This week will be an exciting one for the global hospitality industry. Earth Day is Wednesday, April 22, and lodging organizations around the planet will participate in thousands of different ways. Employees of 29 Joie de Vivre hotels in northern California will leave their single occupancy cars at home and commute to work by foot, bike, share ride or public transportation. Guests who stop by any Sofitel Luxury Hotel property in North America can enjoy a 30-minute lunch made entirely from ingredients grown organically. Later the same day, guests can indulge in a three-course dinner focused around fresh herbs and organic wine paired with local cheeses. Sofitel will donate a percentage of the United States proceeds from the Earth Day lunch and dinner to Trees for the Future, an organization dedicated to helping communities around the world plant more trees.
Accor will hold its third Earth Guest Day, a group-wide initiative that aims to involve employees in sustainable development projects. Accor will introduce a new website, www.accorplantsfortheplanet.com, that will showcase its participation in the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, an initiative launched last year in association with the United Nations Environment Program. The Fairmont Washington, D.C., will join forces for the sixth consecutive year to help students at the local Francis-Stevens Educational Campus (EC) learn about plants and gardening. The Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, will host a beach cleanup on Crescent Beach, supplying gloves, rakes, wheel barrows and bags to volunteers. The cleanup will be followed by a family ice cream sundae event on the lawn as a thank you.
This year’s Earth Day is the 40th one; the first one was held April 22, 1970. Participation in an event like Earth Day in a visible way is important—even if it is what you are doing behind the scenes that has the greatest positive impact on the environment. It shows your guests and your staff that you care and it certainly is a great marketing opportunity. (The Shores Resort & Spa in Daytona Beach Shores, Fla., put together an Earth Month travel package for the month of April.) There is no need to get wrapped up in debates about global warming; Earth Day is about taking care of your own plot of land, being a good neighbor in your community, and being a good steward of the planet. Be sure to make every day Earth Day at your property.
More Earth Day Activities
Here are just a few more examples of how some will be celebrating Earth Day:
• The Peabody Orlando Green Team is holding an Earth Week. Activities will include a scavenger hunt and Adopt-A-Road cleanup project for employees, and an Earth Day coloring contest for their children.
• The Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) will launch its Million Tons of Trash Challenge on Earth Day. Meeting planners, venues, and hotels around the world will be invited to measure the waste they recycle or compost and enter the total weight in an online system, where GMIC will tabulate a running total. Organizations with the best recycling and waste diversion rates will be recognized, and the results of the challenge will serve as a best practices guide for the entire industry.
• In Rhode Island, the Green Hospitality and Tourism Leadership Council will hold its second annual Green Hospitality Certification Awards Breakfast at the Sheraton Providence Airport Hotel in Warwick. The Green Hospitality Certification Awards, the only program officially endorsed by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, will recognize those hospitality businesses that have completed the certification requirements of the Green Certification Program.
• WyndhamGreen is celebrating Earth Day by supporting the “One Million Pound Renewable Energy Challenge.” In partnership with Native Energy, WyndhamGreen has committed to the purchase of 150,000 pounds of CO2 to account for a portion of its carbon footprint. Wyndham is also challenging its guests to participate. By making a $5 donation and sending an e-card, guests can purchase 700 pounds of renewable wind energy. Each donation will support the use of wind turbines and renewable methane generators on family farms.
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