In January 2009, David Hansen, chief engineer at Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe Hotel and Ski Resort, went to the Emabssy Suite's corporate office with a small request: he asked for $200,000 to make the hotel as eco-friendly as possible. After overcoming some initial reluctance, the corporate office agreed to give Hansen the money. Hansen gave a projected timeline of two years to recoup the investment.
By following Hansen's go-green plan, Embassy Suites will recoup their money by September 2009.
While most hotels are taking small steps to save the environment - giving guests the option of not having new towels every day for example - Hansen took a different approach: he started with the big changes and worked down.
Hansen began with a complete overhaul of the hotel's gas and electric system. He installed an internet-based control system for the heating and cooling all of the meeting rooms, and occupancy sensing thermostats in every suite in the hotel. Through the system, instead of having the air conditioning or heating on in all rooms at all times, Hansen can control the system for each room based on occupancy: if the room is not being used, the air conditioning is turned off.
In addition, Hansen's new cooling system uses damper motors to the meeting rooms and public area fan coil units to intake 100 percent outside air. In layman's terms, this means that the hotel does not use mechanical cooling in the building for seven months out of the year.
An Ozone System for the laundry room was installed. The system reduced the spin cycle, eliminated the use of hot water and cut down on drying time. The system cost $24,000 to install, and cuts down on water use by half.
All leftover food goes to a local compost company that Hansen discovered, instead of a landfill, and is packaged in biodegradable garbage bags made out of corn. All the disposable cups, glasses and take-away boxes are now made out of corn instead of plastic or styrofoam.
The swimming pool and spa now run on a salt water system instead of the chemical-based cholorine system. As a result, the hotel no longer has to transport or store the harsh chemical.
Even the seemingly smaller changes have had a big impact. Hansen realized that the hotel was wasting energy by using incandescent lights in its exit signs. These lights have been replaced by LED lights. Energy-efficient compact fluorescent lighting has been installed throughout the hotel, and Hansen's program has cut down on the amount of electric lighting used in the building in general.
Since Hansen's changes, the Lake Tahoe Embassy Suites Hotel has seen a 25% drop in the monthly energy bill. The scheduled air conditioning system has saved the hotel 450,000 kilo-watt hours so far this year. Sending the food to the composite company instead of a landfill has brought down the monthly cost of eliminating the hotel's food waste from $8,000 to $3,000.
Soon, the guests at the hotel will have the option of recycling in their rooms and putting the recyling out in the hall for daily pick-up.
Of course, guests still have the option of hanging their towels in the bathroom to signal an intent to re-use, but with the changes made by Hansen the Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe Hotel is way ahead of any of its competitors in the eco-friendly arena. Hansen's aggressive plan has saved the hotel thousands of dollars and is helping to keep Lake Tahoe blue in the process. His vision has been a win for the corporation and a win for the environment.
Now that's money well spent.
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