A redesign of the iconic brand logo required new exterior signage for over 3,200 locations. The new signage incorporates energy-efficient, long-life GE Tetra LED lighting systems, which are GE ecomagination certified solutions from Lumination, GE Consumer & Industrial's LED business.
The signage will save Holiday Inn an estimated $4.4 million annually over previous neon and fluorescent lighting ($3 million annual maintenance savings and $1.4 million energy savings). This massive signage project involves more than 20 sign manufacturers creating 9,300 channel letter and box signs with high-performance GE Tetra LED lighting inside. There are more than 270 different lighting configurations across five Holiday Inn brands, where the signs range from 11 inches high to as large as 8ft.
The global estate of Holiday Inn brand hotels is expected to be relaunched by the end of 2010. Angela Brav, chief operating officer, North America, InterContinental Hotels Group said, "We are increasing quality and driving consistency across all Holiday Inn properties, and being more contemporary with this major rebranding. It only makes sense to use the greenest signage solution possible. We are replacing more than 9,300 signs across several countries, so the energy savings GE's LED systems are providing is significant. Plus, they offer proven reliability for even greater savings from a maintenance standpoint and improved brand consistency across all properties."
Holiday Inn expects to cut energy usage by more than half and achieve an estimated 52 percent reduction in kilowatt hours with signs lit an average of 12 hours per day, 365 days per year. That represents an estimated reduction of 8,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually or the equivalent of planting more than 2,300 acres of trees per year. The GE Tetra LED systems are significantly more energy efficient than commonly used neon or fluorescent, and they overcome performance challenges fluorescent can encounter in cold climates.
(Jim Evans)
