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Boston Green Tourism
...advancing the green hotel movement
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Dear Boston Green Tourism Members,
The presentations from the February 23 meeting at Courtyard Marriott Downtown
are linked and
summarized below. See the other sections, too.
Our next meeting will be this coming Thursday, March 9, at Fairmont Copley Plaza
in the Forum Room, lower lobby.
Our meetings became bunched up, because of the Feb. 9 snowstorm. Thus, I will be sending you several newsletters in a brief period of time.
Dan
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Boston Green Tourism Meeting
February 23, 2016
Location
: Courtyard Marriott Downtown
Hosts
:
Cathleen Wardley, Alex Tsaturyan
Present
: Cathleen Wardley, Alex Tsaturyan, William Cruys, Omar Roldan, Samantha Sorrin, Alex Alexandrovich, Kevin Lubinger, Emre Schveighoffer, Joshua Cook, Amy Weber, Stephen Lafaille, Dan Ruben.
PRESENTATIONS
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Albert Tsaturyan, Chief Engineer, Courtyard Boston Downtown
The hotel recently installed low flow showerheads, many LED's and lighting controls. They plan to purchase beehives soon.
Refrigeraton Basics for Hotels; Common Efficiency Measures
Food services are incorporating modern fault detection systems for their refrigerators and freezers. These systems provide alarms and alerts; enable remote management; and detect equipment issues that require maintenance and repair.
Proper fan management reduces run time and energy use. Newer temperature control and scheduling capabilities reduce energy bills, too. So do EC motors.
NRM conducts cold room retrofits by performing analyses, proposing upgrades, negotiating utility incentives and overseeing installation.
Improving Reuse and Recycling in Hotel Operations: Reduce Waste & Save Money
The speakers described how hoteliers can maximize reuse and recycling during building renovations. Doing so cuts costs, provides consumers and charities with valuable goods and keeps items out of landfills. The presentations have step-by-step instructions for making the process easier and more profitable for hotels.
Both RecyclingWorks and EcoBuilding Bargains provide no-cost assistance to businesses. EcoBuilding Bargains picks up reuseable items for free and provides an itemized receipt that can be used for tax purposes.
The presentation shows what items can be reused and provides detailed information about carpeting, carpet pads, furniture, mattresses and textiles.
Stephen Lafaille, Product Manager, Tecogen, Inc.
Chillers typically last 15 to 20 years. Consider replacing your old units with Tecogen natural gas engine-drive chillers, because they have impressive advantages:
- They run on natural gas and not electricity, so they cut peak demand charges sharply.
- Natural gas is much cheaper than electricity.
- They capture and reuse the waste heat (combined heat & power) from the chiller, so they deliver two sources of energy (cooling and hot water) for the price of one. Where the typical electric chiller is 30% efficient, the Tecogen models are over 80% efficient from a source energy standpoint.
- Free recovered engine waste heat offsets boiler use--reducing boiler operations and extending boiler lifespan.
Tecogen units are more expensive than electric boilers. However, their sharply lower operating costs and the lucrative Mass Save incentive make up the cost differential in under a year.
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Boston Convention & Exhibition Center Earns LEED Certification
When conference planners consider Boston, they see many green-certified hotels. Now, they see a green-certified convention center, too.
In 2016, the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC) earned the LEED EBOM (LEED for Exiting Buildings: Operations and Maintenance) Silver rating. Only a few convention centers have attained this distinction.
Here are some of the BCEC's green achievements, many of which are relevant to hotels:
Waste Management
The BCEC recycles approximately 50% of its waste--totaling 600 tons per year.
- Conventions C.A.R.E Program: donates unused items (office products, furniture, event bags, lanyards, etc.) at the end of their events to schools, charities, churches and other organizations.
- Food Donation: donated over 30 tons of food to Greater Boston Food Bank, New England Center for Homeless Veterans and Boston Rescue Mission in FY 2016.
- Food Waste and Compostable Flatware: the BCEC and Hynes Convention Center sent 263 tons to a local farm to be composted in 2015. Their hauler is Save That Stuff.
- Electronic Waste: has a designated e-waste collection area. Uses the Big Green Box program to recycle batteries. Recycles electrical and internet cables.
- Pallets: donates used pallets to Xpedx Transportation for reuse.
- Carpet and Padding Scraps: sends it to a facility where it's recycled into cement blocks and asphalt.
- Water Bottles: offers complimentary 5-gallon dispensers in every meeting room as an attractive alternative to bottled water.
Energy
Vanderweil Engineers conducted an
ASHRAE Level 2 audit that identified numerous energy efficiency opportunities.
Recent BCEC energy projects:
- Renewable Energy: offset 100% of their energy consumption by purchasing Green-e Energy Certified RECs from a wind farm and Verified Carbon Offsets from an operation that captures landfill gas for reuse. Their supplier is 3Degrees.
- Lighting Controls: installed controls in all meeting rooms that turn off lights when the rooms are unoccupied.
- Stairwell Lighting: installed dimmable ballasts in the emergency stairwells that reduce light levels by 90% until they are activated.
- LED Tubes: replacing 4-foot fluorescent lights in the entire facility with LED's.
- Energy Efficient Operations: they reduce lighting and HVAC when exhibitors are setting up and breaking down their exhibits.
Transportation
- Mass Transit: provides conference attendees with free silver line trips from Logan Airport. Sells Charlie Cards on-site.
- Electric Vehicles: installed eight EV charging stations.
- Bicycling: has two onsite Hubway terminals, covered bike racks and secure bike storage.
Indoor Air Quality
- Audit: conducted an I-BEAM Audit (IAQ Building Education and Assessment Model) and made several changes that improved indoor air quality.
- Green Cleaning: uses electrolyzed water for general cleaning. Their floor cleaning machines use Tennant ec-H2O Technology, which converts water into a cleaning solution, too.
Green Procurement
- Cleaning and Paper Products: are Green Seal certified.
- Food and Beverage: sources much of its food from Massachusetts.
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Convention Industry Council and Green Meeting Industry Council, 2016
This 18-page guide provides instruction for making food services more environmentally-friendly, inclusive and profitable. It was produced for the meeting industry, but most of its ideas are relevant for restaurants.
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The following meeting will be 2:30 to 4:00.
| March 9 |
Fairmont Copley Plaza |
| April 27 |
Taj Boston |
| May 25 |
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| June 22 |
Please note: this is a new date. Please delete July 6 from your calendar. |
| Sept. 14 |
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| October 12 |
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| December 7 |
Le Meridien |
See you Thursday at Fairmont Copley Plaza!
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