Site Visit - Fairmont Hotel

Site: Fairmont Hotel
http://www.fairmont.com/dallas

The Fairmont Hotel's Chief Engineer, Jason, toured us through their hotel in downtown Dallas. This particular hotel was built in 1961 with 545 rooms plus significant banquet space. As compared with other local hotels that I've witnessed, this hotel staff seemed to be more aware of sustainability issues and conservation. Jason discussed several initiatives that were currently in place at the hotels, including single stream recycling for guests and employees, ice machine condensate recapture (which has saved them 101,000 gallons since last April), reuse of hotel keys and toiletries, a rooftop garden used to grow ingredients for their restaurant and new efficient lighting. As an example, Jason had just recently finished changing out light bulbs in the valet parking area to a more efficient bulb. The Fairmont Hotel group setup a 'Green Team' to discuss sustainability issues at the hotel and have created a sustainability-conscious culture within their organization. According to Jason, the Fairmont Hotel group focus on sustainability and efficient as an organization because they feel it will help save them money over the long term. Jason referenced a 50% drop in electric usage as an example of how the company's focus on efficiency has helped their bottom line.

Bottom line, this hotel will always consume a significant amount of energy in the course of their operations. Hotels consume energy in a variety of ways: power is consumed in vacant and occupied rooms, sheets and towels need washing (hopefully), guests need showers, etc. etc. Although this hotel will continue to consume a significant amount of energy as long as they are operating, it is encouraging to see staff members motivated to minimize their impact and consumption as much as possible. Even though the operations team is minimally staffed, they are still being innovative in their approach to conservation. The company culture focused on innovative ways to conserve is based upon a business case for conservation, which is the only way conservation and efficiency will ever be focused on for most business owners.

Finally, I appreciated Jason's focus on measuring results. Too many organizations undertake sustainability iniatives without any way to track their impact. Kudos to Jason for comparing electricity usage to prior usage and for strapping a meter on to his ice machine recapture mechanism, which allowed him to show off measurable results from his efforts.