By David Ball
Staff Writer
Danny Groves, engineering director for the Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel, pulled out one of the recently installed air-conditioning filters and showed it to state Department of Environmental Protection worker Jeremy Tyler on Wednesday.
“They’re a little more expensive, but they are supposed to save on energy and provide cleaner air for our guests,” said Groves. “Our new a/cs will take out 25 percent more moisture in the room and totally eliminate mold and mildew.”
Tyler checked the filters off his list as one of the last requirements the Crowne Plaza needed to fulfill to be the first hotel in Jacksonville to receive DEP’s Green Lodging certificate, although many more hotels are sure to follow suit.
Last Friday, Gov. Charlie Crist signed an executive order initiating new state energy-use policies, including one that requires state agencies and departments to hold meetings and conferences only at hotels with Green Lodging certification starting Jan. 1, 2008.
Jacksonville lodging experts say that while the requirement may have come abruptly, it does reinforce a growing desire by many in the industry to go green as energy costs continue to rise and guests start to demand more eco-friendly accommodations.
“I think it’s part of an overall national trend, and it’s coming to Jacksonville,” said John Reyes, president of the Jacksonville and the Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“It’s what the consumer is going to want to buy,” Reyes continued. “If they are going to purchase any type of commodity, they want to know that organization, that city, that destination is morally responsible.”
According to a recent report by USA Today, a TripAdvisor survey of more than 1,000 travelers worldwide found that 34 percent would pay extra to stay in an environmentally friendly hotel, although only 9 percent seek them out.
Fred Pozin, owner and general manager of the Ramada Inn Mandarin, said his move to go green isn’t because of overwhelming pressure from guests (he said very little inquire about it), but rather simple economics.
“When you look at a homeowner’s electric bill and it’s gone up 20 percent, can you imagine it for a commercial building like a hotel?” said Pozin, who has switched to energy-efficient air conditioning and fluorescent lighting to help ease as much as $15,000 in monthly energy costs.
“We are certainly doing it in the area of linens and sheets and towels, where we put a card in the room asking guests to hang them back up if they don’t want them washed,” Pozin added. “Most hotels jumped into that several years ago.”
USA Today estimates that two-thirds of U.S. hotels (up from about 10 percent a decade ago) employ such reuse measures. However, other areas of waste are becoming more apparent.
A survey released last week by Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which operates Sheraton, Westin and several other lodging brands, showed that most of the 1,041 travelers polled said they’re less likely to conserve water and electricity when away from home. Nearly 70 percent said they open a new mini-bottle of shampoo each time they take a shower at a hotel, 63 percent were more likely to leave lights on and 75 percent thought it’s important to have their hotel linens changed every day.
However, the TripAdvisor survey found that 78 percent said they would rather not have sheets and towels changed when given a choice. Most Jacksonville lodging experts said the move to go green is already underway, and it may even be a prerequisite in the near future.
Florida’s green program
“There is a lot of buzz about it and a lot of enthusiasm to go green,” said Philip Tufano, president of the Jacksonville Hotel/Motel Association. “Everyone is going to be applying (to DEP’s Green Lodging program). Everyone wants to get that certificate.”
Florida joins at least eight other states (California, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin) that have some form of green-hotel certification. Florida’s program evolved in 2004 out of DEP’s waste reduction division, which was working to help hotels recycle more.
“We really couldn’t get the lodging industry to come on board with recycling alone,” said Karen Moore, who now coordinates the Green Lodging program. “To make this a better sell, we coupled it with energy, water, air quality and waste.”
The first certified hotels were two Disney properties in Orlando, a Hilton in Gainesville and a Hyatt in Bonita Springs. Moore said the program has really grown this past year, and now 25 properties are certified and 46 more have applied.
Property owners apply by filling out an application at www.dep.state.fl.us. The application serves as a checklist of recommended environmental practices in areas of communication, water conservation, energy efficiency, waste reduction and clean air.
Some standards include offering towel and linen reuse, using low-flow showerheads and toilets, using Energy Star-rated appliances and lighting, offering staff and guest recycling, purchasing bulk items, recycling ink and toner cartridges and using environmentally friendly cleaners.
“We wanted to be a little more Florida-specific in our requirements, especially with air quality,” said Moore. “I think the potential to help save our natural resources is huge. This has a direct impact on Florida’s tourism industry, which is our biggest industry and has a tremendous environmental impact.”
Many Jacksonville hoteliers, Pozin said, will likely apply for certification mainly as a marketing tool and because future travelers might expect it.
“If that was a benefit my property had over the property next door,” Pozin said, “that would suggest to you that’s where you want to be if all else is equal. That’s what it all comes down to.”
The governor’s order
However, the certification will also be a must-have if a Jacksonville hotel wants to host any sort of state conference in the future. In Gov. Crist’s order, he states that “Florida’s state government must lead by example in the fight against global climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses and demonstrating the economic value of such reductions.”
In addition to the hotel requirements, the order directs state bodies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 10 percent by 2012 and 40 percent by 2025. New state buildings will employ strict green standards and vehicles will use ethanol and biodiesel fuels when locally available, among other requirements.
Crist isn’t the first to order such action, as USA Today reported that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom recently banned city departments from buying bottled water, citing the environmental impacts of making, transporting and disposing of the bottles.
However, the immediate impact for some Jacksonville establishments will be the loss of state conferences. According to the CVB, more than 40 state and local government groups held meetings in Jacksonville the past three years, with 7,917 attendants and 13,223 total room nights over the same time period.
The cost of conservation
But to secure those bookings after Jan. 1, 2008, hotels will have to be green, and that takes resources, money and an overall change in attitude. The 292-room Crowne Plaza spent about $16,000 in new light bulbs alone, according to Human Resources Director Thea Pugliese.
“There were some costs, but we believe we will recoup that money through energy savings,” said Pugliese. “But we weren’t doing it for those reasons, anyway.”
Tufano said his nearly 70 hotel and motel members will have to decide for themselves to what extent they want to go green.
“It’s a balance to run a business and look at costs associated with these things,” he said, “but there are also things you have to do to be good stewards of the community.”
One Jacksonville establishment, the Jenks House bed and breakfast in Riverside, has taken green lodging to another level with a solar water heater, a compost pile for trash and a garden and orange grove for food.
Tom an Ila Rae Merten have lived in the 1925-built home for 30 years and have run the bed and breakfast for 30 months, and they said a Green Lodging certificate, which they have applied for, would simply memorialize the way they’ve always lived.
“The only area we needed some improvement in was the way we clean,” said Tom Merten, who now uses vinegar instead of bleach to clean bathroom and other surfaces.
“It seems like it cleans well, but it takes a lot more of it than bleach, and it’s significantly more expensive,” Merten added. “I think a lot of smaller places could make these changes (to go green) more quickly, just because they don’t have that many fixtures and appliances to deal with.”
Both Reyes and Tufano said their organizations will likely meet within the next month to discuss the Governor’s order and how its members can go green. Merten said the hardest part isn’t the cost of new energy-efficient devices, but the change in attitude needed to make it work.
“Cleaning crews have done the same things for years, and you now want them to do something differently and spend more time in each room and think about recycling and things like that,” said Merten. “You’ve got to train people, and yourself, to do things differently, to have a different mind set.”