Case Study on London Heathrow Marriott

Winner of the Green Hotelier Awards 2016 in Europe, the London Heathrow Marriott has innovated and invested in new technology to improve its sustainability and reduce its consumption footprint. More than once it has been a leader in the Marriott group or across hotels in Europe for its forward-thinking approaches to sustainability and willingness to trial new solutions.

The journey began when the hotel opened in March 1999 and continues today. Although the hotel had a green committee established much earlier, but they pulled resources together in 2011, with more involvement from the Director of Engineering, Department Heads and the GM. Each department has its own energy action plan and ‘Green Team’ monthly meetings encourage an exchange of ideas, initiatives and goals.

Energy: In the last five years combined energy consumption shows a steady reduction of 8% and carbon emissions have reduced by 12%. Big savings were achieved with LED lighting, not only in bedrooms, but in the car park too, including the spotlight on the façade.

Initiatives include:

• Hybrid Windmill & Solar Power System on the hotel roof to harness wind and solar power to light the Marriott LED sign.

• Greenhouse on the hotel roof supplying local produce to the hotel restaurants and bars, saving transportation

• LED lighting throughout the hotel includes all exterior and car park lighting reducing energy and carbon emissions.

• Cheetah Extractor Fan Control System: automatic speed variation of extractor/supply fan when kitchen is not in use.

• Triad Initiative 3.30pm-6.30pm daily: Turning off all non-essential lights and equipment during peak times.

• Entech Program: specialist company, reporting and analysing consumption data to help reduce energy waste.

• Kiwi Power Demand Reduction Strategy: to reduce KWH loads at set times thereby reducing the load on the national grid at peak times.

• CHP: efficient way of producing heating and hot water than conventional boiler system, it also produces electricity.

• Voltage Optimisation: voltage lowered from 240 - 245 volt range to a more efficient 235 – 240 volt range.

Water: In the last five years they have focused on some great water savings initiatives such as GRANULDISK commercial pot washer in 2015, which saves annually two million litres, showing these initiatives have a real impact.

Additional initiatives taken to save water:

• Tap flow restrictors used in all areas including showers and taps.

• Smart metering to high use areas such as kitchen and Leisure areas with regular meter readings taken and feedback given on consumption and targets set to work towards each month.

• Rain water harvesting for green house watering using water butts on the roof.

• Automatic taps in restrooms self-closing taps turn themselves off after a set period of time preventing water.

• Smart planting of shrubs and bushes reducing the need for watering, minimal use of seasonal bedding plants.

• Retaining water in bedding longer by using woodchip across the grounds.

• 800ml quick boiler energy saver kettle used in all guest rooms.

• Onsite water filtration unit used for water bottles in meeting rooms eliminating the need to buy bottled water for meetings.

From 2011 up to the end of 2015 saved 30% in water consumption.

Stand-out aspect to their Sustainability Prractice

The ‘Glow Show’ event for WWF Earth Hour. It create awareness of climate to our guests, hotel teams and local community by putting on a lively show in the lobby. Energetic hotel staff adorn themselves in multi-coloured glow lights, brightening up the darkness as they dance with hotel guests and visitors. For an hour the lobby of the London Heathrow Marriott is transformed into a huge dance floor, to display a fantastic array of glowing colours. They have supported Earth Hour for many years by turning off the lights in all public areas for an hour and asking their guests to do the same in the bedrooms. The ‘Glow Show’ is the way of raising awareness of the effects of climate change to our local community and having fun at the same time.

Among the initiatives that have been most innovative, are the installation of a Hybrid Windmill & Solar Power System on the hotel roof to power the hotel’s Marriott LED sign and building a greenhouse on the roof of our hotel.

This is the only Marriott hotel in the whole world (4,200 hotels) that powers a Marriott sign in this way. By using this technology they have saved over 6387 KWH of electricity and £1240 in a 12 month period. Savings in carbon emissions amount to 4.0 tons per year. The greenhouse supplies herbs and tomatoes to the hotel restaurant and bars. As they are locally grown it saves costs and transportation, lowering our carbon footprint.It is also a great talking point with guests who are intrigued when they learn that the tomatoes in their salad came from the roof of the hotel!

Awards and Certificates

• Highly Commended 2015 – Green Hotelier Awards

• Gold Award 2012 to present - Green Tourism for London

• Platinum Award 2014 - TripAdvisor Green Leaders Award

• Gold Award 2014 - Marriott Spirit to Serve Greenest Hotel UKI South Region - Awarded The ‘Greenest Hotel UKI South Region’ at the annual Green Champions Meeting for the Marriott UKI South Region.

• Finalist 2013 - West London Green Business of the Year

• Annual DEC audit certification with GEA Consulting Limited.

Personally what i found interesting is the way they keep growing with the technology and keeping its heritage and culture thereby helping the environment at the same time. Like they using the smart way of putting the concealed and indirect lights to enhance the aesthethic value of the place thereby saving lots of energy and thereby contributing to nature.

Secondly, the dance performance everyday for a short period of time just to teach their guests and leaving a positive impact on their mind that when we being a brand can do it this way so why can't you take a step ahead!

Seriously I was pretty impressed by the numbers calculated as energy saved by them on a regular basis and expected to achieve even a higher value.

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