In many ways, the hospitality segment of the facilities market reminds me of the space program because of its seminal relationship to other market segments. I would not go so far as to say that ventilating a casino is equivalent to manned space flight, but it cannot be denied that many technologies and practices that are today's front-line sustainable strategies were developed in the hospitality crucible.
Examples include gray-water plumbing systems, proactive ventilation strategies, water and airside energy recovery, and the use of occupancy sensing to maximize setback opportunities. But for many of us, when we think of hotel HVAC, we think of crude and inefficient packaged terminal air conditioners (PTAC) rattling under a windowsill with the requisite missing control knob.