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| 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!
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| 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
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