At the other end of the spectrum, Hilton Worldwide, with all its size and scope, faces the same key issue—operational effectiveness. As Randy Gaines, VP engineering, housekeeping, laundry operations, Americas, explains it, “We’re a different business than Motel 6—we have monster resorts,” Gaines says. “But then again, we have the same issues. We have people leaving the lights on. When we all come together, experiencing the same trends, we can share best practices across these lines.
“Like at Boca Raton, we learned the spa needed a timer on it,” Gaines says. “Those small things—best practices—are low-cost/no-cost things we are sharing at our summits.”
Much of Hilton’s meetings, conventions, and event business depends on satisfying sustainability requirements of RFPs, and Gaines therefore leans heavily on the role of metrics and third-party international certification (ISO 9001 and 14001). “Once you measure it and you scrub it, you can report it,” he says, “and not only can you report it, you can buy better—you can buy energy better than anybody.” For Hilton, such measuring and reporting along with corrective action is now a brand standard under LightStay, a sustainability performance tool that goes beyond energy and water to measure a spectrum of utility and operational metrics, including carbon, paper product usage, waste, chemical storage, air quality, and transportation. “We learn from the data and go after the high-cost/high-use areas,” Gaines says. “We’re investing in them and then measuring against them.”
Doing Their Fair Share
The hospitality industry has an established history of sharing its best practices, especially in engineering and environmental matters. Hand has been a participant on AH&LA’s sustainability committee, of which Gaines recently became chair. Hand has made this learning and sharing approach a fundamental pillar in bridging Blackstone’s lodging companies during quarterly summit meetings.
“The Blackstone Sustainability Summits pull together the highest level corporate operations executives,” Hand says. “We facilitate a full day of dialogue about energy- and water-efficient products, services, strategies, and training. We leverage our scale to reduce costs and share lessons learned to achieve our savings targets faster while maintaining or even enhancing guest comfort—water efficiency, for example.”
At La Quinta, Michael Milburn, director of the energy and sustainability department, reflects on how water-efficient equipment can benefit the bottom line yet enrich the guest experience. Milburn’s efforts to install 1.5 gallon per minute (gpm) showerheads and aerators in all corporately owned hotels was a win-win, but it required legwork to get right. He says at one point he had at least 100 showerheads in his office as the green team researched and tested various models.
“Our baseline was a showerhead that had to perform either as good as or better than the 2.5 gpm mandated for everyone,” Milburn says. Although the winning showerhead uses 40 percent less water, it still packs a powerful punch. “We even had a guest unscrew the showerhead to take it home. He left a note saying, ‘This was a great showerhead, and you can bill me for it.’ That was the ultimate compliment.”
Anderson recalls how Motel 6’s experience with revamping guestroom PTAC thermostat settings worked its way across Blackstone’s hotel companies. Guests had been setting thermostats to either maximum or minimum, unaware that the far ends of the range made for discomfort and wasted energy.
“By truncating that spread, you’re still well within the comfort zone,” Anderson says. “The operators get more life out of their equipment, and their energy use is way down. Across the other companies that Blackstone owns, we got about $4 million a year in savings. And it is a change that can be done in-house with existing PTAC units.”
Ken Millecker, Motel 6’s procurement manager, who pioneered the PTAC initiative, says they now work with the manufacturers to ship the units pre-set with five degrees shaved from the maximum and minimum ends of their thermostats. “The most important part of that project is how the changes the manufacturers are making really didn’t impact the guest stay,” he says. “What I like about the Blackstone model is that I get to work with our sister companies. We can share our stories, and they can share their experiences. I do enjoy that interaction.”
