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The Best Western is one of the buildings on the Green Skyline tour tomorrow.
By Kathy Michaels
Long before green was the new black, Greg Salloum of Kelowna’s Best Western was investing his dollars in making the world a less smoggy place and now he’s getting a bit of acknowledgment for that foresight.
The Best Western Inn-Kelowna has received the Minister’s Award of Excellence from the Honourable John Yap, Minister of State for Climate Action. The award, which is the first of its kind, recognizes the hotels “efforts to reduce their carbon footprint helping to ensure the continued health of British Columbia’s natural environment.”
“The Best Western Inn-Kelowna is pleased to have been recognized with this award,” said Salloum. “Our Solar Hybrid Heating System has significantly reduced our green house gas emissions. With the completion of our LEED Silver certified addition, currently under construction, a further reduction will be realized when a new geothermal component will be added which will complement our current solar hybrid heating system.”
That end of the project should be done in April and will add an extra 24 rooms to the hotel, an interior hallway that connects all buildings as well as an elevator.
“I have been interested in LEED as far as sustainable buildings go for a long time I thought if I was going to cut my teeth on it, I should do it on a smaller scale building,” he said, noting that cost concerns have been diminished since the recession took hold. “It cost us about 15 per cent more to do it as a LEED silver building, however, now building costs are down about 15 per cent so it’s costing us the same as it would to have built a non-LEED building last year.”
While the building will soon boast a whole host of new green additions, it’s already become well known for being one of the first commercial buildings to take the plunge and invest money in energy upgrades that reduce the reliance on traditional means of electricity production.
Around six years ago Salloum, along with his other family members invested in the hotel, decided to install solar energy panels to the building’s roof. Just over 100 solar panels and heat recovery system panels are used to heat up the water for the hotel’s 154 rooms, two hot tubs and 90,000 litre swimming pool.
In the summer, their combined energy is enough to heat 95 per cent of hot water and in the winter it amounts to 70 per cent hot water in winter.
That alone has meant their heat costs in peak season have dropped 50 per cent per room and when all is said and done, he estimated a $40,000 per year drop in energy costs. It’s a great result considering the family was entering largely uncharted territory back when they began.
“Today there are programs and tools available that can assist in measuring our carbon footprint. We did not have these resources when we began our sustainability path in 1990,” he said.
“Businesses can also learn from each other and what we are all doing to address our respective issues. This can provide knowledge and assistance in determining where to direct energy for future carbon reductions.”
kathy@kelowna.com
250-575-0761
Tags: best western, Kelowna, solar energy
