Home News & Features Tennessee Green Hospitality Blossoms to More Than 80 Certified Businesses

Tennessee Green Hospitality Blossoms to More Than 80 Certified Businesses

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NATIONAL REPORT—A little more than six years after it first began taking applications, the Tennessee Green Hospitality program now has 82 businesses certified. Sixty-five of those businesses are lodging establishments. Among the certified hotels that are part of the Tennessee program are the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Jackson, Nashville Airport Marriott, and the Country Inn & Suites By Carlson, Knoxville At Cedar Bluff. Perhaps a first for welcome centers in the United States, all 14 Tennessee Welcome Centers are also certified.

Each of the businesses in the program have submitted applications and then undergone an on-site inspection by Skye Con’s Dobbin Callahan. Callahan helped initiate the Tennessee Green Hospitality program in 2009. Tom Cupo, General Manager of The Chattanoogan, a Benchmark Hospitality International property, was also instrumental in the program’s launch. The program was developed with encouragement from and in consultation with the Tennessee Department of Tourism Development. Callahan says the on-site audit adds credibility to the certification, especially if a facility is being considered by meeting planners for a green event. There is no charge to undergo the certification process but a reasonable audit fee is charged to cover the travel expenses of the auditor.      

“I wish I did not call it an audit,” Callahan says. “The real intent is to make it a coaching session. Here’s a way that you can become even more sustainable.”

Certified businesses get a plaque to display, a decal to place on an entry door, and get listed on the Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Assn. website and Skye Con website. Businesses must recertify every three years and are required to show continuous improvement in order to be recertified. The core activities covered in the application include: offer optional linen service; recycle and reduce waste; use water efficiently; conserve energy; offer a green events package; and have a written plan for continued environmental improvement.

Memphis Area to be Targeted

Certified lodging establishments are currently concentrated in middle and east Tennessee. West Tennessee is not as well represented, especially in Memphis, at the moment because of the travel distance for Callahan, who is based in Chattanooga.

“I was not able to develop an environmentally sustainable model for me to develop the Memphis market from Chattanooga,” Callahan said. “I had a meeting with the University of Memphis and the Metropolitan Memphis Hotel and Lodging Assn. We are working on a program whereby university faculty will do audits. I will train them on the certification program. I can see Memphis becoming one of the largest areas for certification.”

As auditor of Tennessee Green Hospitality, Callahan gets to see many best practices in operation, many success stories, and many examples of improvements made. He cited the Marriott Nashville Airport as one example of a hotel property that benefited from a green investment—a transition from high-flow toilets to high-efficiency ones. He added that he is seeing many hotels moving away from using hot water in the laundry.

“One of the welcome centers went to a half-gallon per minute aerator and did not have one complaint,” Callahan says. “Housekeeping loves it because there is a lot less water to clean up.” In all welcome centers vendors are now required to take back and recycle any unused pamphlets.

Progress at the welcome centers was made with the cooperation of the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, Tennessee Department of Transportation, and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

Go to the Tennessee Green Hospitality program for more information.

Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.

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