Earth Hour/Day. Carlson Hotels, Americas embraced both Earth Hour and Earth Day with open arms, darkened public spaces and glowing candles. From the back of the house to guest areas, it was “lights out” from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. during Earth Hour. Even the hum of computers stopped at many properties.
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Carlson Headquarters LEED Registered. On Earth Day 2011, Carlson was proud to announce our registration for the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for the company’s corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. USGBC is the industry-recognized leader in green building ratings. Carlson is pursuing LEED certification for Existing Buildings, which helps building owners and operators measure operations, improvements and maintenance on a consistent scale, with the goal of maximizing operational efficiency while minimizing environmental impacts. LEED for Existing Buildings addresses whole-building cleaning and maintenance issues including chemical use, recycling programs, exterior maintenance programs, and systems upgrades.
Below are a few of the phase one certification actions:
• Completed re-ballasting and re-lamping of light fixtures throughout the building, which reduced mercury in the lamps and electrical use
• Estimated total savings for lighting projects yearly = more than 457,000 watts
• Installed new restroom fixtures to ensure they exceed EPA standards
• Estimated total yearly savings = more than 1.1 million gallons
• Fresh airflow rates increased to meet or exceed current American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards
• Optimized energy efficiency performance
The Carlson corporate headquarters is currently in the first of a four-phase plan to achieve LEED status and expects to receive certification no later than February 2012. In addition to the benefits of becoming LEED certified, the company expects the cost associated with the project to be recouped in less than two years.
World Cleanup 2012. Carlson Hotels, Americas is proud to announce its sponsorship of World Cleanup 2012. The first event of its kind, World Cleanup 2012 uses Google map technology to help organize global stewardship of the environment.
Measuring Consumption. In 2009, Carlson Hotels, Americas managed Country Inns & Suites hotels began utilizing Energy Star Portfolio Manager as a tool to baseline and track energy and water consumptions. Today, all managed hotels are asked to use Energy Star to baseline consumption and set reduction strategies in order to achieve our overall goal of reducing energy and water by 5% in 2011. By 2015, we want to reduce energy and water by 15%.
Managing Waste. All managed US hotels are undergoing waste audits to document current waste practices and identify reduction opportunities. Carlson Hotels, Americas’ goal for 2011 is to reduce waste by 5% and by 20% in 2015. We are already taking one big step toward reducing waste at all Country Inns & Suites hotels by replacing disposables on the breakfast buffet with reusable chinaware and flatware.
eCycling. Improper disposal of electronic waste (eWaste) is a mounting environmental problem. Carlson Hotels, Americas, in partnership with Keystone Computer Solutions, has produced an easy-to-use eCycling program for use by all Carlson hotels for the safe disposal of eWaste. This program works to minimize risk and provide an easy solution for the removal of eWaste by picking up, processing and safely recycling eWaste of any sort.
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