McAllen, Texas Chamber Launches New Green Hotel Program

The McAllen, Texas Chamber of Commerce has launched a new Green Hotel Program. It encourages hotels to support environmentally friendly practices that reduce the amount of waste, water and energy generated by hotel staff and guests. The program is voluntary and participants benefit not only from reduced costs but also from a presence in the Green Hotels section of the McAllen Convention and Visitors Bureau website. Hotels participating in the program are required to implement a minimum of eight practices from a long list provided by the Chamber.

Among the options: switching to native plants in garden areas, providing recycling containers in guestrooms, switching to low-flow toilets or toilet-tank fill diverters, and creating a green team to carry out green activities.

Ten hotels are currently participating in the Green Hotel Program, five of which are Marriotts. The others represent Hilton, Choice Hotels International, Accor and the InterContinental Hotels Group. According to the Chamber, it will promote participating hotels when soliciting nature-related tourism and meetings and convention business.

McAllen joins cities such as Buffalo, New York and Los Angeles in having green hotel programs. To view a complete list of states, cities and regions that have green lodging programs, click here.