Green doctor finds a cure for hotel ills

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-15 10:19

Beijing's Shangri-La Hotel's chief engineer Li Jian is an energy-saving expert.

Beijing's Shangri-La Hotel's chief engineer is worried about the designs of some future high-rises in the CBD because they do little to save energy.

Li Jian's comments come after the government launched plans to expand the CBD (Central Business District) to more than double its size.

"Beijing has many magnificent buildings, but many of them have huge problems on energy-saving and hidden dangers exist," said Li.

"The buildings are like good-looking and fashionable young men and women, but they are badly sick inside their bodies," said Li, who is recognized as one China's green hotel expert.

With more than 20 years management experience, the 47-year-old has been involved in the construction of some of Beijing's most famous five-star hotels and has visited many grand hotels around the world.

Li believed that environmentally friendly, or green hotels are a mainstream trend but China had some catching up to do.

According to the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental building Design) rating system, about 40 percent of US buildings meet the standard. In China, only 25 per cent of buildings reach this standard.

But Li said China was significantly contributing to the green building progress.

"The certification strictly requires a building to equip energy-saving technology and using some expensive construction material, but it doesn't fit for the current hotel business in China," he said.

In fact, many Chinese buildings consume much less energy comparing to complexes in developed countries.

"Chinese people traditionally have the habit of saving and lead a healthy style of life, and economic growth should not break it," said Li.

Instead of spending on importing technology and equipment, Li advocates saving energy through clever management.

The Shangri-La Hotel, where he worked as a chief engineer from 2003, became his experimental ground.

Walking through his offices at the Shangri-La Hotel, where Li and his 75 colleagues work, one can see his green vision in action.

Fish swim in tanks made from the scrap glass of an old swimming pool and decorations on the wall, such as paintings and calligraphy, are made with leftover construction materials.

Under Li and his team's direction, all the staff in the hotel had taken energy-saving to heart and it's all about the details.

After dinner parties in the Shangri-La Hotel, the staff collect the remaining water bottles to fill the electronic irons.

Li re-designed the air conditioning system in the hotel rooms, making the cold airflow run back to the engine rooms instead of out to cool the running machines.

In the grass yard behind the hotel, he designed the roof of an indoor tennis building to collect the rain water, which flows into a fishpond.

In 1984, after finishing his studies on automation control and engineering, Li began working in a hotel in Beijing.

It was a time when the hotel business was just starting.

The diligent and careful young man mastered all the engineering systems at the hotel.

Several years later he got an opportunity to visit the hotels in Singapore where he realized how the efficient management could save time and energy.

In the 1990s, as the hotel business really began to boom, Li began to focus on researching energy-saving and emissions reduction in hotels.

From 1995, Li visited hotels all over the China and many in Europe and Japan and after the tour Li and his colleagues compiled a regulation, which detailed more than 4,500 ways to save energy.

It is now the "Green" Bible for hotels.

In 2007, the Shangri-La hotel group adopted corporate social responsibility into its enterprise culture and regulations. In the same year, the hotel won the award of Best Green Hotel in China.

In 2008, in order to cater for the Olympics Games, the hotel expanded by 40,000 sqm.

However, total energy consumption still fell compared with 2007, saving more than 7.6 million yuan, or about $1 million.

The hotel estimated that Li's team has saved more than $12 million on energy since 2003.

"The hotel business in China is as mature as the developed countries," he said.

"We still have a long way on energy-saving green hotels, but I believe China will lead the world in the field."