Meetings

Study: Hospitality Industry Jumps Aboard LEED

A new report by the U.S. Green Building Council highlights the rising popularity of LEED certifications among hotels worldwide. That certification could help your organization put on a sustainable event.

Looking to ensure that your meeting is sustainable? A good place to start might be to check if venues have received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green-building certification.

A new report from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) highlights the growing popularity of  sustainable building within the hospitality sector. The council reports that there are 400 LEED-certified hotels worldwide, with another 1,600 hotels working to receive LEED certification.

The organization’s “LEED in Motion: Hospitality” report highlights the argument that hotels are particularly well-suited for sustainability because of their high resource use—with people in them at all times, a hotel tends to take up more resources than an office that closes on weekends, for example. But by using sustainable building techniques, hotel companies can improve water and energy efficiency, the life of the building, the costs associated with maintaining the building, and even the health of the humans staying inside of it.

“Across industries we are seeing an increase in consumer demand toward sustainability practices, and no industry is better poised to meet these demands than hospitality,” USGBC CEO Rick Fedrizzi said in a statement. “This growing sector is rapidly adopting green buildings because owners and developers want to enhance their triple bottom line—people, planet and profit.”

The report highlights locations globally—from the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC, to the Tambo del Inka Hotel in Urubamba, Peru—that have received the certification, which comes in four different tiers. If your association isn’t heading to Sri Lanka for a conference anytime soon, the report points out that many LEED-certified facilities are in the United States, with 31 in California alone and another 19 in New York.

Interested in learning more? Check out the USGBC report here.

(Wonderlane/Flickr)

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

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