Hraba Hospitality Consulting

LEED compliancy is often an expensive, and frustrating, process.   Many hoteliers feel it just means a sterile, ugly building; others think it is imperative – not for the good of the earth – but the marketability of their brand. Whatever reason people use, one thing is for certain – it is relevant, it is part of the standardization of the green movement, and it is something that is here to stay.  In what form, I am not too sure, but the need to abide environmentally aware construction and renovation is paramount in our eco-hungry clients’ eyes.  The Green Movement isn’t a movement anymore, it’s just the way business should be done.  This isn’t just about guests, nor industry trends.   This is just about smart business.

After two decades of slowly getting there, the practice of being ecological in the hotel industry has gripped us at every angle.  One of the reasons green has finally been benchmarked into the hotel industry is that people caught on that “green” can often mean “saving money”.  Many aspects of being green are really just about being conscious about how you use your resources, and conserving.  That is what a good GM is doing all the time! Many of these things significantly increase savings, and general managers seem to be getting it.   Less wasted paper, reusing and readapting office furniture, I have even seen products from craigslist for back of house operations.  The hotel industry has finally settled into being green aware and acquiescing to guests’ desire to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Just a few of these powerful tools that are environmentally friendly as well as create savings: In room Energy Management Systems (needs room key to have lights work), refrigerator’s with absorption technology, CFL lightbulbs, thin client networks, laundry water recycling systems, cogen heat capture systems, bathroom amenities’ current trend moving away from small bottles to refillable dispensers, installing solar at properties (Cavallo Point in Sausalito has panels on their contemporary buildings, while Wilbur Hot Springs is 100% solar). All these things are, primarily, about savings for the hotel. If that is the way you need to sell it to the owners, then so be it. You can simply relax and enjoy the added benefit of helping the environment, as well as catering to your guests, echoing their ideals, creating a brand they can identify with, endorse, and come back to.

Now let’s look at some ways this becomes incredibly complex. There are some design issues that come into play when you are designing with something like LEED in mind. This isn’t necessarily about saving money or resources. This is about building responsibly. However, there are many people that aren’t sure LEED is all that responsible themselves. It comes under intense scrutiny from equity and construction people, as well as environmentalists. Construction types think it is an out of date, inefficient system. Equity people think it is too expensive. Green people think it is too wasteful, and full of endless missed opportunities. Most agree it needs overhauling.

It isn’t an option with building at this point… you must go green. You *want* to go green, but going LEED creates a conundrum for project managers. You need the designation so that people know you are legitimate. If you didn’t have it, and kept saying “we are really eco conscious with design” it doesn’t mean anything for consumers. They can’t identify with it or understand it, and prefer something tangible that verifies any “green” claims made. Hence the popularity and near necessity for people to passionately campaign for LEED accreditation, a process that can take years of planning, and years of operating before status is granted. What is problematic is that the cost associated with creating this marketable aspect to your green building limits how green you can be. When you spend $200K on a LEED architectural consultant just to vet the complex process, it becomes pretty obvious you *could* spend that on actually being more green. The arcane regulations are difficult to get through, and it is an inefficient process. The costs associated with abiding a frustrating, and at times arbitrary and muddy, process such as becoming LEED compliant. I have seen some projects that got into the millions in pursuit of the title LEED. I think it is important to build and operate green, and for now the only thing we have is LEED. I just find it an obvious “throw the hands in the air and shrug” moment in regards to whether LEED needs an overhaul. By spending money to be green, you limit your ability to be green. This is a problem, and LEED needs to address it if they want to stay the industry leader in green certification. If it isn’t addressed, someone else will and we will have a brilliant new process to vet the altruism of equity, architect, design, and management.

I am excited about the future of all this, and thought I would just address some of the majour points. Green has been done to death, but not by me. I think it is just the way business is happening at this point, and if you aren’t aware of that…. get hip and go green!

The below is overkill, but here are some thoughts on LEED from treehugger and grist, as well as a couple others. I just raise the point because I apparently like adding complexity to an already dizzying issue. =)

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/slate_on_decide.php

“The point system creates perverse incentives to design around the checklist rather than to build the greenest building possible.”

http://www.grist.org/comments/soapbox/2005/10/26/leed/index1.html

Grist says “Let’s fix it”

http://www.icsc.org/srch/government/briefs/200810_leedtalking.pdf

council on shopping centers doesn’t like it, but does have a few good, key points

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4184/is_20041028/ai_n10047515

3 key problems

If I had to carry a torch for an environmental issue (and I am sure I do), it would have to be getting people to see the problem of plastic water bottles. Or more directly, helping hoteliers and the ENTIRE travel and hospitality industry rid of this needlessly expensive problem.

SO!

My one, isolated, professional recommendation to EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE ENTIRETY OF HOSPITALITY – all hoteliers, general managers, managing groups, executive committees, DOS, DOM, Banquets and more – needs to say *NO MORE* to water bottles at property level. If you don’t think you can, breathe deep and just figure it out. Sell them in the gift shop if you have to (along side metal or reusable containers), keep some in case of an emergency…

…but get them out of guest rooms, restaurants, bars, and meeting rooms. They are one of the most pervasive and damaging environmental problems, whether in the state of California or country-wide. What’s more is that it is a needless expense, and can easily be changed. I know it can be an interesting revenue stream for banquets ($1.50-$2 at times per bottle), but just get rid of them.  If not for environmental reasons, just do it because we are being fleeced like mindless zombies/consumers (one in the same).  If you need some proof, Penn & Teller did a brilliant expose about bottle water being a scam.

People cling to water bottles like a security blanket and it is time to grow up.

The bottles are clogging our landfills and recycling plants, and it is about time to start talking out loud about this idiotic and worthless addiction to these things. They pile high in office recycle bins, they litter the floors after conferences. It is unnecessary, and you may be able to make this into a marketable and profitable enterprise.

I have seen some properties install tap filters in rooms, kitchens, banquet, and service areas. Guests are encourage to carry a bottle or canteen. Many restaurants are not only installing reverse osmosis, but are making carbonated sparkling water for their guests as well. There are many ways to save money… one is to charge for water that is already coming out of your taps, and banishing that earth choking plastic bottle.

I am sort of thinking green today, from an industry vantage point. This could save money, have a marketable “message”, impress your green conscious clients, and create less waste (not to mention the savings in not having employees constantly pilfering the stock)

Update! Here we have the Cisco Innovator Forum podcast that goes along with the article – How to sell to hotels.  Jess’ article appears *here*.

Also, and interesting article since the publishing of this post: Loew’s to source from local farmers for inventory

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As we sit and hope and pray for the economy to be bolstered by these stimulus packages, bailouts, plans, and overwhelming fray… it is always good to realize that some of the best times to start or grow your business is during a recession. One way to grow is to talk to businesses in your back yard, and see if they understand what you offer.

For lack of any sort of witty word like “widget” or “doohicky”, I am simply going to say the word “product”. Frankly.. that is what you have. Whether it is a space saving device in a bathroom, or a piece of art, soap, souvenirs, or more…. you are trying to sell your product. I am sorry I don’t know what yours is, specifically…. but I am sure I would love it. =)

Remember… you make your product because you think it’s pretty good. You believe in it, and you know others will eat it up if you can find the right fit. When you are cold calling, or thinking of appropriate selling ideas…. don’t be in a defensive position, trying to prove the value of your product. Your approach should be more self aware, and enthusiastic. You know people want it… and it’s there loss if they don’t buy from you.

So let’s specifically talk about the first people you should be calling in your community: HOTELS.

Hotels, Motels, Bed and Breakfasts, Inns, Lodges (shall I go on) dot the gentle landscape of the Unite States, and often out people’s backdoors they can see one towering in the distance or across the highway. Hotels generate a huge percentage of the commerce in this country, with the Tourism and Hospitality GDP around 9.5%, or $1,357 Billion dollars. Those are dollars that you can be part of, and here is why.

A hotel is like a city, that needs constant upkeep and amenities. From paint, shower rings, art, soaps, food service products… you name it, a hotel needs it. It might help you to figure out where you fit by thinking of the hotel by departments. The largest have housekeeping and tailoring, engineering, rooms, restaurants, bars, banquets, room service, bell stand, valet, gift shop… it is endless. I have seen hotels with $100,000 works of art in their gift shop, all the way down to a $2 idea for a new style doorstopper – there is definitely a place for what you make in local hotels.

It is true that many properties have established relationships with preferred vendors, but are quickly becoming open to new ideas and new ways of doing business. The green movement has impacted hospitality deeply, and there is always a savvy hotelier looking to their local community to find ethically and earth friendly products for the bathroom, or artisan locally crafted art or handmade local furniture.

In fact, if you meet a hotelier that is closed off to ideas like locally sourced food or supplies, or enviornmentally friendly production – frankly you don’t even want to be in that property. It just means that the people are way behind, and you probably wouldn’t want to showcase your product with a brand that out of step with industry standard practices.

Most hotel brands that are really “getting it” are looking to their community to offer forth products, art, or amenities that not only support the local community, but help the guest discover more about the town, it’s people, and it’s heritage. Hotels clamour at the ability to connect the guest with the place, as it will envigorate our guests to return time and time again. When you have a quaint town that is full of innovators, artists, or entreprenurs… it is only natural to want to celebrate that and champion the members of your community.

Hotels are sitting, waiting for your product. They don’t even know how excited they are going to be until you help them find it. Realize that a hotel is an incredible opportunity to develop your business, and root it in the community along side it so that people start recognizing what you offer.

If you have something, a hotel needs it, and they might be buying. It doesn’t just take a good product, it takes a talented business owner to help a hotel manager understand what they are missing out on.

So go let the properties in your community know, and help them make the experience for their guests even better – through the partnership and commerce of local business!