The Greenest Hotel in North America

Charmian Love

July 21, 2009

Green or Green Wash? Lessons from building North America’s greenest hotel in Toronto

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a fascinating workshop at MaRS by their new CleanTech specialist, Tom Rand. Tom is an investor and entrepreneur who is committed to building clean green businesses in Canada. The enterprise featured in this discussion was his new hotel/hostel which has incorprated all the best in class features of a green building – and then some. What impressed me the most about his discussion, however, was his refreshingly candid breakdown of the energy reduction, costs and expected payback of these features….

Geothermal Exchange: energy reduction = 40%
Solar Thermal: energy reduction = 7.5%
Solar PV: energy reduction: energy reduction = 15% (up to 25%)
PowerPipe: energy reduction = 7.5%
LED Lights/Switches: energy reduction = 5%
TOTAL energy reduction = 77.5%
TOTAL cost = CA $200K (5% of building value)
15% return with a 6.5 year payback

For the full speech – check out the video.