Greensboro, North Carolina’s Proximity Hotel achieves highest LEED certification

Proximity Hotel and its Print Works Bistro in Greensboro, North Carolina, have achieved the highest-level LEED status, putting them among the country’s “greenest” buildings. The hotel and restaurant are the first U.S. venues in the hospitality industry to receive platinum certification.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a rating system used by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit organization acting as a third-party verifier that a construction project meets certain environmental and sustainable measures. It’s a much-sought-after stamp of approval of sorts for green builders and designers of projects including office buildings, schools and libraries.

Though Proximity is the only hotel to hold platinum status, there are 13 LEED-certified hotels in the U.S., according to USGBC’s communications manager, Ashley Katz. Three are in California (Gaia Napa Valley in American Canyon; Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco; and the Ambrose in Santa Monica).

What did Proximity Hotel and Print Works Bistro do to achieve their cut-above-the-rest recognition? To give just a few examples, in their building and design, they recycled 87% of debris from construction; sourced more than 40% of building materials locally as well as 90% of the furnishings; and - this is my favorite - installed regenerative-drive elevators, which generate energy during the descents to be used for the ascents.

As if they didn’t have their hands full with the building itself, they also restored 700 feet of an adjacent stream.

And what will all this cost you, if you decide to visit Greensboro? Doubles start at $179 per night (pre-tax). And if you’d like a better reason to visit than, say, going up and down the elevators, see the area attractions listed on the hotel’s website.

- Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

[Photo: ProximityHotel.com]

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 17, 2008 at 8:00 am by Susan Derby and is filed under East Coast, Eco-Travel, Hotels, News, Tips & Advice, Southern States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.