Dean DiLullo is the Vice President of Global Accounts at Shiji Group and has extensive experience with Information Systems and technology, complemented by operational hotel know-how garnered during his many years in the hotel industry including as the VP of Information Technology at Marriott. He is passionate about sustainability and has been involved in a number of hospitality projects focused on making hotels more sustainable through innovative technology design elements. In this interview, Dean shares with us two examples of the impact of thinking outside the box when building sustainable hotel infrastructure.
A non-traditional approach to sustainable hotel infrastructure
I’ve seen a number of articles and trade magazines discussing sustainability in the last few weeks, and there is a lot of talk about how the industry is embracing greener ways to build, reducing its carbon footprint, using less energy to operate hotels, installing solar panels, and many other initiatives which are but a scratch on the surface compared with the traditional ways of being sustainable. What I’d consider untraditional is what is happening in the technology space, such as employing materials that use fewer natural resources when building a hotel. For example, when building cable infrastructure for communications, IDF and MDF closets have replaced network switches, saving on the amount of cabling needed. Furthermore, with copper, which is traditionally used for cables, one is limited to runs of 300 feet before it has to reach another closet, and then continue to run another 300 feet. But when we talk about a large hotel with upwards of 50 rooms per floor, many closets and an exorbitant amount of copper would be needed.
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MDF Main Distribution Frame closets.
IFD Intermediate Distribute Frame closets. At one of my projects for a hotel in Chicago, an untraditional approach was taken to tackle this problem. We used fiber optic for the entirety of our low voltage infrastructure design eliminating copper in many instances, which is less resource-intensive to utilize, and eliminating data transmission distance limitations in terms of length. The substitution also makes sense in terms of the building design regaining valuable “real estate” on each guest room floor with only a fraction of the number of IDF closets needed allowing additional guest rooms, additional space for the back of the house, etc. The replacement of switches with fiber optic in the closets also means a decreased need for cooling, as the low voltage infrastructure is passive, reducing IDF cooling requirements.
These are just some of the examples of solutions for sustainable hotel infrastructure that aren’t normally top of mind in traditional hotel design and construction. For the same reason, owners or project managers commonly have the impression that such projects would be more costly due to the low-voltage infrastructure needed, but it’s always worth remembering how much would be saved in other ways. In this case, the drastic reduction in the amount of IDF closets needed saves the construction costs associated with building out numerous IDFs which balances out the building and low voltage project costs and netting at about the same as traditional infrastructure would.
The “Low Voltage Hotel”
Another interesting project I was involved with became affectionately known as “The Low Voltage Hotel.” In a hotel, many things use electrical power: lighting, TVs, hair dryers, alarm clocks, HVAC units and so much more. All of this equipment is traditionally built to run on AC power, which is high voltage and uses more electricity. But it is possible to have all of these appliances run on low voltage DC power if they are designed and built to do so, ultimately using far less energy and thus being more environmentally friendly.
The three main benefits of embracing a greener approach to technology infrastructure that is designed for and built in hotels are lower construction costs, lower ongoing operating costs, and lower consumption of natural resources.
An owner we worked with was interested in this low-voltage hotel, so he hired a visionary team to run the project and funded every aspect. The visionary team consisted of an electrical engineer very knowledgeable about low voltage, and a consummate project manager. They were a great combo of young professionals that got to explore a relatively new area, and the owner was able to achieve his goal.
Once the low voltage infrastructure was in place, the owner was able to purchase and/or aid in the design of DC-powered TVs, air conditioning split units, low voltage lighting, etc. for the entire hotel via introductions to large key suppliers in the technology space. This owner is still invited by those suppliers to speak at conferences and talk about how their innovations can help achieve green goals – great PR for the providers and a way for both to showcase their efforts in sustainability.
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One of many achievements included a more sustainable way to secure backup power to the hotel in the case of an emergency, like a tornado or hurricane. Traditionally, hotels have a backup generator powered by diesel, and extra fuel must be kept in storage to power that generator. Now, diesel is a fossil fuel and by no means a clean energy source, so what he worked with the suppliers on instead was installing a backup emergency generator that uses a battery bank to supply electricity to the hotel for three or four days.
This owner did a great job of leveraging B2B relationships to deliver what I think are great examples of things to consider when designing hotels with a notably smaller carbon footprint. So much so that this hotel’s grand opening party was enthusiastically sponsored by the technology providers.
Cost and other considerations
The three main benefits of embracing a greener approach to technology infrastructure that is designed for and built in hotels are lower construction costs, lower ongoing operating costs, and lower consumption of natural resources.
Doing things differently doesn’t always come cheap. When building the usual way, you can get bids from several contractors, whereas only a handful of them would be able to deliver what you want in terms of non-traditional sustainable building techniques. However, a building is meant to be used long-term, and it is important to consider how these costs may be offset in the future. From an operating cost perspective, a low-voltage building can use up to one third of the power a traditional building would, so there are significant cost savings on heat, light, and power each month. And, as exemplified by the Chicago project, there will also be building cost savings, such as the need for remarkably fewer IDF closets.
When choosing sustainable hotel infrastructure, the cost of technology also gets cheaper as innovation becomes more prevalent, therefore one-time building costs are getting lower every day, such as in the example of the battery-powered emergency generator solution.
According to research from Operto, 86% of travelers are willing to pay more for their hotel if they know that the hotel is sustainable.Being a good environmental citizen attracts business, but this is still a commonly overlooked benefit of having a responsibly-built hotel. When comparing hotels, individuals and corporate bookers alike now look at sustainability practices a hotel has in place, and they’re often the deciding factor when room prices and facilities have become virtually the same amongst competitors. LEED-certified hotels are growing in number, therefore measures such as the ones discussed above can be a differentiating factor.
When talking to owners who are building new projects, one of the arguments I’m always championing is that they must think out of the box and look differently at the way they bucketize building costs. It’s not always successful, sometimes owners remain unconvinced that something that will cost more to build will end up saving more money in another bucket and/or down the line. But sometimes that proverbial light bulb does come on (low voltage of course) and great projects come to fruition.
