Home Publisher's Point of View A Chat with the Corporate Director of Impact for 1 Hotel Brand

A Chat with the Corporate Director of Impact for 1 Hotel Brand

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If you read this column regularly you will recall my late March column about the opening of the first 1 Hotel in South Beach in Miami Beach. The “1” concept was first introduced by Starwood Capital Group in 2006 and is the idea of Barry Sternlicht, Chairman and CEO, Starwood Capital Group. The South Beach hotel is the first of three 1 Hotels to open. Every 1 Hotel will be LEED certified.

Many of the details about the 1 Hotels already have been published on Green Lodging News. All of the hotels will have significant green features. At 1 Hotel & Homes South Beach, for example, guests are welcomed with 3,000 feet of living wall wrapped around its exterior—probably the largest living wall in the lodging industry.

I spoke with Michael Laas, Corporate Director of Impact, SH Group, this past week to get more details on how the “1” brand is coming along. SH Group is the management company that is managing the South Beach hotel and the two in the pipeline in Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park.

First of all, the Central Park property, originally slated to open in the spring, will actually open on July 30, almost the end of this month. The Brooklyn Bridge Park hotel, originally advertised as opening in late 2015, is now marketed as opening in 2016. While the South Beach hotel most likely will attain basic LEED level certification, the other two properties should earn LEED Silver.

Guests Not Happy About Jet Skis

The South Beach hotel is doing well and having a strong summer—typically a slower time in South Beach. “We are already No. 2 on TripAdvisor,” Michael told me. Guests are noticing the green features of the hotel and are commenting on them. Interestingly, the 1 Hotel & Homes South Beach had been offering Jet Ski rentals through another company but pulled the amenity when guests suggested it was not the kind of service that should be offered at an eco-friendly establishment. A lesson learned.

I asked Michael if there had been any unexpected surprises operationally at the South Beach property—the result of the renovation of a 1970s building. “We were able to identify that our air handlers were generating a lot of condensate,” he told me. There are now plans to capture that water and reuse it in the hotel’s chiller plant.

1 Hotels are advertised as having a lobby farm stand—a place to pick up a healthy snack or produce from local suppliers. Michael told me the South Beach hotel opened as the growing season was winding down in southern Florida so getting the farm stand up and running has been more difficult than expected. There are still plans to launch the farm stand, along with bee hives and an herb garden.

A ‘Mission-Driven Company’

Michael, who began working in his current position in January of this year, said that from day one the 1 Hotel brand has been focused on making a positive impact. “It is a fun, interesting experiment,” he said. He added that he has been impressed with the culture of Starwood Capital Group and SH Group. “Our staff turnover rate is low,” he said. “We are a mission-driven company. We have an amazing HR team. We have sustainability training for each department.”

Michael said there is still a lot of work to do to develop and improve the company’s “cradle-to-cradle” approach to sustainability. A supply chain management program is coming, and work to get a handle on each hotel’s performance metrics.

Be sure to continue to follow Green Lodging News for additional news on the 1 Hotel brand.

Green Lodging News Adds EcoStay Program to Directory

Green Lodging News has added the EcoStay Program to its Green Product & Service Directory. With the carbon offsetting program, hotels can support local eco-initiatives including biodiversity conservation, water efficiency, sustainable forestry, renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction, generate thousands of dollars for green initiatives, offer green meetings and events, market green actions to guests, meet the AH&LA’s 11 Guidelines for going green, earn Best Western’s Green Icon Label, improve one’s Green Key Global Eco-rating, fund corporate green programs, win GBTA Hotel RFPs, measure hotel related GHG emissions using HCMI and Green Hotels Global, and go carbon neutral. Call (877) 430-3007 for more information. You may also e-mail aolver@ecostay.ca or click here.

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