Hotels present one of the biggest business challenges when the focus is on saving energy and the complexities of implementing a successful, sustainable efficiency strategy are immense.

It's a business that never sleeps and there is a constantly changing footfall of guests with often high levels of staff turnover, which means that it is difficult often to maintain a high level of staff knowledge and practice around energy efficiency.

Meanwhile, the case for energy efficiency and the solutions chosen becomes stronger month by month and the effective solutions have improved technically over the past two years.

From LED lighting to intelligent energy controls and smart pumping systems and efficient water management, the solutions are available that should be business-based, with a clear idea of return on investment.

This article focuses on that first important element, lighting, and I hope to cover other various technologies that would add business value through energy efficiency in futures articles in this series.

The need for active behaviour around sustainability can take a back seat in the day-to-day working life of a busy hotel which is why it is so important that energy efficient solutions that are implemented work invisibly, with no adverse effect on guest satisfaction.

Equally important, hotels must have the means to measure and understand their existing consumption accurately, highlighting the 'easy wins', prioritising investment, demonstrating energy savings and determining payback schedules.

It's certainly the case that continued prices rises in the energy market have increased pressure on the hospitality sector to take a proactive view. Energy costs have actually doubled over the past decade and there are forecasts of these doubling again over the next 10 years.

These pressures means that the focus has definitely shifted from being green as a nice-to-have to saving money as a business necessity.

One thing is certain - energy prices will continue to rise ahead of inflation for the next 17 years – with the so-called energy trilemma making price cuts a near impossibility. Our experience in the past two years is that many more hotels are committed to cutting consumption.

They understand a commercial proposition that not only reduces carbon footprint but crucially delivers quick, significant and continued savings.

Saving money and being green are not separate ideas - they are two sides of the same coin. Using the best technologies to cut energy and water consumption is a triple win for the hospitality sector. Hotels, bed & breakfasts, and restaurants making the move will cut energy bills, reduce carbon taxes and cut carbon footprint.

There are very few businesses that operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year but there will be lights on in most hotels at 4am on Christmas Eve.

And when you consider that the electricity bill for a standard 200-room hotel in central London is around £50,000 a month, it makes perfect business sense to find effective, relatively painless ways to reduce consumption of this utility, the second highest cost after staff wages.

However, it is true that there can be many barriers to implementing a successful energy strategy. These include lack of time or knowledge as well as difficulties in pinpointing where responsibility for decision and executive action actually rests. Is it engineering or finance? These functional blockages need to be cleared for the positive effects that reducing energy bills can have on a property's bottom line.

The commercial benefits of energy-saving LED lighting are well-rehearsed and the reductions in electricity consumption are between 60-85%, depending on type of fitting, which means that payback time is quick.

There are the additional attractions of greatly reduced maintenance costs, achieved as the LED units should last for a decade or more, and reduced carbon emissions, helping to bolster corporate social responsibility strategies.

It's also true that LED technology has matured rapidly over the past 2-3 years with solutions now available that can match or better the lighting quality and performance of incandescent and halogen products. It goes without saying that CFLs are not an option, given the poor quality light.

There are now versions of the LED technology that will provide everything from warm to full-spectrum lighting and an astonishing array of colours. This has given lighting designers much more flexibility in the choice of energy-saving specifications and has facilitated the opportunity for hotels to choose LED lighting across the entire property - guest rooms, corridors, public spaces, back of house and exteriors.

It is important to test a range of LED solutions in any given setting before settling on a choice, given the variance in lighting effect. Where possible, LED guest room lighting options should be compared directly with current set-up to ensure an effective match is made.

Again, a welcome feature of LED lighting in these settings, as well as in public spaces like guest area corridors is the low maintenance required, vastly reducing the need for bulb replacement in sensitive areas.

The property exterior can also be effectively addressed with LED floodlights, car park and street lighting as well as full RGB lighting for a spectacular 'wow effect'. Additional benefits are that the exterior lighting will deliver full output immediately – no wait for lamps to warm up - and provide significantly better clarity and definition for CCTV monitoring and security.

And each property should be confident that the current ambience and aesthetic provided by the lighting design can be matched or improved through bespoke solutions now available.

However, it is a fact that not all LED lights are the same. There is a world of physical difference between a budget price model and a tested quality product, both in terms of light quality and durability. The LED lamp is in effect an electronics device, much more complex than the standard filament bulbs we have grown up with.

The choice of components in an LED is crucial and the price, I believe, reflects this as well as the production quality. That does not mean a hotel has to buy the most expensive models on the market. Careful guidance from a trusted partner should always pay dividends in terms of maximising budget spend with best solutions and return on investment.

Having an experienced lighting advisor is also pretty crucial when retrofitting, particularly making sure that the standard or bespoke units function properly, taking account of the suitability of current transformers and dimmers. Dimming is an area where mistakes can be made but thankfully there are now solutions that ensure effective full-range dimming with LED lights.

LED lighting is one of the key elements in any hotel energy-saving strategy and with the right approach, advice and investment will certainly deliver impressive savings that are not only for a short period but sustainable over many years.

What is crucial, as part of any energy-saving plan, is the careful consideration of how and what to measure. There seems little point in planning and executing a flawless energy efficiency strategy without a way to collect data, providing invaluable and granular feedback on the solutions chosen.

Given the rapid payback times from LED lighting retrofits seen in a range of forward-thinking UK properties, it makes sense for every hotel to consider how and when the move to LED lighting can be made.

Tim Greenhalgh
Head of PR and Social Media Strategy
SaveMoneyCutCarbon