Sustainability has many benefits: lower operating costs, increase occupants’ health and guest experience, increase competitiveness by improved brand recognition and customer loyalty, increase employee retention and satisfaction, and reduced resource consumption and emissions. The improvement of brand awareness through “doing good” is becoming one of the focus of advertising campaigns for retail and hospitality companies specifically.
Environmental Performance
A report by the U.S. Green Building Council states the hospitality industry’s annual environmental footprint is $4 billion in energy use, 1.2 trillion gallons of water use and several million tons of waste. LEED buildings enjoy an increase in cost-savings, decrease in annual operating costs, higher ROI for a building and an increase in asset value. The impact on the economy of hotels is equally impressive in scale: $163 billion in direct sales and $41 billion in profits. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, over 90{e3829ec1db02d54faaf9fa2de0d48db26af01d7a7944a63c3b26976124791cab} of retail energy costs are attributed to HVAC and lighting and the total retail sales of consumer goods in China hit $4.84 trillion in 2016. Retail and hospitality are two of the biggest economic and environmental influence in the world, and this is why sustainability is especially a growing trend within these sectors.
Customer Demands for Sustainability
Sustainability is not only a call for environmental protection, but also a customer demand. 58{e3829ec1db02d54faaf9fa2de0d48db26af01d7a7944a63c3b26976124791cab} of consumers report taking a company’s impact on the environment into consideration when purchasing, and almost three-out-of-four Millennial (73{e3829ec1db02d54faaf9fa2de0d48db26af01d7a7944a63c3b26976124791cab}) are willing to pay extra for sustainable offerings.
Customer Demands on Sustainability
LEED in Retail and Hospitality
USGBC estimated up to 1.2 million people experience LEED-green building certified retail locations each day. The retail report also reveals nearly 8,000 retailers worldwide participate in LEED. Green construction in the hospitality sector has also increased by 50{e3829ec1db02d54faaf9fa2de0d48db26af01d7a7944a63c3b26976124791cab} from 2011-2016 and represented 25{e3829ec1db02d54faaf9fa2de0d48db26af01d7a7944a63c3b26976124791cab} of all new construction in the world. Name brand such as Starbucks, Nike, Gucci, Prada, Shangri-La Hotel Group, The Parisian Macau, Rosedale Hotel, Sai Kung Hotel, and many other companies participate in the LEED green building program.
LEED in Retail and Hospitality
Business does well by doing good. This is the future trend of the industry. It is poised to transform the market by creating healthy, smart, efficient, responsive, resilient, and above all else, sustainable buildings.
