How are Marriott’s green initiatives helping to save money?

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Over the next 5 years, hotel giant Marriott International, Inc. is planning to expand its “green hotel” portoflio by 10-times its current size by introducing a “green hotel prototype” that will be LEED pre-certified.

Beginning in 2010, the prototype model will save hotel owners arpound $100,000 as well as six months of design time, while reducing energy and water use by almost 25%.

LEED, which if you don’t know by now stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an internationally recognized green building certification system designed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the “gold standard” of environmental stewardship for the hospitality industry.

“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, USGBC. Marriott was the first hospitality member of the USGBC, and has more than 20 LEED accredited professionals on staff.

The green hotel prototype has initially 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 represent more than 290 hotels in the pipeline across the globe.

The Courtyard Settler’s Ridge in Pittsburgh, Penn., scheduled to open in the summer of 2010, will be the first to be built based on 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, president and CEO, Concord Hospitality. “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.”

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Referred to by the USGBC as “volume build certification,” the green hotel prototype will let Marriott continue its strides in “greenability” in mass production.

The company 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. As a benchmark, there are only 31 LEED-certified hotels across the entire U.S. lodging industry.

Ahead of the curve

“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 at the USGBC’s annual Green Build conference in Phoenix today.

While many of the benefits of LEED certification, such as improved energy savings, better indoor air quality and reduced CO2 emissions, are transparent to guests, others are easier to identify such as 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.

Marriott was recently ranked one of Newsweek’s “The Greenest Big Companies,” and has been recognized for its environmental leadership in the hotel industry by several groups, including Ceres, an alliance of investors and environmentalists; the non-profit organization ClimateCounts.org; and Travel + Leisure magazine. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored Marriott with its Sustained Excellence Award for the third straight year, and has awarded its ENERGY STAR® label to approximately 275 Marriott hotels.

The company’s Spirit To Preserve environmental strategy calls for has also instituted the greening of its $10 billion supply chain by:

• Reducing fuel and water consumption by 25 percent per available room
• Creating green construction standards for hotel developers to achieve LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council
• Educating and inspiring employees and guests to support the environment
• Inviting guests to add to the company’s $2 million commitment to help save the rainforest in Brazil.

For more information, visit www.marriott.com/environment or www.marriott.com/savetherainforest.

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