Clarion Partners’ Hotel Portfolio
Real estate investment management company Clarion Partners has 56 hotel properties in its portfolio, which includes over 8,300 guest rooms across 25 states in the United States. As part of a larger renovation program from 2014 to 2018, Clarion Partners replaced bathroom fixtures across its hotel portfolio to improve water conservation and energy efficiency.
Context
A single hotel room uses an estimated average 396 gallons of water per day. In the United States, hotel water usage accounts for about 15 percent of total water use in commercial and institutional real estate. The hospitality industry plays an essential role in advancing water-smart strategies, especially in areas that experience water stress.
Water-Wise Strategies & Their Cost Savings
More than 90 percent of hotels in Clarion’s portfolio have implemented low-flow toilets, which are estimated to achieve an annual average savings of $9,000 per hotel. Hotels’ improved faucet aerators have helped reduce annual water consumption by about 91,000 gallons, equating to an annual average savings of $1,000 per hotel. On top of this, showerheads were also replaced across 95 percent of hotels in Clarion’s portfolio. These upgraded showerheads save an astounding 500,000 gallons of water and result in $5,550 in savings. Further, the hot water heater uses less energy when water use is reduced, leading to an additional $1,700 in natural gas savings for a total annual average savings of $17,250 per hotel.
To save additional water and energy, Clarion also offers towel and linen reuse programs at 100 percent of its hotels, allowing guests to reuse towels, providing linen changes every fourth night of a stay, and then changing all towels and linens when a guest checks out. To support program success, Clarion trains hotel personnel to not replace towels that are not left on the floor. To some surprise within the hotel industry, this option was quickly embraced by hotel guests as a small way to engage in energy and water conservation, and resulting estimates of annual energy and natural gas savings are about 25 percent.
Lessons Learned
Clarion Partners’ hotel renovation program demonstrates that seemingly small changes to ubiquitous fixtures found in hotel rooms present a massive opportunity to conserve water, energy, and financial resources at scale.
Showerheads play an important part of the guest experience in hotels, so when undertaking this replacement, Clarion partnered with Kohler to compare two of its leading water-efficient products, one using 2 GPM and another using 1.75 GPM. Several asset managers and hotel managers tested both products at their homes, and surprisingly, the water coming from the lower-flow showerhead felt stronger than the higher-volume choice, saving money and ensuring a high-quality guest experience.
“Implementing sustainable practices that help our environment while ensuring guest comfort shouldn’t have to be mutually exclusive. Hotels host millions of travelers annually, so we have a real opportunity to not only demonstrate that we are taking quantifiable action to improve our planet, but we are doing so in ways that complement the guest experience.”
CHUCK LATHEM
Managing Director, Clarion Partners
Additional Resources
For more information on how to improve the environmental performance of a hotel asset, see ULI’s report, Sustainability in Hotels: Opportunities and Trends Shaping the Future of Hospitality. The report assesses the state of sustainability in the hotel sector; identifies best practices in energy efficiency, water conservation, and waste reduction; and highlights industry trends to watch.
For more information on water-wise strategies for real estate and their business case, see ULI’s report, Water Wise: Strategies for Drought-Resilient Development. The report provides best practices for addressing water scarcity through water-smart development and landscaping.
