The New York Marriott Marquis — Photo by Marriott

The New York Marriott Marquis hotel overlooks all the excitement and electric energy of Times Square. Inside, we've overlooked nothing in making sure to include energy efficiency as part of the hotel's complete transformation in 2022, which includes newly designed guestrooms, restaurants, and public spaces, as well as meeting and event spaces.

In this new era of travel, we know that guests are inclined to make sustainable travel choices for both business and leisure travel. Energy efficiency is a modern consideration in hotel choice – but perhaps just as important as design aesthetic is, to today's travelers.

Turn back in time, when the 1,971-room New York Marriott Marquis opened in 1985, as part of the revitalization of Times Square, a challenging neighborhood in the 1980s. The Marquis was considered a pioneer in the opening of a major hotel in the middle of it all, in a location where visitors came to see a Broadway show, did not linger long and quickly retreated elsewhere in the city. In fact, when the hotel opened, the staff provided complimentary box lunches to taxi drivers, as means to encourage business to the area. Today, Times Square remains a major destination as New York City recovers from the pandemic.

Imagine the energy consumption of a 49-story hotel with over 100,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space, and a 4,000 square foot fitness center on the 23rd floor, surrounding an open atrium that extends over an area of 37 floors. That's about half a million square feet of air space. How do we create efficiencies of scale in such massive spaces?

The Marquis has maintained a solid track record of focusing on energy efficient projects, not only as means of operating cost reduction, but as importantly, because they help us to Serve Our World, one of our parent company's , Marriott International, core values. Marriott International's sustainability and social impact platform,?Serve?360: Doing Good in Every Direction, which puts that core value,?Serve Our World,?into action, guides the company's commitment to make a positive and sustainable impact wherever we do business, delivering value for associates, customers, guests, the environment, and communities around the world.

Embedding sustainability & social impact throughout our operations and value chain is core to our business?strategy to ensure the resiliency and longevity of all our stakeholders, with a multi-faceted strategy, 2025 goals and the company's commitment to set science-based emissions reduction targets and reach net-zero emissions by no later than 2050. In support of Marriott International's Serve 360 sustainability & social impact goals, and commitment to climate action, our hotel is continually focused on embedding responsible practices throughout our operations, to the benefit of our local community and environment, and for the greater good of our planet.

Welcome to Cogeneration

In 2022, we will have completed the installation of a cogeneration plant. What is cogeneration? Also known as Combined Heat and Power, it's the joint production of electricity and useful thermal energy (hot water or steam) from a single fossil energy source. The heat engine or power station generates electricity and useful heat at the same time. It is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise-wasted heat from electricity generation is put to productive use.

The Co-Generation plant consists of three engines capable of producing 3.9 megawatts of power, where one megawatt = one million watts. This will allow the hotel to be approximately 75% self-sufficient from municipal utility power. The project started in mid-2020 during the pandemic and is expected to be completed by midyear 2022. Co-gen plants are growing in popularity because of the benefits these provide to both the utility providers, by reducing energy demand on municipal utility systems, in which many utilities offer compelling incentives towards these projects, and the long-term ROI for property owners. These systems also add significant value to the asset, as well as allow for energy production using a cleaner fossil fuel (gas vs oil).

And while the Cogeneration plant represents all new construction, energy efficiency is always a required criteria in capital life-cycle projects of existing systems. One such example is the hotel's escalator replacement project, which was completed in late 2021 and was awarded the Escalator World 2022 Project of the Year. The hotel opted for an eco-mod product, which allowed for retention of the existing steel trusses, an effective re-use of viable steel material and a significant factor in achieving efficiencies in the project schedule. These are the steel chassis that hold the escalators in place, with one under each staircase.

Our new escalators feature a speed reduction feature, in which the escalators contain motion sensors that allow them to slow to a crawl before speeding up to normal speed upon sensing a person approaching. The new escalators also feature LED color changing lights, a great opportunity for special events to change colors to feature the customer's brand color, and remote status monitoring.

This same approach is consistent throughout other various energy and life-cycle projects, such as the new state-of-the-art Building Management System, which includes demand-based ventilation with variable frequency drives on all major ventilation systems, variable demand water pressurization controls, interactive occupancy-based smart guest room thermostats, the conversion of all lighting to LED technology, and a new destination dispatch elevator system, which features touch screen interfaces for easier guest use.

Eco-Friendly for the Next Gen Traveler

In addition to large scale physical plant operations, Engineering is responsible for eco-friendly efforts that are more visible to our guests. The New York Marriott Marquis has been a smoke-free hotel for several years. In the guest room, the "We Care for our Planet" program is in place, with towel conservation signs that offer guest lower towel changes overall during their stay. Rooms also feature a trash recycle program. Cleansing chemicals in the guest room are pre-approved for use. This includes all-purpose peroxide, bathroom cleansers, air fresheners and carpet cleaners. We have installed water-saving shower heads in all guest rooms.

Eco-Friendly in the Meeting and Event Space

Gone is the wasteful usage in meeting and event spaces, as both clients and hotel staff look to alternative amenities to keep guests happy, while keeping the environment green. Whether it's the use of vegetable ink in pens and stationery, to eco-friendly flipcharts and markers, the Marquis works closely with clients to exceed their expectations in being green. Pens and stationery pads are only provided upon request, so guests can feel they can make decisions that have impact on the environment. We've created "linen-less" tables to reduce washing of linens and less water and detergent waste. The tabletops are easily cleaned and are modern in style. We're using QR codes to access menus to reduce printing throughout the hotel. Not only are these measures cost-efficient, they forced us to look at things from the environmental perspective during the planning process of our renovations.

Elevated Food & Beverage Offerings

Sustainability is a main initiative throughout the hotel in food and beverage. From the start, the hotel utilizes food suppliers who already have programs in place. We support local farmers through being enrolled in a "Local Pledge" program for produce; this extends to farmed fishing and ordering foods that exclude hormones in natural feed. At tableside, all to-go packaging containers are made from sustainable materials. Even the kitchen fryer oil is sent off to an offsite recycling facility.

A Day at the Office

Behind the scenes, which is called back of the house, simple things count. We turn off office lights, email contracts to customers, use biodegradable printer cartridges, and have even transitioned some departments to 100% paperless. These are smaller efforts a guest may not see, but they make a difference.

As an iconic hotel in New York City for 37 years, the New York Marriott Marquis continues to explore new ways to embed sustainability into its operations. Not only does it have great operational value and cost savings, it embraces the 21st century traveler whose heightened awareness of sustainability & social impact issues is now a factor when choosing where to stay. In this ever-changing environment, it is also our responsibility for the next generation.