DALLAS—The LEED Gold pursuing NYLO Dallas South Side hotel, a five-story, 76-room property, opened late this past summer and joins NYLO’s collection of three other eco-friendly hotels—two in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. The new urban-loft boutique NYLO is the result of the conversion of the 101-year-old Dallas Coffin Co. Building. During the conversion, every possible part of the original building was incorporated into the hotel. For example, the hotel’s guestrooms feature original concrete floors and exposed ceilings. Celebrating the vibrant local arts community, original artworks from local artists are showcased throughout the property, complementing the hotel’s chic interior...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Hasek Communications, the Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of Green Lodging News, welcomes High Sierra Showerheads as a Product & Service Directory partner. High Sierra Showerheads is the maker of the water-saving High Sierra Shower Head, which provides a luxuriant shower at just 1.5 gallons per minute. The device’s patented FCS nozzle technology delivers an invigorating spray from a single orifice, making clogging virtually impossible. It is made in the United States from solid metal, with an ABS splash guard that is well suited to shower-over-bath installations. Tens of thousands of these showerheads are saving water, energy, and money in...

CHATTANOOGA, TENN.—Outdoors-oriented travelers headed to the Chattanooga area for rock climbing, bicycling, kayaking and other activities can now stay in a hostel that is officially among the world’s greenest. Opened in June 2011, The Crash Pad just recently earned its LEED Platinum designation. According to the hostel’s owners, Max Poppel and Dan Rose, The Crash Pad is the only hostel on the planet to earn LEED Platinum. Only three other lodging establishments in the United States have earned LEED Platinum through the U.S. Green Building Council.Located on one acre in downtown Chattanooga, The Crash Pad sits on a site...

MORROW, GA.—TOTO, a provider of high-performance toilets, enters the ultra high-efficiency toilet (UHET) arena with the Drake II 1G. The new Drake II 1G—with its proven Double Cyclone technology—represents the continued evolution of TOTO’s Drake II HET. It delivers ultra-high-efficiency flushing using only one gallon of water. TOTO’s Double Cyclone technology features two water jets, instead of rim holes. These jets, positioned on each side of the bowl’s interior, deliver powerful swirls of water. The flushing action is strong and all types of waste are flushed away effectively. The bowl and rim are cleansed thoroughly with the flush....

DENVER—Marriott International, Inc. announced the first TownePlace Suites hotel to open as part of its LEED Volume Program—the TownePlace Suites Denver Airport at Gateway Park in Colorado. TownePlace Suites is Marriott’s second brand to construct a hotel built using its LEED Volume program. The hotel will be the brand’s first property using the LEED Volume prototype.Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the LEED Volume Program eases the process for property developers, such as hotel owners who want to build a LEED-certified hotel. Volume certification provides a streamlined path to LEED certification based on a pre-approved prototype...

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.—When you have 744 guestrooms in multiple buildings, a spa, restaurants, and three 18-hole golf courses—all on 3,000 acres—maintaining a high level of operational efficiency is always a challenge. At The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., however, the management team has been able to keep up with aging infrastructure thanks to owners who have poured $300 million into the property since 1995. It was in 1995 that renovations began on the historic hotel that was first constructed in 1918.“The main hotel building was built to 1918 energy standards,” says Terry McHale, The Broadmoor’s director of facilities. “It...

FORT WORTH, TEXAS—Niagara Conservation, a manufacturer of water and energy-saving products, has partnered with Green Plumbers USA, an organization with an accredited training program that helps plumbers to understand their evolving role in improving the environment and public health. The two organizations will work together to customize water and energy efficiency projects for the nation’s leading utilities, using eco-friendly Niagara products and certified Green Plumber Contractors.“We’re extremely pleased to partner with Green Plumbers USA, an organization whose commitment to environmental sustainability aligns well with our company’s conservation goals,” says Carl Wehmeyer, Niagara Conservation’s executive vice president. “In a time...

Was your property built before 1993? If so, chances are you’re losing money with every flush and use of the sink and shower. After all, you can’t control your hotel guest’s use of utilities. However, you can control your operating costs, and through simple, environmentally friendly renovations to plumbing and electric, you can significantly lower expensive water/sewer and electric bills. Let’s say that you have a 25-year-old, 100-room property with a 50 percent occupancy rate that hasn’t had any updates to toilets, shower heads, sink aerators or continuously operated common area lighting. A guestroom toilet is flushed 15 times a day...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Results of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) 2012 Lodging Survey provide strong evidence that the greening of the U.S. lodging industry is continuing. Funded by the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation (AH&LEF) and conducted by STR, 52,155 U.S. hotel properties were polled in the survey that is conducted every two years. Similar data has been collected since 1988. There was a healthy response rate of 23 percent to this year’s survey.While most of the questions were repeated from previous years, there were new questions as well. For example, hoteliers were asked for the first time...

CONCORD, CALIF.—It got official as it can get earlier this year on June 5. It was on that day that the Hilton Concord in Concord, Calif., was designated the Sustainability Flagship by Interstate Hotels & Resorts in a proclamation released by the Office of the Mayor of the City of Concord. The 329-key hotel was selected by Interstate to be the green prototype of what could be rolled out across the company’s other five wholly-owned and managed hotels. “Our plan is to implement similar programs and technologies at our other five wholly-owned hotels as part of our annual planned capital...