The Courtyard Charleston/Summerville in South Carolina will be the first hotel built using Marriott International’s (NYSE: MAR) green hotel prototype, in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC.) This will dramatically accelerate the company’s goal to have 300 LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) hotels by 2015. Marriott is the first in the hospitality industry to launch a green hotel prototype that has been pre-approved by USGBC as part of its LEED Volume program, meaning that any Marriott hotel that follows these plans will earn basic LEED certification, or possibly higher, upon USGBC final approval.

The new Courtyard hotel will open in early 2012 as a part of a joint venture between Blanchard & Calhoun Commercial of Augusta, Ga., and MeadWestvaco of Summerville, S.C. The hotel will introduce the first phase of The Parks of Berkley, a community consisting of 5,000 acres and one of the largest planned developments in the Southeastern United States.

“This new program packages all the basic requirements for LEED certification in a prototype,” said Karim Khalifa, senior vice president, architecture and construction for Marriott International. “It saves our owners valuable time and money in the planning process and allows us to provide a greener portfolio of hotels for our guests.”

Last fall, Marriott announced plans to develop a green hotel prototype for its Courtyard brand that will save roughly $100,000, six months in design time, and up to 25 percent energy and water savings for its owners. To develop the green hotel prototype, Marriott was guided by the Courtyard Pittsburgh Settlers Ridge in Pennsylvania, which will open this fall and is registered for LEED certification. The company partnered with the USGBC and Marriott suppliers—Kohler Company and Philips Lighting – to test fixtures that save energy and water and measure results.

Based on the results of the Courtyard brand, Marriott has plans to create similar green hotel prototypes for Residence Inn by Marriott, TownePlace Suites by Marriott, SpringHill Suites by Marriott and Fairfield Inn by Marriott.

Currently, Marriott has nearly 50 hotels across all brands that are LEED-certified or registered by the USGBC, including the following:

  * The Inn & Conference Center by Marriott at the University of Maryland, the first LEED-certified hotel in North America
  * The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte in North Carolina in North Carolina, LEED Gold-certified
  * Courtyard Chevy Chase in Maryland, LEED Gold-certified
  * Courtyard Portland City Center in Oregon, LEED Gold-certified
  * Fairfield Inn & Suites Baltimore Downtown/Inner Harbor, LEED Gold-certified
  * Atlanta Marriott Gateway, applying for LEED certification upon opening
  * SpringHill Suites Atlanta Airport Gateway, LEED-registered, applying for certification
  * JW San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa, LEED-registered, applying for certification
  * JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles LA Live, LEED-registered, applying for certification
  * The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles at LA Live, LEED-registered, applying for certification
  * The Ritz-Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe, in Nevada applying for certification
  * TownePlace Suites Baltimore BWI Airport, applying for LEED-Existing Building certification

Additionally, Marriott International, Inc. headquarters in Bethesda, Md., achieved LEED for Existing Buildings Gold certification earlier this year.

Building on more than 20 years of energy conservation experience, Marriott is committed to protecting the environment. The company’s Spirit To Preserve® environmental strategy calls for: Greening our $10 billion supply chain; further reducing energy and water consumption by 25 percent per available room by 2017; expanding our portfolio of green hotels and buildings, including 300 LEED® (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design)-certified hotels, by 2015; educating and inspiring employees and guests to support the environment; and investing in innovative, large-scale conservation projects worldwide.

USGBC’s LEED rating system is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. For more information, visit www.usgbc.org.

For more information on Marriott International’s environmental strategy and initiatives, visit www.marriott.com/environment. For a complete list, visit Marriott’s LEED hotels.