The Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, a 726-room hotel in Los Angeles, has upgraded more than 78,000 square feet of its windows with an energy efficiency product made by Solar Gard.
The window film provides UV protection and rejects solar heat, and its application is designed to reduce the building’s energy use from cooling and prolong the life of fixtures and furnishing by preventing fading.
Solar Gard, a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, conducted an energy efficiency and financial analysis of the building prior to the window film installation. The analysis projected a return on investment of less than one year with an energy rebate from the Los Angeles Department of Power and Water.
The hotel also has aligned itself with Hyatt Thrive, the company’s global corporate responsibility program, to cut energy and water consumption, waste sent to landfills and greenhouse gas emissions.
The hotel has installed low-flush toilets, showerheads and aerators in all rooms. Inncom thermostats and LED lighting have been installed throughout the hotel’s 100,000 square feet of meeting space as well as in all guest rooms.
Hyatt decreased its waste intensity by 3 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to the company’s most recent corporate sustainability report. The hotel chain has a goal of reducing its waste intensity by 25 percent by 2015 against the 2010 baseline, and now boasts recycling at 88 percent of its hotels, the report says.
But in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, progress has been slowing. Despite a 10 percent drop since 2006, the hotel chain’s greenhouse gas intensity flatlined from 2010 to 2011 at 141 kg of CO2 equivalent per square meter of space. The company has a goal of reducing its greenhouse gas intensity by 25 percent by 2015 against a 2006 baseline.
Earlier this year, the Hyatt, along with Hilton, Fairmont, InterContinental and 19 other international hotel companies agreed on a standard to calculate the carbon footprint of hotel stays and meetings.
The International Tourism Partnership (ITP) and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) formed the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative Working Group in early 2011 to create a unified methodology for measuring and reporting carbon emissions. The methodology, named HCMI 1.0, was developed in 2011 and informed by the GHG Protocol Standards.
HCMI 1.0 was tested throughout 2011 by a diverse array of properties from around the world. Consultants KPMG and the World Resource Institute both reviewed the methodology before launching the standards.