Michael Chang, first vice president and head of sustainability and resilience at Host Hotels & Resorts (Nasdaq: HST), sat down for a video interview at Nareit’s REITwise: 2026 Educational Conference in Hollywood, Florida, March 24-26.
Fresh off Nareit’s 2026 Leader in the Light Award in the operations category, Chang explained how Host is using AI and real-time building data to uncover new efficiency opportunities across its hotel portfolio. Through connected sensors that monitor HVAC systems, central plants, and domestic hot water systems, Host can identify inefficiencies in real time and help hotel engineering teams optimize operations.
“At three properties, we’ve been able to avoid 2,300 metric tons of carbon emissions, generating over $700,000 in annual utility savings,” Chang said. He added that Host is now working to scale the initiative to roughly one-third of its hotels.
Chang noted that Host has already completed more than 900 sustainability projects over the past six years, generating an estimated $24 million in annual utility savings. “We’ve taken care of a lot of lower-hanging fruit,” he said, and AI-driven tools are helping the company continue making progress.
On resilience, Host is increasingly using climate analytics to guide capital planning. The company now incorporates climate risk data into portfolio screening, acquisitions due diligence, and insurance modeling. Through that work, Host recently invested in measures designed to mitigate all 100-year flood risk across its portfolio.
“We view our portfolio as a living lab,” Chang said, pointing to pilots in battery storage, electrification, water management, and advanced building materials that could eventually scale across the company’s hotels.