Hotel owners are increasing both their investment in green buildings and their commitment to green practices.

McGraw Hill Construction’s Green Retail and Hospitality SmartMarket Report, produced in partnership with Waste Management, Inc., found that the percentage of hotel owners who have taken a green approach in more than half of their building projects rose from 28 percent in 2011 to 48 percent in 2013 and will rise to 64 percent by 2015. More than 55 percent of their hotel buildings will be green in five years. And 73 percent are also committing to green operations and maintenance practices by 2015.

More travelers are actively seeking out hotels that demonstrate their commitment to the environment by building green, affirmed Jacob Kriss, media associate at U.S. Green Building Council. Also driving this growth, he noted, is the LEED Volume Program, which allows organizations to certify multiple projects at once based on a standard, pre-certified prototype design. Three global hotel companies — InterContinential Hotels, Marriott and Starwood — participate in this program.

Click here to access the McGraw Hill free report, and read on for key findings.

Hotel owners cited the benefits of green practices:

• Lower operating costs (73%)

• Utility rebates (70%)

• Energy use reduction of 15% on average (67%)

• Increased asset values (60%)

• Improved environmental health and well-being (50%+)

• Increased occupancy rates (46%)

These hotel owners are also placing green building requirements on their contractors and suppliers — 73 percent require green waste handling practices from their contractors, and nearly the same number require recycling and composting from O&M contractors.

Most important aspects of green building for hotel owners:

• Improve energy efficiency (90%)

• Reduce water consumption (77%)

• Use more environmentally friendly products (70%)

• Increase recycling (63%)

• Increase renewable on-site energy generation (47%)

Green practices in current use:

• Occupancy/lighting sensors or automatic shutoff (86%)

• LED lights (83%)

• Environmentally preferable purchasing (79%)

• Recycling or composting (72%)

• Building controls (72%)

• Airflow/IEQ improvements (52%)

• Energy benchmarking (52%)

Key metrics hotel owners use to evaluate green building impacts:

• Decreases in operating costs.

• Return on investment.

• Internal energy use benchmarks.

• Customer satisfaction.

• Internal water use benchmarks.

• Reduction of emissions footprint.

Biggest challenge for hotel owners in measuring sustainability performance: Staff capacity to collect and manage data (40%).

What’s impeding some hotel owners from green new-build and retrofits:

• Getting corporate leadership buy-in.

• Higher initial implementation costs for green practice.

• Budgeting challenges.

• Lack of consumer/client awareness.

• Greenwashing (deceptive use of green promotion). — Maxine Golding