Every travel company wants to reduce energy consumption. But does sustainability go beyond conservation? At the 2008 Condé Nast Traveler World Savers Congress, news editor Kevin Doyle hosted a panel discussion on the technological challenges facing the travel industry. What follows is the entire transcript.

Moderator:
Kevin Doyle

Speakers:
Susan Chapman, Global Head Operations, Citigroup
William McDonough, green architect
John MacKinnon, SVP Design & Construction, Four Seasons
Dan Hanrahan, President, Celebrity Cruises
Dennis Quaintance, CEO and Chief Design Officer, Proximity Hotel

KEVIN DOYLE: We poll our readers constantly and our readers are telling us all the time, the great majority of readers are telling us that they want to stay in hotels that have green initiatives, they want to travel on cruise lines that are protecting the environment. This is what they want. DeLoitte just came out with a study in April, a business poll, they polled business travelers, and 95 percent of them said they believe that the hotels they stay at should be undertaking green initiatives. So clearly there appears to be a demand.

If my statistics are correct, there will be some 2,700 new hotels built in the United States alone between the beginning of this year and the end of next. So there would also appear to be an opportunity. So we're here this morning to see — an opportunity, of course, to incorporate green building practices in design into these hotels. So this morning we want to look at what the travel industry is doing with that opportunity, and also to address how much demand they're actually seeing.

So here to share with us their success stories and some of the challenges of going green are panelists who were kind enough to come in this morning. On my far left is Susan Chapman, who is global head of operations for Citi Realty Services, and charged with deciding how $10 billion is being spent on environmental initiatives in its offices in 107 countries. To my immediate left is Dan Hanrahan, president of Celebrity Cruises. He'll tell us what's happening in the cruise industry. John MacKinnon, on my center right here, is senior vice president of design and construction for Four Seasons hotels and resorts. On my immediate right is — may I call you a green architectural guru, or a guru of green architecture? William McDonough, who is a pioneer in sustainable development and green architecture. In 1996 he received the presidential award for sustainable development, and in 1999 was recognized by Time magazine as a hero of the planet. Those are just two of his many accolades. And on my far right is Dennis Quaintance, who's the CEO and chief design officer of Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, North Carolina, which is being called the greenest hotel in America. I think you opened about nine months ago?

DENNIS QUAINTANCE: Yes.

MR. DOYLE: I think it's very easy for people to think about industry and coal-burning power plants as big polluters, as environmentally destructive. It may be a little harder to think of a hotel or a bank or, you know, a building that seems sort of inert. So I was going to ask you, Bill, if you could tell us a little bit about the way buildings, the way they're being built today can harm the environment.