Green Hotels

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Katz says consumers hoping to stay in green hotels should inquire whether a hotel is taking a “holistic” approach to environmentalism — is it recycling, using solar energy or environmentally friendly cleaning products? In particular, consumers should look for the LEED certification, Katz says, which requires hoteliers to adhere to a rigorous — and expensive — environmentally friendly building and operational protocol.

“It really offers this third-party validation that this is actually a green building,” says Katz.

Patricia Griffin, president and founder of the Green Hotel Association, acknowledges that her group cannot ensure that member hotels actually recycle or use high-efficiency air-conditioning systems or follow other environmental practices. She leaves it up to the consumer to do the policing.

“All we have ever required is that the members be committed to saving water, saving energy and reducing solid waste,” Griffin says in a phone interview from her Houston office.“We know that those guests will keep hoteliers’ feet to the fire.”

Griffin adds that seeking LEED certification is expensive. It’s the hotelier who must pay for the LEED consultant to come out and inspect building materials and operational procedures. “For a small property it could be $5,000 to have them come and certify,” says Griffin. “Some people say, ‘I’m not going to spend that. I’m going to use the money for cotton sheets.’”

Chang spent much more on his hotel’s certification. He estimates that he paid an additional $250,000 to consultants to certify that his materials were green. Going green poses some logistical headaches for a builder. For example all the wood used to build Gaia had to be delivered at the same time, so a green consultant affiliated with USGBC could come out and certify that the wood was recycled or came from forests sanctioned by the Forest Stewardship Council, a network that promotes responsible management of the world’s forests.

But for Chang, it was worth it. He expects to recoup the extra cost of going green in eight to 10 years from lower water and electricity bills. Chang plans to launch a Gaia brand of hotels all of which would be green. Already, he is building a Gaia in Anderson, with more planned elsewhere. He expects the greenness in those hotels to be less costly than in the American Canyon, because he’s learned so much from the construction of his first green hotel.

Chang, a native of  Taiwan who is president and founder of Atman Hospitality Group, which builds hotels, got into the green business after an epiphany a few years ago. He asked for a glass of water at a restaurant in Santa Cruz and was initially denied one because of water rationing. It shocked him that water rationing had come to that stage. That got him to thinking — and ultimately building — in green.

The Gaia in American Canyon, which is about 7 miles from downtown Napa, is tucked amid strip malls and sits next to the tiny Napa Valley casino. Save for the swans in the lagoon in back, the nature mural on the hotel’s exterior and a funky winglike canopy at the hotel’s entrance, a visitor wouldn’t know that the hotel carries the coveted green gold rating. For that reason, Chang installed an interactive kiosk in the lobby that shows visitors exactly how much energy and water are being conserved each day and month. (In June, according to the kiosk, the hotel saved enough electricity to fuel 54,201 hours of TV watching.)

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