The Hampton Inn and Suites Sarasota/Bradenton International Airport has achieved LEED Silver certification, the brand’s first property to earn the designation for sustainable building design, construction, and operations. Guests can see firsthand how energy is being saved at the hotel by viewing the variables on a monitor in the lobby. Sustainable practices include:
- A solar water heating system that will generate 1.7 million kBTUs per year.
- Water saving fixtures that will reduce water usage by a third.
- Zero CFC-based refrigerants in the Air Conditioning System.
- More than 40 percent of the products utilized during construction were purchased, assembled, and manufactured within 500 miles of the site, limiting the transportation impact while improving the local economy.
- During construction, 92.1 percent of all construction waste and 22.8 percent of the construction products used were recycled.
- The hotel’s efficient insulation system, glazing, roof, hot water production, air conditioning, heating, and lighting equipment allow it to reduce its annual energy usage by at least 27.1 percent compared to a hotel built to standard building code.
- The hotel purchased 572,000kWh worth of Tradable Renewable Energy Certificate. This amounts to 70 percent of the building energy usage over a two-year period. The goal is to reduce the carbon footprint of the hotel with the purchase of wind-powered energy certificates.
- The hotel facility is 100 percent non-smoking.
- Low-VOC materials (glues, sealants, woods) were used during the construction.
- Landscaping utilizes native plants, reducing the need for watering.
- The hotel is conveniently located in proximity to a public transportation hub and provides a shuttle to guests to limit the need for car use.
- The hotel provides extensive bicycle parking and a shower facility to encourage hotel employees to ride their bikes to work.
- The hotel offers preferred parking places for fuel-efficient and high-occupancy vehicles.
- The hotel features a high-tech storm water filtering devices to reduce the environmental impact of runoffs.
