The Portola Hotel & Spa of Monterey, CA, is another LEED project pursuing Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance to the Silver level that recently purchased green power to offset the energy use of its operations across the course of two years. Their investment helps offset over 3.9 million kilowatt hours of electricity, and 2,035 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide. This has an environmental impact similar to planting 36,440 fully mature trees, or not driving 9,0345,712 miles in an average U.S. passenger car.

The hotel decided to focus on the indoor environment of it's buildings because of the vast amount of time we spend indoors and how much this would impact its guests and employees. Key efforts include:

• The use of low-impact cleaning agents
• Limiting of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the paints, adhesives, and sealants used during construction
• Integrated pest management with the usage of the least toxic methods for pest control
• An ongoing retro-commissioning plan to ensure repeat inspections of the air conditioning system
• The usage of large indoor plants to remove toxins from the indoor environment.

As part of it's pursuit of the Platinum level, other sustainable features employed in the Portola's retrofit consist of:

• Extensive recycling efforts throughout the facility, including in-room recycling
• A composting system to reduce up to 50% of it's waste stream
• An update of the hotel irrigation system and retrofit of indoor fixtures to reduce landscaping water usage by 50%
• A lighting upgrade to include T-8 and LED lighting with electronic ballasts and the addition of occupancy sensors to reduce electricity usage within hotel rooms.

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