Energy Management Systems

Brands focus on sustainability

12 Jan, 2012 By: Andrew Sheivachman

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Energy management is becoming a hot-button issue for hotel brands once again as owners look to reinvest in their properties and turn sustainability from a buzzword to a differentiator in their comp set.

"We believe that building in automation is key to our success in our properties and delivering a great guest experience," said Doug Rath, energy director of the Americas for Marriott International. "They very accurately control spaces as well as identify issues proactively before a guest is impacted, We have 250 full-service hotels in my region, and probably 65 percent of those now have automation systems."

Marriott has signed a number of deals with the vendors of energy-management systems, including a recent collaboration with Constellation Energy, to ensure property owners have a wide variety of certified vendors to choose from.

"The Constellation deal is a small piece of automation picture for Marriott," said Rath. "The only pieces we're really doing with them is initiating auto demand response, auto load shedding and they help us to interface with ISOs. The key is to shed load without impacting our customers."

Rath says training is necessary from managers and engineers to get the most out of networked systems, especially the right knowledge to manage peak energy consumption.

"You can put a brand-new automation system into a building but if you don’t follow up on it and have right staff in place, adjustment by adjustment you’ve lost the fine-tuned edge of the system," said Rath. "A system is assumed to start out well-designed and efficient so it's delivering on ROI. However, there's a huge relationship between whoever is overseeing the system on a daily basis and the persistence of the commissioning of the system; a direct relationship between owner/operator and efficiency."

Likewise, IHG has a program aimed at helping hoteliers gradually lead their property down a more sustainable path.

"In 2011 we launched the second version of our Green Engage software," said Paul Snyder, VP of corporate responsibility in the Americas for InterContinental Hotels Group. "There are over 170 discrete items in the program you can do to make your property more sustainable, on differing tiers of investment so hoteliers can pick and choose what’s relevant to them."

By offering an itemized approach to improving sustainability, both brands hope to encourage hotel owners to embrace sustainability.

Topic : Sustainability, IHG, Marriott
External Source : Hotel Management