Decreasing Carbon Emissions at Grand Hyatt New York

Challenge

Committed to social responsibility, sustainable practices, and meeting the growing expectations of its guests, Hyatt Hotels Corporation established its 2020 Vision, which includes a corporate-wide goal of reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission by 25 percent per square meter. With an aging infrastructure and a building automation system challenged to synergize a variety of different mechanical systems for optimal operations, the Grand Hyatt® New York sought solutions to help achieve its sustainability goals, while improving its financial performance.

“Sustainability is not only one of our corporate core values, there is a financial component to it as well,” said John Schafer, area vice president and general manager, Grand Hyatt. “Costs continue to rise. The more efficient our systems can be, the more we can save. We couldn’t do it alone and needed a partner.”

Solution

Having enjoyed a strong relationship with Trane for many years, the Grand Hyatt contacted the company to discuss their challenges. The Trane team listened closely to the hotel’s needs and priorities and acquired vast knowledge about the building and its existing systems. Trane analyzed historic building utility data, used the data to model building energy consumption and trends in utility consumption, and examined the existing HVAC components. Based on the findings, Trane recommended a building automation system (BAS) retrofit, along with the implementation of Trane Intelligent Services, including Energy Performance and Energy Assessment, to help the Grand Hyatt achieve its goals and provide long-term sustainability and financial and operational benefits.

Optimizing operations and productivity

To meet the client’s goals, Trane retrofitted the Grand Hyatt New York’s existing BAS with a Trane Tracer Ensemble building management system. The web-enabled Ensemble system interfaces with Trane controllers on the individual HVAC system components to provide a remote enterprise view of the facility to optimize building operations and maintenance staff time. Facility managers use Ensemble to address comfort issues, make schedule changes, adjust set points, manage alarms and troubleshoot issues.

Enabling cost-effective decisions

Energy Performance, a cloud-based building energy management system, enables the Grand Hyatt team to make more cost-effective decisions regarding hotel operations. The system provides real-time energy monitoring and robust analytics to determine where and when energy is being used in order to spot anomalies and prioritize building equipment issues. Ongoing assessment by Trane building professionals provides recommendations for improvements to help the Grand Hyatt achieve its sustainability and cost-saving goals.

Identifying energy waste and efficiency improvements

Using Energy Assessment, Trane provides advanced 3-D optical energy reports to provide the Grand Hyatt with a baseline of building performance and help spot ineffective uses of energy. Trane building professionals transform the energy report data into easy-to-understand information to help identify potential energy-saving improvements. Once improvements are implemented, Energy Assessment is also used to validate and track the impact of facility upgrades.

Results

Working together every step of the way, the Grand Hyatt and Trane implemented building automation and energy management systems, making significant progress toward reaching the hotel’s sustainability and financial goals. As a result of these collaborative efforts, the Grand Hyatt has reduced energy use by 1,328,335 kWh and CO2 emissions by 916 metric tons. With the energy savings realized and a reduction in annual operating costs of controlled systems of more than $271K, the hotel has been able to capitalize on utility company energy savings rebates and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) BAS rebates estimated at more than $600K.

“The Tracer Ensemble system has given us the tools that we need to more efficiently manage the mechanical aspects of the building,” said Ron McGill, director of engineering, Grand Hyatt. “Trane worked with us day and night to do whatever it took to get the job done. They have proven time and time again that they have our best interests in mind.”

“It’s important to us as a company that we have a sustainable model that we can carry on going into the future,” said Schafer. “It’s also important to our guests.”