# Assessment of Energy-Saving Practices of the Hospitality Industry in Macau
## Methodology  
### The Indices  
This study is to evaluate the overall status of energy efficiency in Macau hospitality, but not to certificate an individual hotel. The key is to select proper evaluation indices such that they are suitable for the hotels in Macau as this is a case study. The principles that we use to select the indices mainly depend on whether an index is pertinent to the situation under investigation, or if the indices can be used for improving the energy efficiency in the future as well. Also, the framework of the indices should be internationally recognized. With these principles, we design the index system. In building our index set, a large part of indices are selected from the credits in LEED. In the latest version of LEED, i.e., LEED v4, there is a sub-system designed for Building Operations and Maintenance (O + M), which is used for the certification of existing building facilities for educational, data centers, retail outlets, warehouse and distribution centers, and hospitality uses. The hospitality part is designed for performance evaluation for the existing hotels, motels, inns and other businesses within the service industry. Thus, it is meaningful to select some of the credits in the hospitality part in O + M for this study. Figure 13 in the Appendix A gives the project checklist of LEED v4 O + M: Hospitality. We discuss how we select the credits in LEED for this work next. There are studies that analyze the relationship among the LEED's credits. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [25] explore the percentage of average score (PAS) of the credits in LEED. They identify the credits that can achieve higher PAS values with fewer efforts. Hence, for these credits, almost all the hotels can have a higher score. They include SSc5, IEQc2, IEQc3, and Inc2. In fact, for these credits, a higher score can be achieved by almost all the hotels in Macau. Thus, these credits with little effect on improving energy efficiency in the future are not considered in our study. Besides, some credits are about the alternative transportation, the improvement of plant and soil or integrated pest management only. Such credits include LTc1, SSc6, and IEQc9. They are not within the current scope on energy saving as well. Thus, they are not relevant to this study either. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [30], and [PERSON] and [PERSON] [25] identify credits for which a higher score is hard to achieve and lots of additional efforts are needed. They include EAc4 and EAc7. Thus, in general, a hotel does not have the enthusiasm to implement them by making the additional efforts. However, these credits may represent significant trends in energy saving and are the focus of government support as well. For example, EAc7 is for renewable energy and carbon offsets, which is an important issue in energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission. Thus, these credits are included in this investigation. Beside the indices that are selected from the credits in LEED, we add some special indices that have potentially significant effects on the energy efficiency improvement for Macau. We discuss these credits as follows. * In the investigation, for energy conservation, some hotels have established a good mechanism to encourage their staff to propose new schemes to the hotel for energy saving. Also, some hotels have staff training programs to make sure that a piece of equipment is operated and maintained in an energy-efficient manner. According to the experiences from abroad, staff training is significant for improving energy efficiency [31]. Therefore, we add this index into the index set and it is denoted as ICc1. * To support the low carbon-oriented transformation of commercial enterprises, improve air quality, and save energy, the Macau government established a fund called the \"Environmental Protection and Energy Conservation Fund\" [32; 33] used to support projects for environmental protection in 2011. A hotel in Macau can take advantage of this by applying funding from it to improve its energy efficiency.