When the Motel 6 in Northlake, TX earned its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification this July, it became the first economy hotel to earn the designation from the U.S. Green Building Council. It’s also Accor’s first hotel to be certified, and it wasn’t even part of the company’s original plan for the hotel.

The company-owned property is the first and only ground-up construction of Accor’s new Phoenix prototype, which was introduced in early 2008. When the hotel was being planned that year, LEED never came up as a possibility. But when construction bids came in well under budget, just as the recession was beginning, Accor decided to pull out all the stops for its first Phoenix.

“We wanted this one to have all the bells and whistles and we think this is the future of Motel 6,” says Renee Swoger, the senior manager of energy and environment services for Accor North America.

The 120-room property opened in October 2009 and earned the green certification this July. The prototype costs $45,000 to $52,000 per key to build, and Accor invested an additional $160,000 in this one to earn enough points for LEED certification.

Some of its environmentally-friendly features include thermal solar water heating, a reflective cool roof, low-energy lighting, high-efficiency laundry equipment, native landscaping with water efficient and drought-resistant plants, low-flow plumbing and the wood-effect flooring is made of 80-percent pre-consumer recycled material.

Swoger recently talked about how and why Accor opted to go after LEED certification.

Why wasn’t LEED certification planned from the start?
It wasn’t really on the radar at the beginning, primarily because it was a money issue. About two months into project the construction bids we got were under budget considerably—it was just the right time, in early 2009, when the recession was taking place. The bids came in under what we predicted so we had enough money to pursue it.

How far were you from LEED certification at that point?
The prototype was only a few points away from already achieving that level with Motel 6 and Accor construction standards. We were already very close.

What had to change?
The adaptations were minimal. First we had to change to a white roof, change the landscaping to native plants, add a drip-watering system and we had to adjust the actual waste removal process during construction. Besides that everything else with our prototype was designed in such a way to almost achieve LEED standards.

Did it slow down the process?
It really didn’t. We hired consultants to document everything and make sure the record keeping was correct. LEED is very picky with documentation and things like that and any holdup we did have was on the administrative side.

What were the additional costs?
Additional costs we didn’t plan for were $20,000 for the white roof, $30,000 for the landscaping and drip-water system and a big chunk of money—I think about $65,000—was for the additional contractor and administrative record keeping, and $40,000 for the waste and recycling. It was about $160,000 including the consultants and changes to the property to get all the way through to LEED certification.

Why was this important to Accor?
Accor globally as a brand values sustainable development. It’s an extremely important initiative for our company. When building the first Motel 6 Phoenix prototype, it made perfect sense. A lot of the prototype was already designed to be environmentally friendly through Accor’s building standards so this just made sense. We wanted this property to represent the future of Motel 6.

Have you been able to track any savings or payback estimates so far?
From the efficiency side, utilities—gas, water and electric—are about 20 percent lower than at a comparable Motel 6.

Will there be more like this coming?
As you know, there’s very little new construction at the moment (more than 70 corporate and franchised locations have incorporated elements of the Phoenix room design through renovations). We definitely incorporated some of this into the prototype, but let’s say for example a franchisee wants to build this prototype, they can choose not to pursue LEED because of the fees. We have franchisees interested and we can say we have it if they want it.

Do you use the LEED certification in any marketing efforts?
We haven’t besides with the media. It’s more anecdotal, we know customers like it and some ask about it. It’s still only been a few months since certification, so it’s still very new for us.