Discovering Loews Resorts Sustainability

Interviewing Dean Griffin and Alex Palacio

By:Jennifer Barr on October 19,2015

We the students, at High Tech High, are on our way to the San Diego Bay to go
to Loews Resort. The reason for this is we had a scheduled interview with the General
Manager, Dean Griffin and the Assistant Director of Human Resources, Alex Palacio to
speak to them about their hotels sustainability. Dean Griffin has worked at Loews for
more than sixteen years he was then upgraded to hotel manager with Sean Clancy.
Dean has worked with various charities throughout his years of work. He attained his
Bachelor of Science in hotel and restaurant management.
Once we arrived, we were greeted by the doorman who gives us the directions
to the interviewing room. When we walked inside the massive hotel, the first thing I saw
were the most beautiful staircase. This staircase is aligned with white and gold railing,
making the white steps demonstrate the grandeur of the hotel. We began walking up the
staircase, as we reached the top we were greeted by a beautiful view of the bay. We
stopped to take pictures of what we saw all around us while I just snap a picture of the
view. When we were done being photographers, we started walking nervously to the
interviewing room. Outside of the room we saw an official plaque with our schools
name, High Tech High Chula Vista, making us feel even more nervous than before.
We opened the door to a huge room with tables that have white linen sheets over them,
crystal glasses, ice-cold pitchers of water, and bowls of candy at each of the seats. We
sat down and began reviewing our notes and questions to ask the interviewees. The
door opened and it began.
The General Manager walked in wearing a black suit with a light pink collared
shirt underneath. He welcomed us with a warm smile. We got up, out of our comfy beige
chairs, and introduced ourselves to Dean Griffin with a firm handshake just like our
teachers taught us. He told us that the others will be here soon from another conference
that they had had that day. We sat back down and waited for the Assistant Director of
Human Resources to begin our interview. Dean Griffin began to ask us what our project
was about and how they could help us with our final product. Before we were able to
answer, someone knocked on the door then entered, it was the Assistant Director of
Human Resources. He apologized for being late with a serious tone, he looked very
professional with his gray suit with a violet collared shirt underneath. My table stood up
to go and greet him with another firm handshake. We sat back down and began the
interview, a student broke the silence with a starter question. After we started the
interview we all felt a bit more comfortable to ask more questions about the hotel. The
questioning went well with the well thought out answers they gave us. When the
interview was over, we thanked them both for having the interview in their hotel. We left
the hotel with great content of the interview.

General Manager: Dean Griffin

Assistant Director of Human Resources: Alex Palacio
General Manager of Loews: So you guys are going to take this project and interviewing different people
um different industries and you are going to turn around and publish a book...
Nick Walden: And we are going to produce a documentary
General Manager of Loews: Oh ok and produce a documentary...nice.
Director of HR: Can I ask you guys a bit of a personal question? Did any of you guys have Gabe Ogilvie
as a teacher at some point? At high tech middle?
(some students say yes, some say no)
Director of HR: yeah him and I go way back, yeah I went to middle school and high school with gabe so
the high tech environment has been in my life throughout our friendship so I know...
General Manager of Loews: Are you showing your age?
(everyone laughs)
Director of HR: nooo (laughs) so yeah um I voted for some of his videos in the past and kind of
supported his uh high tech efforts in the past so thats kind of why I was really pushing to get this done for
the school was because of the friendship.
General Manager of Loews: thats great. thats awesome.
Director of HR: so um, but to your point about the water and you can um educate us a little more if we
can start on that topic really quick it is a little subsection here. The last company I worked with only put
out water bottles because with the whole drought situation not that it has a lot to do with eco tourism but
in California specifically a lot of hotel companies are going to be putting out just water bottles because if
all of us don't drink this water where do you think it goes? Down the drain right? They can't serve this
lukewarm water to the next client that comes in so um i'm sure in our efforts of eco tourism that will
probably come up sometime soon although it might be a little more costly buying water bottles it's the
environmentally friendlier thing to do. But go ahead yeah (everyone laughs) just wanted to put that in
there because we were talking about the water
Director of HR: Yeah to be honest I don't see our banquet servers taking water to the plants outside
just because of their role in function, maybe that's even something we can do to after that.
General Manager of Loews: Or we can talk about water Whatever questions you want to ask about
it feel free cause that also gets to that conversation right? What ecotourism means to the universe. So
fire away when you're ready.
Nick Walden: The usage of water segways perfectly to the first question What implementation
strategies makes your hotel do to be eco friendly?

Director of HR: A number of things uh starting with our water program; one the drought situation in
California had got us regulated in many ways on where they get suggestions on how we should be
operating. When you walk into a restaurant, uh, we arent going to automatically import water, we are not
offered to give the water bottle first, we are going to get you to pay for it, and thats great right? we can
up sell you on the water bottle, if you want fiji or whatever, so we are going to do that, but if the guest
says just regular water will be fine than well go ahead and pour the tap, before in restaurants, in the
higher establishments, in any restaurants you are not going to automatically pour water, so we dont do
that anymore, to try not to. umm, in the banquet spaces like this, youre not going to see, you're starting to
see more and more, well just put out a three gallon thing of water, instead of putting individual pitchers
out in each individual area, so its more of a communal water station versus doing that or doing the
bottled water but then making sure that we have a recycling programs being placed to collect all of those
water bottles from most of our meeting rooms; a green meeting initiative but we provide the recycling
stations throughout (don't understand) the rooms themselves so that after their done with their recyclables
the staff collects all of them and then separates them into their appropriate area so that's for the water
conservation in the meeting space areas. The other things you're going to see is like in the hotel rooms
their linen reuse programs so before in luxury hotels like ours you would change your linens (sheets,
pillowcases etc) daily so what've done is put little environmental cards in the rooms explaining that we
are going to change them every two days so you would stay two different nights with us and we would
not change your linen. Same thing with your towels if its on the floor were going to change it so we put a
little card in the bathrooms and it states on their if you want these changed just leave them on the floor
anything hung up were just going to refold and they reuse. So those are our water efforts that we are
using. Low Flow showers in every single restroom and in the spa so those are all Low Flow; water heads,
toilets-lower; lower down toilets as well so those are all in the guest rooms as well. So those are some of
the water conservation efforts within the building. Landscaping go ahead.
General Manager of Loews: Can I interject here? One of the biggest challenges with all that, cause that
all sounds easy to do right? I mean at home you can change the type of the shower head you have but you
know luxury resorts/hotels you got to train the staff to know about these things too cause when a guest
comes and says my water pressure is horrible, you can't have the conversation of well i'm sorry will see
if we can get you a different room. All rooms will have the same water pressure and that same flow
specifically the flow but to train a team member for us is Sir your flow level is this rate because of our
efforts to save water. You know? So it's a different type of service you providing now too -dont
understand- the difference is that Ritz Carlton being five star, five diamond locations that they do have
um what does the guest think of a luxury stay when you don't wash my liens everyday; every single night
I wanna have new stuff I don't necessarily care about your eco friendly programs that you have. So it's
that challenge of how you train the staff to welcome those comments but also how do you retrain your
guests as well, but continue along you landscaping.
Assistant Director: All good points, landscaping is another area obviously to begin with the drought
regulations that are out there that are regulating how many times you water things but going in from
removing the pop up sprinkler heads that use more water to the bubblers that use less water um we
removed I don't know how many plants we removed within the place we removed lot of plant life in the
area that soaks up the water and going to drought resistant plants that are out there. Succulent plants
things like that, that don't need to take up a lot of water or with no water really needed as far as plumbing
is considered so doing things like that throughout the entire room. We haven't done it yet but we are/we

have gotten bids about astroturfing in the areas that don't need it like pull up to the front of the hotel
there's two grass areas right when you drive in right? Nobody is sitting on that.
Manager:
No we arent using as a function space its a visual thing as you drive by right? So weve gotten bits, so
we specifically targeting areas things like that, as you drive around the property, or walk around the
property, all thoughts grass areas that arent being used, we are going to turn into asteroid turf, at some
point, so we are getting the bits, so we can make thoughts things happen, but putting thoughts plants in
place, but all that comes out of a huge cost, right? But we know in the long terms its the right thing to do
in our community and environment, to save that water conservation, so. Doing things like that, well
obviously, we arent pressure washing, we are not pressure washing, sidewalks, or the, the streets or
anything like that, so just, clean that kind of stuff up, right? So doing thoughts smart efforts, we also have
a comity together within the hotel, save energy conservation, committee, the group of employees, and
team members that get together once a month and they discuss ways of what else could we do for the
environment, how else are we going to do that, so we do things like a, part of that comes out, like the
lighting, and the water conservation accurse to it, but energy conservation along with that, so changing
them out of the meeting space, public areas, right? Its expensive super expensive, when youre talking
about going from the $2 to a $13, its a huge capital investment team from our ownership, but coming
back in again, its the right thing to do for the environment right? theres a cost initiative, theres cash
credit as well, as you get from that, as well, i mean it makes sense, and the energy that our team members,
instead of having that one engineer, changing all the light bulbs, you know? right? we no longer have to
do that for years now, but again its all the cost, so you have the LED is all in public spaces, conserving
energy. The next step in that phase is all the guest rooms as well, so of the lights are, but not all of them
are, we have to change out the batteries and things like that, so you can run these bulbs, but thats the next
phase of the project, so we have this energy conservation team, that goes around, the environment team
that goes around, trying to come up with different ways, if they hear things going out there in the world
they over hear doing this, its something to look into here, so we go through that effort, right? what else?
Nicole: Does the loews resort financially contribute to the community to help with the environment
Manager: Yes, uh, different ways, so, one of the biggest ways, specifically here in coronado we have a
fund, we take one from every single guest room, and theres a small percentage that goes toures this fund,
now coronado controls this fund, but, we do have a saying in that, we do have a voice in that concern, so
well go through, just meet at the beach each silver strand beach, uh, a couple of weeks ago, and
determine how much money we are going to contribute into this fund over this past year, and what efforts
can go into it, if you walk out the building, you have the ocean side, right silver strand you have the bay
side, so on the bay side youll see some, um um, if youre driving out of the property, on the right hand
side, youre going to start to see some growth of plants and things like that, the revegetating that area, and
so the money that we put into that fund is going back to thoughts efforts of, getting, getting that area
regrowing that vegetation, were going to put up spikes like little fence things, just to protect it, because
right now theres no fencing protecting that area from people possible walking on it, and things like that,
putting up little signs explaining what the efforts are to return the vegetation toures natural habitats forms,
at some point somebody, however long ago dug that out and made a beach, which is great, but, thoughts
efforts are really put back into the natural vegetation of the area, so thoughts are the efforts of what we are
doing to contribute to the environment, along with all of the charitable hours that our team members
donate to helping out with thoughts causes, so when we are ready to put thoughts spikes up, well put a

group together, and well go out there as a committee, which is uh loews good neighbor committee, is the
title of it, so our good neighbor could volunteer within the property, and well go out there and you know
with committee shirts on, well go out there and spike in into the fencing, putting up the sign, doing beach
clean up, and we do that every single year, and well do at least one environmental impact thing, or good
neighbor committee act every single month, we have our next one on november 30th, we are doing a
beach clean up, on silver strand, so thoughts are the efforts
Manager: Uh woah, theres many, many many, uh, Doners Choice is kind of like, our main, money wise,
Doners Choice is our main financial one that we donate to, are you aware with Doners Choice?
Everyone: Yes
Manager: Yea? So yea thats the main one that we are currently doing
Director: The company wide one, every hotel has local programs, but thats the company wide that we all
donate money to warense, um like right now for halloween, we are having our good neighbor committee
give bags of treats, that you can pass out to your co-workers, you pay a fee and we will send out thoughts
treats to thoughts people, happy halloween this is from your co-worker, housekeeping, this is from your
co-worker during banquets, and that money is going to Doners Choice, the company, but uh we just got
done with uh, breast cancer, or making strides for breast cancer, not so much on the eco side of things, but
thats one of our bigger partners here locally.
Dean Griffin: Making strides, have a time for humanity, um we do a lot with uh, I forget the one with uh,
thats associated with the navy, um wounded warriors project, we have done a lot for, what else, we
partner a lot this past year with the living coast, its a big one that we have partnered with a lot, and we
have done a lot of events, whether thats money, donate the food, we will send a chef over, and cook for
whatever group that are organizing, one thing after another, so, we have done a lot with them in this past
year as well, another a initiative weve, uh, enacted as well this year, uh, have you ever heard of Clean the
World? No? Blank stares. Clean the World is an organization out there that donates used soap, bars of
soap, the jars, the leftover soap, if youre a business traveler staying, typically staying one night in a hotel
room, you only use maybe about half a bottle of soap and each of the things. Lotion, soap, uh, shampoo,
conditioner, you name it. Theyre gonna take, we gather that used soap. So the room attendants go in
there and clean the rooms and theyll gather all that soap up, just leave it in the bottles, and not like,
unscrew the cap
Lesley: (Laughs)
Dean Griffen: They just gather it all and dump it in a bucket. This comp--this, uh, partner, Clean the
World, will then take all of that used soap and then repurpose that for third world countries. So one,
recycling the plastic, because thats a huge environmental issue and then all that soap thats being wasted,
right? When--All that soap is being wasted and being able to use that for those in need in these third
world countries, so thats another thing weve implemented, uh, in the hotel as well. Alright, good.
Nick Walden: Um. how do you feel Loews has impacted the environment?

Alex Palacio: I--I mean, Ive only been here for about three weeks, so, Im seeing the immediate impact
on people for the most part, um, but Ill give you examples of things Ive already seen. Uh, uniforms. A
lot of hotels companies will give five, ten, you know and in bad scenarios, one, uniform per person. We
give three to five, per position per person. We do laundry in house. So as far as the people impact, were
not giving somebody ten uniforms that, naturally, if I have more, Im gonna use it, Im gonna take a little
more risks with this uniform, but if I have that three to five window, I know that this is the only uniforms
I have, therefore Im going to take care of them, Im going to get them cleaned when they need to be
cleaned and Im not going to overclean them, in a sense. So if I could go two or three days with the same
uniform, um, Im gonna do that. Uh, but thats kind of the people side of things. So we give them the right
amount of uniforms so that you dont have ten, fifteen and you say Oh, let me go fix or paint this with
my regular uniform, No, Im gonna go get into my painters uniform that day So, again, not only with the
guests, but also with the team members, um, by not overproducing the water, the soap thats needed for in
house laundry.
Dean Griffin: I think the impact to the environment, Loews is a hotel, thats very--that wants to do
everything, wants to do the right thing for the environment, everything we possibly can, right? Um, are
more efforts needed in overall, in the hotel industry? Absolutely. Uh, other ways that weve impacted uh,
we believe weve impacted the environment, weve also started, and this goes to that specifically to
ecotourism side of things, weve also opened up those environmental efforts to our guests, right. Helping
us with the water conservation, but adding in activities. If you look at our resort activities guide,
specifically two things that we do, uh, a few times a week, where we get with Silver Strand beach and the
guests have the opportunity to get involved and go on the nature hike or nature walk and introducing the
guests environment, and then were invited to take part in some of those clean up efforts. Uh, again,
helping out whether or not it's cleaning up trash, the state beach, um, helping with spiking the little fences
and things like that, but theyre also invited to be a part of, a part of it. And they do that on a weekly, we
do that with our guests on a weekly basis. We also open that up to groups, meeting planners come in, one
of the very first things well say when they come and they have their groups stay with us, one of the
things well ask them is, is there any type of charitable component or, um, uh, that youd like to introduce
into your programming. If so, here are some of the things, here are some of the partners, like Living
Coast, or Silver Strand State Beach, on some efforts that we can be apart of. And then well organize
groups and functions based on if theyre interested in that type of thing. So overall, Id say in the industry,
were making the right efforts to move, move more into that, into that environment as an industry theres
more that we need to do. Absolutely.
Nick Walden: So you mentioned the Good Neighbor program, is that available to the entire San Diego
community and how is that promoted?
Dean Griffen: Good neighbor committee is something specifically to Loews corporation, um, its, and so
we open that up to here, employees, its our good neighbor counsel, alright, and so anybody, any team
member within, uh, Loews Coronado Bay Resort is, has, is a part of that counsel. And they can be a part
of it, they volunteer to be a part of it, or when we have events or we do things they can be a part, or, if
they wanna just donate money to that particular thing, they do it that way. Right, and not everybody has
the money to be able to donate so everybody tries to help out in different ways. We got, we do tamale
sales somebody might make the tamales and well give them the money to make the tamales and then
well turn around and sell them at the cafeteria, um, for the employees, right, or theyre pre ordered
tamales (inaudible) and you know heres my money, two three bucks a piece, or whatever that is and then

that money collected then goes back into that donor's choice or whatever the thing is that were donating
to. So its not a, its not a community wide thing as far as uh out there in all of San Diego County, um,
that counsel will do things to help out that county, whatever it might be, right, Habitat for Humanity, etc.
And all of our team members family members can be a part of it as well. Like making strides yesterday,
right? We opened it up to the, uh, to the entire team member population here and then we got our families
involved, like you know my wife and my two kids running around with us yesterday, Alex and his family,
you know, so theyre able to be a part of it and try to raise money and get sponsored and stuff like that.
Alex Palacio: And our team members can bring ideas that we might not be thinking about, you know,
maybe somethings smaller, key, um than our bigger picture, Making Strides, or Habitat for Humanity.
They might have something thats close to their community or thats close to them that we can do as a
good neighbor, again.
Dean Griffin: Yeah
Alex Palacio: Because it doesnt have to be something on Coronado Island, you know. We can do
something in San Diego, in Chula Vista. A lot of our team members are coming from the Chula Vista area,
so, if they bring something to us and say hey this is a project, this city or this community would enjoy
this, can we do this? Well definitely consider that and see if we can prepare the resources to uh, launch
our Good Neighbor committee to take care of it, so, in a sense its not open to the rest of the community
but at the same time we can impact other communities through our Good Neighbor program.
Dean Griffin: Totally.
Nick Walden: Do you guys feel that your hotel precedence, or visitors leave with a sense of
responsibility for the environment? or better awareness?
Dean Griffen: I would hope so. You know, uh, introducing, introducing those efforts like inside the guest
rooms, um, with the, so specifically, we have a card that we place in the room that talks about the
environment, right? And, and the efforts of not changing out the linens and things to help conserve on
water, uh but weve also recently, with the drought, placed another document, and weve placed it right on
the bed so they have to move the card, it forces them to to actually
Dean Griffen:
Pick the thing up. And california drought it explains what is going on in our area. So I hope so you know
all the efforts inside the rooms. We have recycling bins inside the guest rooms, as well. So we have the
trash and then we have the recycling. Specifically just bringing awareness to it. The water conservation
efforts in the bathrooms of the rooms. So everywhere they go there is that impact. If their group guests;
Not only is it in their room but its also in the meeting spaces, as well with the recycling bins, and those
efforts. So I hope they lock away a better sense of environment there, and the efforts of the hotel has
taken to help conserve the water, the energy, etc.
Alex Palacio:
Well compared to the last place that I worked, we had two courses at the Lacoste resort and spa. I dont
know if anyone has ever been there before, for the two golf courses the questions always comes up is:
Does the California drought apply to you or your golf courses? And for most of it, it doesn't. So you can

continue to water your golf courses all you want. When a guest books Loews coronado bay resort, there is
no golf courses, there is no exterior landscaping, that is just like oh my god, that is why you go. We have
what we have, and we are surrounded by water. So I think there is already a cognizant choice from our
guests that they come here because of what we have around us; because we are not you know using water
that is excessive in a sense. So with the support of these programs the clatter that we have in the room . I
think they do go away with something different than somebody that went to a golf course or went to a
resort like legoland even that has vast amounts of landscaping projects, they do year round. So I think
there is a cognizant choice already being done before they even leave our doors.
Nicole:
How has Loews resort contributed to wildlife conservation?
Dean Griffin:
The nature, specifically in the nature walks that we are doing, and that is a part of the good neighbor
council. Is the volunteering efforts that we do on those nature. I cant remember the actual name of it is.
But the money that the hotel takes part of the numerates to donate to silver strand beach in Coronado
island. What they are doing in those efforts, the signage, bringing awareness to the hearings and the other
wildlife that are in the area. Establishing those boundary areas on the beach. Parts walk into the bay area
of silver strand, and what we are doing with the fencing and things like that. You know with the silver
strand fencing and the signage to bring more awareness to the environment. Offering that to the guests;
those are all ways that we are helping out. Living coast as well, but money raised to assist with
inpartment with Living coast specifically on their efforts with their animal program. We will do things
like, in our children's programing here at the hotel. We will partner with Living Coast, so they now help,
they partner with us to the kids programming. So what they will do, they will bring in every day. When
we are having the kids programs, specifically during over the summertime and spring break, etc. Theyll
bring the animals in and explain how those animals are living within our environment; and ways that we
can help, and the children can help with protecting them. For endangered species and those efforts unot it.
Harm the nesting areas, their natural habitats, etc. So that has been a big effort. Every time we do a big,
even a little function, as an example halloween is coming up. So we have asked Living Coast to come we
put decided. Oh lets do a little something for halloween. So we are going to have little cookies out. We
are going to have some craft beers and things like that, for the adults; and then some syder for the kids,
and some candy, and they are going to decorate cookies. But every time we do an event like that, thats
open to the public, and to our guest. We will bring in Living Coast in showing us in those efforts. So they
are going to bring in an owl. Right, its going to be themed with halloween; some snakes, some spiders.
But then how do those animals impact our environment, and where they live within our environment, and
how we help with those efforts as well. So we will partner with them in every specific event and bring
them in as well. To help with those efforts.
Alex Palacio:
Its a really cool program.
Lesley:
Do you know the date for that program?
Dean Griffen:
October 31st.

Lesley:
Oh.
Dean Griffen:
Halloween! So its going to be at night. So we are going to bring the animals in. But thats just one
example of how it may end up, that we do. Over, specifically over the summer time. Thats our heaviest
leisure guest period. From memorial day to labor day. Right? So during those efforts we will have living
coast every single day and apart of the daily programming is bringing in the animals for the kids. Right.
So mom and dad will sign little Johny up to go hang out in the kids program, and in that thirty minute.
Part of that program is not a classroom style educational piece. But there is a learning process with that.
Where the kids will be outside with the animals. Right. We have done summer programs where we bring
them over and you can, you know play with the stingrays, and things like that. So we will try, we dont do
that part here. But although some wildlife, the birds, snakes; things of that nature in the area, the otters.
They will bring some of those out here, unto the land. So they will do things like that.
Nick:
So what kind of tourism activities does Lowes hotel provide to its residents?
Dean Griffen:
Just the, again the.. I think its like four day a week, we offer to our guest, to be apart of the programming
with silver strand beach. We invited over them and we meet them over the, silver strand and they have an
environmentalist that's apart of the, that works for silver strand beach. And then again, they do the nature
walk. They talk about the different efforts to things that they are doing in the area; and also give them the
option to volunteer at the, to be apart of it. The group efforts are the same thing, every single group that
comes in. Thats apart of the; its part of the sales process where the. As they are booking the groups they
are setting up the events, they will bring that, they will offer that as part of the programing; to see if they
have any time to go in there. Lets do a beach clean up. Lets do a. I dont know habitat for humanity and
anything within the area. Usually do the beach clean up type of stuff because its easy, we are right here,
and people make the efforts to going through there, and cleaning up things up; painting, trash putting up
the fences, all that kind of fun stuff.
Alex Palacio:
And if you think about it, from the group's standpoint. If we have 200 people coming to stay with us all at
once. For us to offer that charitable activity they can go back to their companies say, look can we do
another day at Loews Hotels because we are going to do this charitable portion of it. So then they were
going to come in and spend 100,000 dollars for this five day period; now they can write of that money for
their taxes because they did a beach clean up for two to three hours. So It's kind of just a great piece of a
package to put in to complete thats going to come here for business and, or pleasure. But now we add the
charitable part of it to it. And there is not a lot of hotel companies that do that. Its just not. Its an
innovative part of group sales now.
Lesley Anderson: Are there specific tour companies that if someone a guest were to ask the concierge
service where they would go wanted to go kayaking or snorkeling are their specific companies that you
guys are partnered with either in Imperial beach or Coronado?

Dean Griffin: We do have a partner that is here on sight that runs out of the marina. That they can go
kayaking and all that good stuff with. Living coast is that other main one that we'll refer guests to the
programing that they do. So we'll partner with them and then the state beach. Those are the three kind of
main components of the tourism side hat we'll refer our guests to.
Alex Palacio: Its action sports is it called?
Dean Griffin: Action Water sports yeah.
Alex Palacio: Action Water sports it's a good thing you brought that up. Have any of you been on a
gondola before? So we have a gondola service. It's very romantic. They sing to you if you pay the right
package price of it. But if you think
Nathan: What's a gondola?
Alex Palacio: A gondola is one of those long Italian boats that you know have the person that's pushing
his way manually. There is no motor in there. There's no gas. There's no environmental impact, it's just
you know brute strength of the gondolists? Is that the right word for it?
Dean Griffin: I don't know what their official title is called.
Alex Palacio: I don't know, but if you think about it you go to another beach type resort their gonna have
the jet skis, they're gonna have the skis, the boats, the speed boats, but to add a piece that gondola that has
no environmental impact. Its romantic, it's something completely different. You Know I've been in San
Diego, Chula Vista for 20+ years, and up until now that I work with Lowe's, I never knew that we had this
gondola service, and I was like this is the best thing that we could offer, in Coronado Bay.
Dean Griffin: Romantic. Alex is
(All laugh)
Alex Palacio: In three different languages now
Dean Griffin: Three different languages.
Nick Walden: Alright, besides the astroturf and the special lighting, do you have any other
implementation strategies or plans towards the future to help improve Loews?
Dean Griffin: Yes, you know there is a lot of subject that have come up all which you know we're
exploring right now. From the efforts of all of it relating to energy right? Everything with all our machines
we have to purchase. How are they more energy efficient? Right, do they use gas, is it electric, is it solar
powered? What can we do there to help that environment . You know one of the things we are really
interested in is solar power in the area. Structurally, how do we do it. That is the big question mark. For
our particular property it's gonna have to be on our roof because there is no other landscape. There is no
other square footage to put it, but this building was built, you know, 30 something years ago, and the
structural weight of the solar power. We are gonna have to build the infrastructure to be able to support
that on our rooftops. Alright, so can our rooftops sustain the weight of the solar panels plus the four 20

ton air conditioning units that are up on the ceiling as well. Alright, So we wanna make sure it's safe, but
those, that's long term. We are looking into it. Meanwhile what is minimally impacting that community
that with a little bit of investment cost like the lighting in all the areas. Right, what's the electricity, the
gas, things that are used to power the building. Right, so those are those main efforts mainly around water
and electricity. The next phase will be that solar environment, but that will come down the road.
Alex Palacio: Has anybody ever seen their parents electric bill?
Nathan: No.
(Laughs)
Alex Palacio: No? Yeah, you just spend away right. You get to leave the lights on. Well one of the efforts
that we do have, we have a bulletin board. Basically at the crossroads of our team member entrance.
There's a bulletin board that shows our electricity usage. Now you think from a team member, I just come
to work here. I don't really mess with the electricity. Well you do. When you walk out of this room, do
you leave the lights on or do you leave them off. When you walk out of an office, like my office has a
sensor, if I'm gone for more than five minutes, and, or its actually funny, I'll be typing away and my lights
will go off. And I'm like god this is frustrating, but at the same time I know it makes a difference to have
that sensor in there because if I don't have that sensor that lights lighting the room for nobody. The best
way we put it for our team members why it's important, the less money we spend on electricity, the more
money we can spend on fun. Because electricity is a fixed cost, we are always gonna have lights, we are
always gonna have TV's on, but if we can spend less of it their. It's gonna give us more to spend bac on us
as team members. More parties, more giveaways, more prizes, those types of different things. That's why
that bulletin board is there. That is kind of the under tone of it, but the bulletin board is really, lets be
energy conscious here and turn off the light when we leave a room, or an office, or meeting space.
Dean Griffin: That is a smart business decision no matter. Environmentally freedmen is a smart business
decision in the long run for everybody. Right, It's a win for the environment, it's a win for the hotel. You
spend so much money on electricity and the energy you need gas. The less we can use the better because
our bills go down. Right, and that's a win financially. To Alex's point, and we're using less to impact the
environment right? So it's a smart thing to do. Just being able to realize do we have the infrastructure to
do it. You know.
Alex Palacio: And not to many companies share that information with their employees. I mean how
much we spend on electricity, how much we pay for it. It's one of those things in the business world that a
lot of companies want to keep it close and hidden away so I for whatever reason, but here it's this is how
much we used. This is how much it's cost us for over the last year, so here's the goal for next month,
here's the goal for next year so that we are all conscious about it. And again that bulletin board all though
it may not be this huge thing that you can see from a mile away. It's there and you can see every single
day for every month, and you can see it change.
Nick Walden: I'm going to try to change the subject in a way. We were wondering if you knew how many
visitors you get here a year?

Dean Griffin: Guests alone, I mean I'm trying to think of how many people are actually in our. we have
an average, I mean I would assume without the events in the hotel, like say there's a catering event like a
holiday party, but the people aren't actually staying here. Just guests alone we have about 400,000 people
that visit a year.
Nathan: That's a lot of people.
Dean Griffin: That is a lot of people, and like I said, that's not including the other events. like say a
husband and wife or somebody just wants to come in for dinner and they live here locally and they want
to eat in the restaurant. That's not including those guests as well. I wouldn't even have the, I would have to
run some reports to try to figure that out.
Alex Palacio: I mean it's safe to say that, with weddings and events that we have, our ballrooms fit 800 at
least.
Dean Griffin: Yeah we just did the Navy Birthday Ball, and they had 1100 people here for the Navy
Birthday Ball.
Alex Palacio: So your looking at at least one or two of those events a weekend, so 400,000 guests plus
you know
Alex Palacio: If you make the average every weekend, we have an event like this, or several events that
goes upside that number. Im mean you're talking another two hundred thousand people likely. If you do
the math of it.
Dean Griffin: Im trying to do the quick math of it right now. I'm trying to figure it out. Go ahead.
Nick Walden: And do you know how many would be locals down here be tourist?
Dean Griffin: Thats a great question.
Alex Palacio: Yeah
Dean Griffin: I dont I wouldnt know without running those numbers, that would be hard to. So the
math comes out to about four hundred thousands or so.
Alex Palacio: Thats alot
Dean Griffin: I dont know, in reality we dont know how many are locals and how many are, we say
locals, locals just here coming in?
Nick Walden: San Diego
Dean Griffin: San Diego, arent, most of our guest are, many clientele is L.A is from about L.A South
and Arizona. Those are our two main uhh , guest markets, so anyone wanted their staycation here in the

area, is far but, there coming from all over, but those main hubs of guests is from L.A South and Arizona
are the main groups. A Lot of guest come here from all over the world, all over the world
Alex Palacio: Uhmm... but as far as the total number of the non guest population that comes here, we can
definitely find that out for you from our event teams, so ill get that information for you guys.
Lesley Anderson: And those of your guys are mostly local? The non-guests
Alex Palacio: Mhm. Yeah this is your weddings, this is, the marine balls, the navy balls, uhh... local
businesses that want to have just meetings here, so they have an office in downtown, but they want to
have, you know their lunch or uhh meetings or conference just for the day here, so they dont normally
take up rooms.
Nicole: Off that question, do the guys see uhmm tourist visiting your hotel during the summer
Alex Palacio: When?
Nicole: The season yeah.
Alex Palacio: Uhh
Dean Griffin: Typically, your, your groups come in, like right now were starting into more like group
business time periods so, you can pretty much assume from labor day all the way through till spring break
time, so when is that, mid March time period, it's gonna be more groups and from mid March all the way
to labor day, that your leisure guest here. So there is uhh a smattering of that, uhh throughout the
year for the opposite right because your guest come in the winter time, but it's mainly that group business
thats coming in the summertime thats mainly your, your spring and summer is your leisure guests.
Alex Palacio: There is that business strategy in hospitality in a whole, to get as many groups as possible.
Uhh particularly with this topic, Im sure most of you have gone vacation before right with your
siblings, your parents. You create a lot of trash, with your families. Well a group traveler comes, whether
to share a room or theyre coming by themselves, they are what we call very low maintenance guests.
They dont call for very many amenities, they just go to their room, sleep and go home. So when our
room attendants go in there, they are not picking up, you know this big plastic or trash bag of items, so in
the business and eco part of things, if you fill your rooms with all your groups guests, that means less
trash, less recycling, uhh more events maybe, more conferences, but at the same time, your room side of
things are a little bit less uhh high maintenance uhh because you got diapers, you got towels, you
know when your family comes to visit, you got towels to, in the pool, you got more uhh plates for the
food, you know all those kind of things, so uhh.. the groups guests are a little bit more friendlier when it
comes to trash and the creation of trash.
Nick Walden: We were wondering if it would be, if you guys knew enough about the Mistral restaurant
for us to ask you questions about that or it would be better to, reschedule some sort of interview with the
chef similar to this one at a different time period?
Dean Griffin: Fire away, and see what we got

(Laughs)
Alex Palacio: Yeah, not me.
Dean Griffin: I just hired a new chef, so he might not be the best person to ask.
Jenni Barr: Uhmm would you describe Mistral as sustainable?
Dean Griffin: Would I describe Mistral as sustainable?
Jenni Barr: Yes.
Dean Griffin: In what sense?
Jenni Barr: Like, food and how you conserve water.
Dean Griffin: So all of, every component of the food that we order, we gonna, if we can, depending on,
the menus have been designed to be minimally impacting, right, so what you get with that is, everything
we looked for is locally sourced, as much as possible, right, and we are designing a menu, like we even,
so we are talking about Thanksgiving, right, like we just had a Thanksgiving uhh menu meeting with
the chefs last week, so like alright, so whats on the menu. So right, we create the menu, we put it together
and they said, so you just looking at the turkeys, there's uhh turkey farm in uhh central California.
So we are going to get our turkeys from there instead of getting them ship over from the east coast or
whatever, right, so everything we gonna try to do locally. Well go away ahead and partnered with certain
seafood purveyors that are using local uhh local fishermen, you know so we can sit there and say this
fish was caught a mile out from Point Loma and yadayadayada. Right, why, because it creates a nice little
story, when it create a story for our guests, right, and it also supports those environmental, those efforts of
supporting local sustainable food. And everything we can, not necessarily everything, right, so as we are
creating menus, were looking at whats fresh, whats going right now, so we dont have to pay a little
absorbent cost of going to, some of the some other countries and other states to get that product. Right,
we are going to change the menus out almost quarterly, to help with that. So, thats the best way to
describe it, uhm and the best efforts that we can do there, uhh not everything can be, but as much as
possible is locally sourced in whats in season at that time.
Paulina: Uhm what do you think you can do to make your restaurant more sustainable?
Dean Griffin: Hmm thats a great question, great question. Thats a question I do ask the chefs all the
time to try to figure out how we can do that right. Uhm one thing im looking into right now, is the
cost into this program is something thats called, I call it the Frog and uhh its uh, a food waste, its a
food waste program. So, we separate already the food waste uhh from uhh the other waste, the
cardboard, plastics, the containers the food comes in, but the food waste itself as we chopping up, we still
got bones, we still have uh some other leftover food product right. So, we use as much of that as we
possibly can to make, you know your stock sauces and things of that nature in the broths. But then we
take all of that product, and then separate it out in the trash, the peels, you name it, all that stuff that goes

into the system, I dont even know the name of the, what the system is called, its called, I call it Frog,
its FRG is the acronym there for it.
This resort, 24 plus years, has been here. So, if you look at it, a tsunami, a huge weather storm, this place
could be underwater, quickly, right? But, the things that you can control in the sustainability part of
things, you can make an impact for generations to come. So Im thinking to myself, all the vacations Ive
had, all the fun Ive had, I want my daughter to experience these so whatever I can do to sustain what we
have in front of us and what we enjoy every single day. Im gonna do that so she can enjoy the same
things 10 years from now. So as far as picking up a piece of trash it might be that important, it is a little
bit more because i'm seeing that go down 20 feet into the water.
Alex Palacio: Why do you think people should care about are they going to be around for her. So this
resort has been here for 20 plus years, if you look at it a tsunami, a huge thunderstorm, and this place
could be underwater, quickly right? but the things that you can control like sustainability, the impact,
that's something we can control, so im thinking all of the vacations i've had all of the fun i've had I want
my daughter to get to experience the same thing, but whatever I can do to sustain what we have everyday,
im going to do that so she can enjoy the same things 10 to 20 years from now, but sometimes being
unselfish isn't easy. its not easy you know, im not going to take this drink of water because someone
wants it later right? Im thirsty now. Even as humans two like this double cheeseburger like do I need this
double cheeseburger? no somebody else might need it, we need to think about the future in a sense.
Dean Griffin: Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more.
Alex Palacio: We just recycle and all these conservative efforts in energy but it's also the people, the
behavior of people that we instill throughout the organization
Jenni: Thank you
Nathan: THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME