Now that hotels have installed beds as comfy as the home mattress, along with pampering spas, could 'going green' could be the next moneymaker for the hospitality business?
Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Capital Group recently announced the launch of 1 Hotel and Residences, an eco-friendly luxury brand that will open in Seattle by late 2008. Rather than asking guests to merely reuse towels, 1 will be built to the green standards created by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Those benchmarks aim to minimize the hotel's impact on the surrounding environment by fulfilling performance criteria in five areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
The Natural Resources Defense Council will serve as an environmental advisor for development of 1, and each property will donate 1% of revenue to local environmental organizations. Other hotels owned by Starwood Capital affiliates will open in Mammoth Mountain, Calif.; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; and Paris, France. Within two years, Starwood intends to have 15 hotels signed or under construction in Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles and other major cities.
"As a CEO and parent of three young children, I have grown acutely aware of the personal responsibility we each have to help preserve and protect our planet, which can only happen through the accumulation of small efforts by millions of individuals," Sternlicht said in a written statement. "It is the perfect time for 1."
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Source - Brandweek
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