'green' or 'LEED-certified' is good for the planet and good for people, but what about for profits? What is the ROI for going 'green', and are hoteliers allowed to think in terms of the bottom line, guilt-free? Absolutely!

Hotels are a business – a personal, people-centric and creative investment, but an investment none-the-less. Well said by Dennis Quaintance, CEO of Proximity Hotels (the first platinum LEED certified hotel in the U.S.),

"It ain’t sustainable to go broke!"

Many hoteliers have taken a 'wait and see' attitude before investing in green changes. Fortunately, we now have enough data, both from LEED-certified CRE and hotels to get a good idea of the costs and profit potential for 'going green'. At the time of this writing, there were almost 50 LEED-certified hotels in the U.S., and over 900 hotels were registered for LEED. Additionally, there were 17 LEED-certified conference centers with an additional 85 in the LEED pipeline.

Of course, costs differ according to the specific project, its location, the regional and state incentives and rebates and so on, but developers need a number to start with, and that number is usually much lower than anticipated.

Taking it a step at a time, before exhaustive studies of rebates, tax incentives, available technology and detailed LEED design work is completed, the developer can feel fairly comfortable with the following costs of LEED, based on previous projects:
• Certification: 0-0.8%
• Silver: 1-2%
• Gold: 2-4%
• Platinum: 4-8%.
These percentages are based on hard plus soft costs and exclude land costs.

Indeed, some cities are incorporating LEED points into their building codes, and the cost to achieve basic LEED-certification is almost always cost neutral. I have noticed that most hoteliers will aim for silver or gold certification. Platinum, although admirable, is more difficult to achieve, as even the site needs to meet certain criteria that are out of the developer's control. Again, Dennis Quaintance had some accurate comments about going LEED platinum:

"It wasn't easy. It wasn't hard, either."

Looking at some concrete examples, Good Energies explained to the Wall Street Journal that for the average, non-residential building with an increase of 2% of costs (generally a silver or gold LEED-certification), the payback period averages 3-4 years, and over 20 years the payback is equal to 4-6 times the investment cost.

And what about the increase in sale's price of the hotel? For this estimate, we are lacking hotel comps and need to examine office and retail projects. Generally, sale's prices for energy efficient buildings are as much as 10% higher per square foot than conventional buildings. Most LEED hoteliers anticipate a one percent lower cap rate (higher sales price) upon sale. This increase in profit is in addition to the lower energy and water costs, the lower insurance costs, the lower cost of debt, the increase in group meetings possible, the higher occupancy levels (9% of the population currently seek out 'green' hotels) and the larger pool of potential buyers (pension funds and insurance companies generally look for the most technically advanced buildings, and LEED is considered to be cutting edge, and certainly less likely to become obsolete!).

Looking at 'green' strictly as an investment, the McKinsey and Co's report, "The Case for Investing in Energy Efficiency", $170 billion is anticipated to be invested in energy efficiency over the next 13 years, with an internal rate of return of 17%. This investment will generate $900 Billion of annual savings by 2020. This is a better return than the stock market (which has shown us a 10% return over the long term), or real estate (with its average 16% return). Notably, these numbers are calculated based on a conservative $50 per barrel oil cost. If oil costs go up to $150 per barrel, the internal rate of return triples to 51%, which is five times better than the average stock market return.

So, if your hotel goes 'green' (even gradually), will it be for the planet, for people or for profits? My belief is that if it is not profitable, it will be nearly impossible for developers to go 'green' for purely altruistic motives. Fortunately, we don't have to choose one motivation. Let go of that guilt and know that if you are increasing your profits, the planet is also benefiting.


Diana Driscoll, LEED AP B, D & C
Ridgeline Hospitality, LLC
DDriscoll@RidgelineHospitality.com
Twitter: @dianadriscoll @hotelrescue

Labels: certification, Going Green, HotelRescue, LEED