Article

Energy info kiosks used to change daily habits

Hotels are just some of the deployers that help users go green.

August 26, 2007

Wen Chang knows the environment needs some help. With people now reacting to global warming, wasteful energy consumption and other green-related topics, Chang, president of Atman Hospitality Group Inc., decided his handful of hotels needed to take the lead on environmental education.

 

Atman Hospitality Group is deploying kiosks at its San Francisco, Calif., Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa that offer guests an opportunity to be conscious of their energy and water usage. Large electricity, water and carbon-dioxide-usage/emission meters above the kiosk provide status of the building's efficiency. Historical-use charts compare Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa to typical hotels and equate the resulting savings. Hotel guests can see from their in-room televisions how much electricity, water and carbon dioxide they and the rest of the hotel is using and emitting.

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"Many customers are jubilant and feel like they are a part of saving our environment," Chang said.

 

Gaia spent $51,000 for the kiosks and software, but the ROI has been strong, Chang said. The hotel has seen a 26-percent drop on energy costs and 45 percent on water costs.

 

"The kiosks themselves did not save the money, but the guests changing their habits are what saved us money," he said.

 

Demand for green

 

GreenTouchscreen is the touchscreen kiosk division of Quality Attributes Software, an Ames, Iowa, company founded in 2003. GreenTouchscreen provides software for educational kiosks designed to inform schools, hotels, governments and airports about their energy usage, said Craig Engelbrecht, chief marketing officer for Quality Attributes Software/GreenTouchscreen. GreenTouchscreen provided the software for Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa.

 

Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa's GreenTouchscreen kiosk displays real time energy, water and carbon dioxide usage.

GreenTouchscreen's first deployment occurred at Iowa's Central College in 2003. The touchscreen kiosk was placed at the school's Vermeer Science Center. In addition to a building directory, the kiosk displayed information about the building's renewable energy sources and how the building's architecture creates an ideal learning area.

 

This deployment led to many more in the higher-education arena. One of the other notable deployments occurred at the University of South Carolina, a leader in environmental education. In 2003, USC received Green Campus recognition from the National Wildlife Federation's Campus Biology. The college campus bus routes are served by biodiesal buses, and electric cars are used by maintenance and grounds staff.

 

USC relays the importance of these environment-friendly policies through its West Quad Residence Hall kiosk. The West Quad residence area contains apartment-style rooms for about 500 students. The rooms are supplied with Energy Star appliances, low flow plumbing and recycled furniture. The kiosk in this area shares data with students about their electricity, steam and water usage and gives them tips on how to improve their living practices.

 

GreenTouchscreens also deploys similar kiosks in K-12 schools. In addition to energy information, those kiosks can include school building and district information, classroom schedules, a virtual tour of the campus, weather information, a calendar and other school-related features.

 

Most schools are using the kiosks for environmental awareness, Engelbrecht said. He said, however, the company is working closely with an international building automation controls company to develop a green curriculum to package with its software solutions.

 

In addition to educational facilities, GreenTouchscreen has deployed kiosks in museums, libraries, hospitals, shopping centers and hotels.

 

"With the demand out there, we will continue to deploy these kiosks in places where people want to know how they are doing with energy usage," Engelbrecht said.

 

Environment friendly?

 

GreenTouchscreen creates the software for the energy informational kiosks, but the kiosk hardware is produced by other manufacturers. Though the kiosks teach people to conserve energy, it's ironic that the kiosk hardware itself is not environmentally friendly, Engelbrecht said.

 

"As we continue to grow, strategic partnerships with sustainable hardware manufacturers will be a high priority," he said. "The biggest hurdle is waiting for manufacturing companies to catch up to the maturing green market."

 

Making technology more friendly to the environment was the subject of a recent Forrester Research study. An executive summary of the report revealed that IT sourcing and operations professionals are unaware of vendors' efforts to design and market more environmentally responsible products and services. Many are aware, however, of IT's rising energy consumption and are interested in improving the energy efficiency of their data centers and other computing infrastructure. Tech suppliers will find a receptive audience for more vocal green evangelism, especially as they tune their messages to resonate with a range of attitudes among their enterprise customers.

 

The report's author, Christopher Mines, said, "We heard two reasons why green matters: efficiency and corporate responsibility. Most IT decision-makers told us that a green purchase would only happen in the context of cost reduction. These are hard-headed, ROI-driven business decisions."