GOING GREEN

Marriott Marquis

At The New York

THE INSIDE SCOOP ON THE NEW YORK MARRIOTT MARQUIS’ INITIATIVE

The New York Marriott Marquis hotel overlooks all the excitement and electric energy of Times Square. Inside, we’ve overlooked nothing in making sure to include energy efficiency as part of the hotel’s complete transformation in 2022, which includes newly designed guestrooms, restaurants, and public spaces, as well as meeting and event spaces. In this new era of travel, we know that guests are inclined to make sustainable travel choices for both business and leisure travel. Energy efficiency is a modern consideration in hotel choice – but perhaps just as important as design aesthetic is, to today’s travelers.

In a chat with the hotel’s Director of Engineering Bill Michell, see how New York Marriott Marquis, a 49-story hotel spanning an entire city street at the epicenter of Times Square, goes green every day, nurturing guests who are making sustainable hotel choices. In this new era of travel, from energy conservation to eco-friendly amenities to food on the table, we show how to operate sensibly in a space that spans a full city block and has been an icon on Broadway since 1985.

Q: What was Times Square like when the hotel opened in 1985?

A: Turn back in time, when the 1,971room hotel opened in 1985, as part of the revitalization of Times Square, a challenging neighborhood in the 1980s. The Marquis was considered a pioneer in the opening of a major hotel in the middle of it all, in a location where visitors came to see a Broadway show, did not linger long and quickly retreated elsewhere in the city. In fact, when the hotel opened, the staff provided complimentary box lunches to taxi drivers, as means to encourage business to the area. Today, Times Square remains a major destination as New York City recovers from the pandemic.

Q: The hotel’s energy consumption must be enormous. This is a 49-story property with over 100,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space, and a 4,000 square foot fitness center on the 23rd floor, surrounding an open atrium that extends over an area of 37 floors. That’s about half a million square feet of air space. How do you create efficiencies of scale in such massive spaces?

A: The Marquis has maintained a solid track record of focusing

Bill Michell, RPA, FMA, CEOE Director of Engineering New York Marriott Marquis

on energy efficient projects, not only as means of operating cost reduction, but as importantly, because they help us to Serve

Our World, one of Marriott International’s core values. Marriott International’s sustainability and social impact platform, Serve 360: Doing Good in Every Direction, which puts that core value, Serve Our World, into action, guides the company’s commitment to make a positive and sustainable impact wherever we do business, delivering value for associates, customers, guests, the environment, and communities around the world. Embedding sustainability & social impact throughout our operations and value chain is core to our business strategy to ensure the resiliency and longevity of all our stakeholders, with a multi-faceted strategy, 2025 goals and the company’s commitment to set science-based emissions reduction targets and reach net-zero emissions by no later than 2050. In support of Marriott International’s Serve 360 sustainability & social impact goals, and commitment to climate action, our hotel is continually focused on embedding responsible practices throughout our operations, to the benefit of our local community and environment, and for the greater good of our planet.

Q: The hotel will have completed the installation of a cogeneration plant in 2022. –what is cogeneration?

A: Also known as combined heat and power, it’s the joint production of electricity and useful thermal energy (hot water or steam) from a single fossil energy source. The heat engine or power station generates electricity and useful heat at the same time. It is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwisewasted heat from electricity generation is put to productive use.

Q: How much power can a cogeneration plant produce?

A: The cogeneration plant consists of three engines capable of producing 3.9 megawatts of power, where one megawatt = one million watts. This allows the hotel to be approximately 75% self-sufficient from municipal utility power. The project started in mid-2020 during the pandemic and is expected to be completed in 2022. Co-gen plants are growing in popularity because of the benefits these provide to both the utility providers, by reducing energy demand on municipal utility systems, in which many utilities offer compelling incentives towards these projects, and the long-term ROI for property owners. These systems also add significant value to the asset, as well as allow for energy production using a cleaner fossil fuel (gas vs oil).

Q: While the cogeneration plant represents all new construction, what other energy efficiency projects has the hotel completed for existing systems?

A: One example is the hotel’s escalator replacement project, which was completed in late 2021 and was awarded the Escalator World 2022 Project of the Year.

The hotel opted for an eco-mod product, which allowed for retention of the existing steel trusses, an effective re-use of viable steel material and a significant factor in achieving efficiencies in the project schedule. These are the steel chassis that hold the escalators in place, with one under each staircase. Our new escalators feature a speed reduction feature, in which the escalators contain motion sensors that allow them to slow to a crawl before speeding up to normal speed upon sensing a person approaching. The new escalators also feature LED color changing lights, a great opportunity for special events to change colors to feature the customer’s brand color, and remote status monitoring.

This same approach is consistent throughout other various energy and life-cycle projects, such as the new state-of-the-art Building Management System, which includes demand-based ventilation with variable frequency drives on all major ventilation systems, variable demand water pressurization controls, interactive occupancybased smart guest room thermostats, the conversion of all lighting to LED technology, and a new destination dispatch elevator system, which features touch screen interfaces for easier guest use.

Q: What eco-friendly efforts are more visible to hotel guests?

A: The New York Marriott Marquis has been a smoke-free hotel for several years. In the guest room, the “We Care for our Planet” program is in place, with towel conservation signs that offer guests lower towel changes overall during their stay. Rooms also feature a trash recycle program. Cleansing chemicals in the guest room are preapproved for use. This includes all-purpose peroxide, bathroom cleansers, air fresheners and carpet cleaners. We have installed water-saving shower heads in all guest rooms.

Q: What about Meeting and Event Space?

A: Gone is the wasteful usage in meeting and event spaces, as both clients and our hotel staff look to alternative amenities to keep guests happy, while keeping the environment green. Whether it’s the use of vegetable ink in pens and stationery, to ecofriendly flipcharts and markers, the Marquis works closely with clients to exceed their expectations in being green. Pens and stationery pads are only provided upon request, so guests can feel they can make decisions that have impact on the environment. We’ve created “linen-less” tables to reduce washing of linens and less water and detergent waste. The tabletops are easily cleaned and are modern in style. We’re using QR codes to access menus to reduce printing throughout the hotel. Not only are these measures cost-efficient, they forced us to look at things from the environmental perspective during the planning process of our renovations.

Q: Tell us about the hotel’s new elevated food and Beverage Offerings

A: Sustainability is a main initiative throughout the hotel in food and beverage. From the start, the hotel utilizes food suppliers who already have programs in place. We support local farmers through being enrolled in a “Local Pledge” program for produce; this extends to farmed fishing and ordering foods that exclude hormones in natural feed. At tableside, all to-go packaging containers are made from sustainable materials. Even the kitchen fryer oil is sent off to an offsite recycling facility.

Q: How do you have impact behind the scenes?

A: Behind the scenes, which is called back of the house, simple things count. We turn off office lights, email contracts to customers, use biodegradable printer cartridges, and have even transitioned some departments to 100% paperless. These are smaller efforts a guest may not see, but they make a difference.

As an iconic hotel in New York City for 37 years, the New York Marriott Marquis continues to explore new ways to embed sustainability into its operations. Not only does it have great operational value and cost savings, it embraces the 21st century traveler whose heightened awareness of sustainability & social impact issues is now a factor when choosing where to stay. In this ever-changing environment, it is also our responsibility for the next generation.