A Guide for Hotels: Boosting Profits with Energy Efficiency & Conservation

Building Envelope

The building envelope, also referred to as the building shell, consists of all partitions that separate outdoor air and temperature from indoor spaces: windows, doors, walls, roofs and foundation. The building envelope is critical for minimizing the buildup of humidity and uncomfortable drafts.

To keep conditioned air inside, check and repair any leaks in seals and insulation around building partitions and ductwork in the HVAC system.

MGM City Center in Las Vegas

To prevent outdoor air and temperature from infiltrating conditioned space, install high-efficiency doors and windows wherever possible. Doors can be a large source of hot or cool air loss in hotels. Make sure to seal door jambs and below doors, especially in hotels with outside access to rooms. Glazing or films for windows is another option, particularly for buildings in which window replacement is neither cost-effective nor practical. Glazing lowers the emissivity (i.e. radiation) of surfaces and reduces ultraviolet rays responsible for fading fabrics and furnishings.

Shade is the most cost-effective and simplest way to reduce solar radiation. Architectural elements can be added that shade windows and doors - roof overhangs, light shelves and fins or slats, for example. Trees make great shade, too. Properly placed, trees lower air conditioning costs by shading buildings and lowering outdoor temperature through evapotranspiration. Trees also provide a significant community benefit by reducing stormwater runoff and trapping air pollutants like carbon dioxide. A study of San Diego County by American Forests, for example, found that the urban forest removes 4.3 million pounds of pollutants from local air each year - a benefit worth $10.8 million annually. These trees sequester about 9,000 tons of greenhouse gases each year, storing a total of 1.2 million tons.

MGM Commits to Green Building

MGM, developer of the largest hotel project in the world ($8 billion), City Center in Las Vegas, will make all of its new buildings green, retrofit existing buildings and operate all of them more sustainably.