I attended Hospitality Design Expo (HD Expo) earlier this month in Las Vegas. I attend the show every year and this year it seemed to be so much larger. You just about needed to hail a cab to get from one end of the show floor to the other. There were more than 800 exhibitors, more than 10,000 attendees, and 275,000 square feet of show floor space. As usual, I walked the show floor looking for new green products and technologies. I described some of them in the article I posted this past week on Green Lodging News.
With any trade show you will get newer companies exhibiting for the first time and others that have been repeat exhibitors for years. One company I ran into for the first time is Snap Power. For those of you not familiar with them, they make outlet plates and switch plates that require no batteries but include LED lights built into them that provide light at night. A sensor is built in to determine when the lights go on or off. A simple concept really, but also innovative as the products eliminate the need for your guests to keep other lights on at night—the bathroom light, for example.
At one furniture company exhibit I attended, I spoke with a consultant and a scientist who are working on an eco-friendly foam for furniture cushions—something that will hold up over time but also biodegrade at the end of its life. I cannot mention the name of the company at this time. I would not be surprised at all if they accomplish their goal.
Over the years I have gotten to know the folks at Sterling Sleep Systems quite well and they are at HD Expo each year with their component-based innerspring and foam mattresses and component-based memory foam and latex luxury mattresses. The mattresses sold by the company feature detachable, interchangeable parts that enable one to reduce the cost of mattress ownership by 50 percent. Again, a concept that just makes sense—giving you the opportunity to replace mattress parts while keeping mattresses out of the landfill for as long as possible. Shouldn’t all mattresses be like this?
LEDs are the Norm Now
I cannot remember the last time I saw a compact fluorescent light bulb at a trade show. LEDs are everywhere now. The major bulb makers were absent from this year’s show but LEDs were apparent in design features incorporated in mirrors and light panel systems. Electric Mirror introduced Ava, a new LED lighted mirror designed to help women perfect their makeup application. The product name Ava was chosen to honor an Electric Mirror employee’s younger sister who is battling cancer. Tying a product to a heart-warming story. A great idea.
Reuse of “waste” materials was evident in products sold by Freedom Outdoor Furniture (milk jug plastic), Renewed Materials, LLC (acrylic scraps), and TerraMai (wood from barns and other deconstructed buildings). And, just about every time I turned around I ran into someone selling planters to help green up a hotel interior or exterior space.
Waste container companies also introduced new recycling container designs. Rubbermaid Commercial Products, for example, unveiled its new Resist line of waste receptacles. Launching later this year, Resist receptacles are designed for commercial outdoor environments. They are available in four different sizes.
Floor covering companies have made giant sustainability strides over the years—research into biodegradability, recycling, transitioning to modular carpeting where possible, etc. At HD Expo I had an opportunity to chat with folks from Interface, Inc. and Tarkett about progress they are making. Interface, for example, has investigated and implemented biophilic design as it relates to hotel spaces. Bringing nature into not only floor covering design but other aspects of hotel design can have a significant impact on the guest experience. I will be writing more about this topic soon.
The folks behind HD Expo listed more than 100 green companies in its show directory this year. It is great to see so many design-oriented companies identifying themselves with sustainability.
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