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Hilton Concord CASE STUDY

Verdafero – Utility Optimization Software Platform Helps Hilton Concord stay a Leader in Sustainability

Verdafero – Utility Optimization Software Platform Helps Hilton Concord stay a Leader in Sustainability

CONCORD, CALIFORNIA – The Hilton Concord, located in the suburban community of Concord in the East Bay of San Francisco, has implemented an array of sustainability initiatives designed to significantly reduce the environmental footprint of the hotel while achieving increased net cash flow from operating cost reductions and creating added asset value. The hotel is owned and operated by Interstate Hotels & Resorts.

To assist hotel management to gain greater transparency into the impact of these sustainability initiatives Verdafero, a San Francisco, CA, provider of SaaS software and services worked alongside Hilton Concord management and Hotel Sustainability Solutions, Inc. (HSSI), to implement their Verdafero – Utility Optimization Software Platform at the Hilton Concord. HSSI a consulting firm providing comprehensive expertise and management of Integrated Sustainability Systems, Technologies and Products for the hospitality industry, provided the interface and focus for the property systems development.

“Real-time visibility and reporting of our sustainability has become an increasingly important part of our day-to-day hotel operations, not only in this hotel but throughout our entire organization,” said Jack Hlavac, General Manager of the Hilton Concord, who leads the sustainability mission.

“As an example, with our commitment to sustainability we put measures in place across the hotel to increase our landfill diversion rate, which helps reduce our environmental carbon footprint. We have installed a bio-digester in the kitchen for all food waste from hotel operations as well as recycling all paper, cardboard, glass and plastic bottles. The result of our actions and using the Verdafero software we are now able to accurately track, analyze and report our waste disposal streams, energy usage, water consumption and carbon footprint at the touch of a button rather than having to employ a spreadsheet expert to try and track all these metrics manually.

As of June 2013 we have seen an increase in our landfill diversion rate from 14.1% in June 2011 to 37% in June 2013, equivalent to 13.3 tons of waste that we have been able to keep out of the municipal landfill which reduces our waste disposal costs.”

Chuck Smith, CEO of Hotel Sustainability Solutions, Inc. (HSSI), stated, “As government legislation and public opinion drive the need for a more sustainable future, leadership in sustainable hospitality practices is paramount in maintaining the competitive edge. Hilton Concord has established itself as a recognized leader in sustainability, and now has the unique ability to further establish their competitive edge by tracking, analyzing and reporting their utility usage and cost comparisons in real-time using Verdafero. This new and innovative tool now gives management the ability to analyze, compare and report all sustainability metrics within the hotel, evaluating their performance against past and current periods. A unique component of the Verdafero system is the ability to adjust data for normalization of weather and occupancy variations.”

As part of their on-going upgrades Verdafero has now implemented the new global Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI) methodology into Verdafero. This enables the Hilton Concord to analyze and report their carbon footprint reduction on a real-time basis. “The implementation of the HCMI methodology is a very important addition to Verdafero’s Software Platform,” said Smith. “Hotel marketing and sales teams now have the tools necessary to provide corporate meeting planners with carbon footprint on per occupied room per night or per meeting square foot data on a real-time basis. This is imperative for sales and marketing teams to win corporate business during these competitive times.”

How Verdafero Helps Hilton Concord

Using Verdafero, Hilton Concord’s management now have the ability to track, analyze and report on all of the hotel’s overhead utility expenses at the touch of a button. Analyzing large amounts of electric, gas, water, waste data and Carbon Footprint for a large hospitality property on a monthly basis can be very challenging. Individual utilities have inconsistent billing periods and operate on varying billing cycles further complicating the reporting process. Add into the equation different utility providers supplying the same resource, it becomes an even greater challenge.

This presents the end user with varying degrees of complexity when it comes to analyzing and comparing their actual usage, which is resolved via the cooperative efforts of the Verdafero team working with the property team.

During our initial discussions with Hilton Concord there were significant issues to address:

  1. How will management be able to compare current month to last month?
  2. How will management compare current results to the same month last year?
  3. How will management compare results to the selected baseline, using the above parameters?
  4. Does the difference in weather and occupancy affect property results?
  5. How does the system adjust for these metrics variables?
  6. The hotel’s sustainability efforts have become recognized by the traveling business and leisure community adding guest room and group meeting opportunities for our hotel. How will the model enable us to evaluate our impact on utility usage? How will it enable more accurate budget forecasting going forward?
  7. Given our usage over the last year how does it relate to the new global Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI)? Will our calculations be a valuable tool for marketing and sales to garner added business opportunity?

The conclusion, through the use of Verdafero, all these questions can be answered quickly and conveniently from any web connected device. As an example, Hilton Concord’s management can now see the results of all their sustainability commitment. A quick analysis of a year-to-year electricity usage (kWh) comparison will show they have saved 3.7% since 2010. Using Verdafero to automatically analyze the usage data as well as weather and occupancy normalization, they actually reduced their energy consumption by 7.8% equivalent to 51.5 tCO2e.

“As a result of using Verdafero, Hilton Concord will now have the ability to analyze its utility costs and compare the usage and costs by square footage, percentage of occupancy or across different time periods. All levels of management may make more informed operational decisions to maximize Return on Investment decisions. Verdafero adds a financial tool enabling management to more clearly understand the financial impact of their sustainability efforts, current and going forward into the future.”, said Dr Alastair Hood, CEO of Verdafero.

Verdafero Inc. based in San Francisco, CA, is a SaaS (Sustainability-as-a-Service) software and services provider focused on helping organizations save money through optimization of their entire utility expenses, including electric, gas, water, waste, fuel and Carbon Footprint tracking, across their entire organization through the use of their cloud based Utility Optimization Platform – Verdafero. For more information about the Verdafero, visit www.verdafero.com, or call Alastair Hood, CEO at (650) 206 2441.

Hilton Concord is owned and operated by Interstate Hotels & Resorts, the leading U.S.-based global hotel management company. For more information about the Hilton Concord, visit www.concord.hilton.com, or call Jack Hlavac, general manager at (925) 827-2000.

Hotel Sustainability Solutions, Inc. is a leading sustainability solutions company focusing on large and medium hospitality properties including full service, conference/convention hotels and resorts. Sustainability solutions are provided to organizations outside of the hospitality industry through its parent company Integrated Sustainability Solutions, Inc. (ISSI). For more information, contact Charles A. Smith, CEO, at chuck@hotelsustainabilityinc.com or call 412-445-4237 www.hotelsustainabilityinc.com

Media Contacts

Alastair Hood
Verdafero Inc.
(650) 206 2441
alastair@verdafero.com

Charles A. Smith
Hotel Sustainability Solutions, Inc.
(412) 445-4237
chuck@hotelsustainabilityinc.com

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