New Green Lodging Partner Helps Florida Hotels Conserve Natural Resources

TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is partnering with Total Energy Concepts, Inc. (TEC) to help Florida’s lodging industry reduce impacts on the state’s environment. The partnership is the latest component of DEP’s Green Lodging initiative, which encourages hotels and motels to adopt cost-saving ‘green’ practices that conserve energy, reduce water consumption, protect air quality and reduce waste.

“The best way to preserve our state’s natural resources is through partnerships like this between Green Lodges and TEC and their forward-thinking stances on preservation,” said DEP Secretary Michael W. Sole. “Their leadership and commitment to the environment serves as an example and challenge to hotels, suppliers, trade associations and local governments to adopt innovative ‘green’ practices, conserve resources and save money.”

Through this partnership, TEC will promote the Florida Green Lodging Program to hotels and motels. Green Lodging certified facilities and candidates will also be provided technical assistance and a price reduction on products and services designed to save energy and money through TEC’s Total Energy Optimization program. TEC will also provide a free facility survey to qualified lodging properties, going into the facilities and evaluating conditions and energy demands, to determine the current electrical system status, the steps necessary to reduce consumption and an estimate of potential energy savings. In addition, the company will assist DEP in educating the lodging industry about the environmental and economic benefits of becoming a Florida Certified Green Lodge. TEC will also encourage its personnel to use Certified Florida Green Lodges for conferences, meetings and travel.

“TEC is pleased to be able to support the efforts of the Florida Green Lodging Program by assisting the lodging industry in reducing energy consumption, and in this way help to protect Florida’s natural resources,” said Total Energy Concepts Area Director Vince Cardella. “Our interest in this program stems from our understanding that renewable energy and energy efficient programs are more important today then ever before.”

TEC provides equipment such as the V-Blox Power Protection Unit, a state of the art surge protector, and the Power Factor Correction Unit, which fine tunes incoming energy, to reduce hotel equipment maintenance and down time, extend the operating life of equipment, protect equipment and facilities from electrical catastrophes and reduce electrical consumption by as much as 30 percent.

Launched in March 2004, the Florida Green Lodging Program establishes environmental guidelines for hotels and motels to conserve natural resources and prevent pollution. As reward for designation, Florida is recommending Green Lodges to companies, trade organizations and government seeking eco-friendly lodging and convention facilities. Currently there are 24 certified Green Lodges and 40 additional applicants. There are a total of 31 partnerships with the Green Lodging Program. TEC is the 20th vendor partnership and there are eleven technical and supporting partners.

For more information about the Florida Green Lodging program, visit www.floridagreenlodging.org. For more information on Total Energy Concepts, visit www.totalenergyconcepts.com .