Job 1 for Starwood Capital: Creating five-star, green hotels
Continued from Page 1
“While some hotel brands pay lip service to the environment by asking guests
to reuse towels and adding plants to a
lobby, 1 is not using ecofriendly jargon
simply as a marketing tool,” Sternlicht said
in a statement. “Our intention with 1 is to
build hotels and residences that are truly
green and minimize their impact on their
environment.”
of environmental sensitivity.
Hotels such as the Orchid at Mauna
Lani in Hawaii, the Venetian in Las Vegas,
the Sheraton Seattle and the Fairmont in
Washington all have ecofriendly programs
in place that range from using solar energy
to recycling programs.
Kimpton Hotels, meanwhile, regularly
uses ecofriendly products and services at its
hotels through a program called Kimpton
EarthCare.
The growing interest in reduc-
ing the environmental impact of
hotels has spurred the American
Hotel & Lodging Association, in
cooperation with Environmental
Protection Agency, to launch a
case study program to gauge the
impact of ecofriendly practices
on hotels.
“They are three months into it,
Barry Sternlicht
CEO and all of us are very eager to see
Starwood Capital the results,” said Brad Aldrich, the
AHLA’s vice president of business
development, who spearheads
the association’s green hotel effort.
Unique operating model
Starwood Capital, which is not
affiliated with Starwood Hotels,
said the new properties would follow a “unique operating model,”
under which various departments
of the hotel might be operated by
recognized “industry leaders.” For
example, BR Guest, a premier restaurant operator, will “provide an
innovative restaurant, banqueting and room-service program,”
according to a Starwood Capital
statement
The development of 1 is the latest move
by Starwood Capital Group to become a
significant player in the luxury end of the
lodging industry.
Last year, the group acquired Louvre
Hotels, a collection of 14 luxury properties
that included the Hotel Crillon in Paris as
well as the Lutetia in Paris and the Hotel
Martinez in Cannes, France.
The acquisition was followed by an announcement in January that it intended
to create a luxury, European style chain
Kudos for Starwood
“I was very happy to see what Starwood
did. That is really exciting. That could generate an awful lot of interest,” he added.
Michael Roberts, head of the Roberts
Hotel Group, which owns several properties including the Mayfair Hotel in St. Louis, believes going green “is the way to go,
and it is the right thing to do from a future
standpoint.”
Roberts’ company also owns hotels in Atlanta and
Houston, among
other cities, and intends to “begin to
converting them,
wherever possible,
into green buildings. It is the wave
of the future.”
Green hotels take
extra steps to “use
sustainable product,” Roberts said.
“For example, you
use carpets made
from recycled materials. You also
might use flooring
from recycled materials. You would
use bamboo as opposed to hardwood.
Almost 40% of the
world’s consumption [of hard wood]
into commercial
and residential development is right in the
United States, even though we are a fraction of the world’s population.”
Green properties also take steps to minimize water consumption, Roberts said.
“If we have landscaping and areas like
that, we try to capture rainwater or non-tox-ic water and reuse it for gardening,” he said.
Lighting elements throughout the properties,
meanwhile, are designed to
use more solar energy and
less fossil fuels.
“It is better for the environment, which is our
driving force,” Roberts
said. “But the way it works, it is actually
[cost effective] because you are recycling.”
A report, “Sustainable Hotel Business
Practices: A Sur-
face Examination,”
published this year
by HVS Interna-
tional, a hotel con-
sulting firm, con-
tended that with
an ever-increasing
number of people
traveling, hotels
will have to take on
“the responsibil-
ity to minimize the
impact [that large
numbers of travel-
ers] have on the en-
vironment,” adding
that failure to do
so could lead to the
“destruction of the
[hotel’s] surround-
ings and therefore
their business.”
The green hotel
trend also dove-
tails with growing
efforts by major
brands to create
healthier environments for their guests.
For instance, Westin banned smoking at
its North American properties earlier this
year, and Marriott soon followed, prohibiting smoking at all of its hotel brands.
‘I was very happy to see what Starwood did. That could generate an
awful lot of interest [in green hotels].’ — Brad Aldrich, AHLA
of hotels based on the Crillon.
It’s also the latest, and boldest, move
in the hotel industry’s increasing level
His company is currently developing a
residential/lodging tower adjacent to the
Mayfair that will be “a green building.”
America’s Best effort
In May 2000, America’s Best Inns and
Suites introduced Evergreen rooms.
At least 10% of the rooms at all America’s
Best Inns and Suites’ 110 properties across
the U.S. are designated “Evergreen.”
The rooms are specially designed with
special water- and air-purification systems
to eliminate virtually all allergens, along
with “allergen barrier bedding” and bathroom showers enhanced to provide softer
water.
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