January 31, 2012

IFMA San Francisco Holiday Party at a Green Venue


2011 Holiday Party at the Intercontinental San Francisco


I want to thank Tammy Key, Programs and Education Chair of the San Francisco Chapter and the rest of the Board for choosing the InterContinental San Francisco Hotel for 2011’s holiday lunch. We appreciate your business and I enjoyed the opportunity to share our LEED EBOM story with you. 

In 2007, I wrote “Sustainability and The Triple Bottom Line,” a story for the Silicon Valley Chapter of IFMA. This was used as part of their World Workplace effort. It was a fun story to write and helped me focus on several aspects of the adventure of becoming LEED certified.

The reason I mention it in relation to my blog today is that through writing it, I realized how much of a community effort the process was and how all I really needed was willingness and commitment.

I am the beneficiary of the wisdom and enthusiasm I get from IFMA members like you reading this today and the wonderful community of professionals we all work with everyday. Of course I needed money and having support from PG&E, Lodging Savers, InterContinental Hotels and our local owners, Continental Development Corporation were fundamental. What I did was to join USGBC and attend meetings, make friends, go to IFMA meetings, make friends, and the apply those learning’s and relationships to the process that I was guided through by Jubilee Daniels LEED AP.

In the early going we worked with students from San Francisco State to winnow out the credits we could achieve from the ones that were not practical at that time. We established a “Green Team” in the hotel to assess, implement and educate on the various credits we pursued. I became infused with the pragmatism and practicality I found in the USGBC requirements. I was amazed at what I had been told was too expensive and dopey was really a return to many of the harmonies of the universe that had prevailed for so long before we were all enlightened by the industrial age and even the IT revolution. Not only did I get the religion of how sensible most measures were but I found that I could save money and improve profits along the way. The myth of the “Triple bottom line “was no myth at all and even I could realize the dream!

Harry Hobbs facilitating
a tour of the LEED Gold hotel
It is my sincerest hope that you will realize your “Green Dreams” too! 

Harry Hobbs, CFM
Director of Engineering
Intercontinental Hotels of San Francisco

SF IFMA Member

No comments: