You are viewing items 1-10 (Page 1 of 58)
1/26/2012
SEATTLE—Furthering its commitment to sustainable hotel operations and guest services, Seattle’s Cedarbrook Lodge announces additions to its sustainability initiatives, including electric vehicle (EV) charging stations powered by ECOtality, Inc., and freshly filtered and purified drinking water through a partnership with Nordaq FRESH.
1/26/2012
ST. LOUIS—Drury Hotels Company, a family owned and operated company based in St. Louis, is in the process of rolling out amenity dispensers in the bathrooms of its guestrooms in all 123 of its Drury branded properties. The five Drury brands include Drury Inn & Suites, Drury Inn, Drury Suites, Drury Plaza Hotel, and Pear Tree Inn by Drury. Drury properties can be found in 20 states. Alison Casler, director of training and communication for Drury Hotels Company, says the new dispenser standard will save the purchase and disposal of at least 1.8 million amenity bottles a year. Drury will still offer a facial bar soap at the bathroom sink. “It makes really good sense and is a great initiative for the environment,” Casler says. “It makes the room cleaning process easier. It makes sense operationally. The feedback overall has been very good. We are working on the in-room signage.” The only guest concerns so far have related to dispenser security but Casler emphasizes that the dispensers are “locked and secure.”
1/25/2012
WISCONSIN DELLS, WIS.—You may not make it to Africa this year, but your soaps may. Home to America’s largest indoor waterparks, the authentically African-themed Kalahari Resorts and Convention Center has partnered with Orlando, Fla.-based social enterprise Clean the World to collect and recycle hotel soaps and shampoos to help fight the global spread of preventable diseases.
1/23/2012
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, COLO.—Its tracking mechanism may not be the most sophisticated in the industry—it consists of a master spreadsheet file—but there may be no better company in the world at tracking its environmental impact than Xanterra Parks & Resorts. For almost 11 years now Xanterra has been tracking everything from its carbon emissions to the percentage of solid waste diverted. Xanterra calls its tracking system “Ecometrix.” It falls under the company’s larger “Ecologix” program. Introduced in the company’s most recent sustainability report is yet another term—“Ecometabolism”—which is defined as “a measure of resource usage normalized by annual dollars of revenue or per room night.” Whereas Xanterra collects and reports absolute data—a tally of actual total resources consumed, pollutants emitted, or waste generated—Ecometabolism defines overall environmental impact per unit of product (tourist-related activities, which include rooms, restaurants, retail, transportation, and support facilities) while accounting for company growth or reduction in size due to acquisitions or divestitures.
1/16/2012
ANN ARBOR, MICH.—To handle a five-fold increase in compostable plastic product certifications since 2006, global independent public health organization NSF International has been named the new administrator of the Biodegradable Products Institute’s (BPI) Certified Compostable program.
1/10/2012
FRANKFURT, GERMANY—A campaign to reduce overall waste output from the IMEX in Frankfurt trade show, whether recyclable or not, has seen waste levels drop significantly over the past three years. The total amount of waste generated went down from 167 tons in 2009 to 121 tons in 2011, a reduction of 28 percent. As part of its commitment to improved environmental management and protection, IMEX organizers have worked closely with the management team at Messe Frankfurt to implement a series of waste reduction measures over the years. Year on year IMEX has also set itself waste reduction targets in order to keep track of savings and provide an incentive for exhibitors, suppliers and visitors to help its waste reduction efforts. Paper comprises a large percentage of the material that is recycled at each show. In 2011 it accounted for 33 tons of all recycled material, a reduction of seven tons compared to 2009. All paper is recycled into newspapers and used locally to produce the daily Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung (FAZ).
1/3/2012
BURLINGTON, VERMONT—Increasing recycling, implementing a food waste collection program for composting, and increasing green purchasing have allowed the 309-room Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Burlington, Vermont to reduce its environmental footprint, save money on disposal, and to be recognized as a Green Hotel through the Green Hotels in the Green Mountain State Program (also known as the Vermont Green Hotels Program). In April 2009, the Sheraton Hotel agreed to work with the Northeast Recycling Council (NERC), the Vermont Green Hotels Program, and EPA New England to increase its overall recycling, initiate a food waste diversion program, and to increase and document its green purchasing efforts. These efforts further supported the hotel’s environmentally conscious business practices and made it recognized as a Green Hotel in the State of Vermont.
1/3/2012
HONOLULU—The Waikiki Parc Hotel has installed the Hospitality Battery Holder in its 297 guestrooms, helping the environment and saving money at the same time. The hotel is expected to save more than $5,000 within the next five years by replacing the conventional battery packs with the Hospitality Battery Holder.
12/21/2011
PARIS—Accor recently decided to assess its environmental impact 15 years after it took a stand and started taking concrete action to embrace sustainable development. The company began working on gauging its environmental footprint at the end of 2010. The study stretches beyond measuring greenhouse-gas emissions to encompass energy and water consumption, water pollution and waste generation throughout lifecycles in the Group. “Four thousand and two hundred hotels in 90 countries, 145,000 employees, 56 million breakfasts a year and almost 545 million liters of water a year all add up to the environmental impact that we are now in a position to quantify, share openly and ultimately use to hone in on the most efficient and effective levers to build our corporate social and environmental responsibility strategy,” said Accor CEO Denis Hennequin. “Our goal is to build sustainable development into the core of our Group’s performance and embark it on a continuous improvement drive to reinvent hospitality for the long term.”
12/20/2011
JOHNSTON, S.C.—Riegel div. Mount Vernon Mills, Inc. is turning plastic bottles into durable table linen. RieNu by Riegel is a 100 percent recycled polyester linen produced from Eco-Sure, a 100 percent post-consumer recycled PET as confirmed by Scientific Certification Systems. One 20x20 napkin made from RieNu recycled polyester fabric eliminates three 16 ounce plastic bottles from landfills.
Jump to a specific page: