The latest is an evaluation by Frederick County's Department of Utilities and Solid Waste Management (water and sewer) of the impact of water conservation on buildings.
It was brought to the table by Plamondon Hospitality Partners, representing Marriott and Roy Rogers locally, as a result of their new Towne Place Suites five-story hotel opening this July.
Towne Place Suites: A "Conversion" for the Owner
When a return on investment becomes predictable, (in contrast with a fuzzy, long-term bottom line) businesses are eager to get on the wagon. The Towne Place project is an example of one that finds itself at that place where classical environmental goals dovetail with reality: return on investment.
The project's architect told me recently that when he first encouraged management at Plamondon to strive for LEED, there wasn't a high interest level. They were skeptical about returns, and even more skeptical about investing the high cost of applying for LEED (a building that size has thousands of dollars in application fees at stake) without knowing whether their efforts would qualify.
(LEED is a qualification process monitored by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) that uses a rigid set of criteria to award points for resource-conscious design of a building, ranging from practices to decrease useage of water and energy; increase the amount of construction waste recycled, or the amount of recycled content used in building materials; and many other sustainability areas.
(The photo at right shows the I-70 Rest Stop, westbound, which was a LEED project for the State Highway Administration for which Canam supplied steel and LEED qualification information.)
When he found out Marriott worked with USGBC on a pre-approved templates that guaranteed Silver LEED (a kind of "third place" behind Platinum and Gold LEED) if the prescripted steps were followed, he reversed course and had the project redesigned. Cost savings in design elements like low flow shower heads, LED lighting and other resource-light design choices also began to look sweeter.
A Break from Frederick County?
(The photo at right shows the I-70 Rest Stop, westbound, which was a LEED project for the State Highway Administration for which Canam supplied steel and LEED qualification information.)
When he found out Marriott worked with USGBC on a pre-approved templates that guaranteed Silver LEED (a kind of "third place" behind Platinum and Gold LEED) if the prescripted steps were followed, he reversed course and had the project redesigned. Cost savings in design elements like low flow shower heads, LED lighting and other resource-light design choices also began to look sweeter.
A Break from Frederick County?
He brought their efforts to the attention of Frederick County's Department of Solid Waste and Utilities Management with the seemingly logical argument that, if the hotel is using less water, connection fees (charged by the County at time of building to help pay down debt for water and sewer facilities) should be decreased. That argument still has to be vetted, though, according to DSWUM water head Kevin Demosky.
That's because the county bases connection charges on CAFs, or Capacity Adjustment Factors. In 2000, they calculated the useage of water by numerous users of a certain type, and based connection fees on an average of use by all in that category. Those numbers haven't been revamped for years, so its possible that with all the low-flow toilets and showerheads being installed as a matter of course in the hotel/motel category, Towne Place Suites' LEED work may only be "average"--which may not be the answer Pete Plamondon was looking for.
That's because the county bases connection charges on CAFs, or Capacity Adjustment Factors. In 2000, they calculated the useage of water by numerous users of a certain type, and based connection fees on an average of use by all in that category. Those numbers haven't been revamped for years, so its possible that with all the low-flow toilets and showerheads being installed as a matter of course in the hotel/motel category, Towne Place Suites' LEED work may only be "average"--which may not be the answer Pete Plamondon was looking for.
Demoskys department is studying the implications of the request as well as the feasibility of revamping the CAFs to reflect current user categories' useage.
Stay tuned, because incentives for businesses to "go green" still seem to be the carrot that is needed to get the stick moving. Its good to see a hotel going green, not only for the right reasons for resource conservation, but for a more practicable measure of sustainability: profitability.
SEE ALL MARYLAND LEED PROJECTS HERE (TYPE IN MD IN THE "STATE" FIELD).
If you know of local businesses who are implementing sustainable business practices, please comment here....
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