Calling it a "social experiment," Marc Heisterkamp of the U.S. Green Building Council led an interactive session at the HD Conference last week aimed at defining LEED standards specifically for the hospitality industry. 

Heisterkamp and a panel of industry experts opened the session, "Talk is Cheap: Defining Standards for Hospitality," before around 200 attendees broke into round-table groups to discuss green lodging standards in different categories. Heisterkamp was going to take reports from each table to the USGBC for consideration in creating hotel-specific LEED standards.

Heisterkamp admitted current LEED standards aren't ideal for the hotel industry and the USGBC was looking at a new classification system, much like it did with LEED for Schools. A benefit of the lodging industry, he said, was that hospitality sells experience. If that experience is green it can affect a huge number of people. Currently there are 200 lodging properties working with LEED and only 10 that are already certified. Improving those numbers will increase awareness and better the green movement.

Heisterkamp said the process of creating a new rating system would take at least six months for approval and the session was "just the start." Ray Burger, of Pineapple Hospitality, was hopeful that a new rating system could be in place sometime during the first quarter of next year.