Name: Dan Ruben
Title: Executive Director
Organization: Boston Green Tourism
My primary responsibilities: “To help Greater Boston hotels and convention centers determine their environmental goals, improve their environmental performance and increase the number of green-certified facilities in the Boston area.”
What keeps me motivated each day: “There are many hoteliers in our organization who are passionate about greening their facilities, and who build excitement by initiating new programs and sharing them with their peers. I’m also motivated when I can bring ideas to the group, like combined heat and power or green cleaning products, and see hotels pursue them.”
Organization’s most significant environmental accomplishment so far: “The fact that we now have seven Energy Star certified hotels that belong to Boston Green Tourism. That’s a very tangible achievement. I am also proud of the fact that many of our hoteliers have become environmental leaders within their hotel chains or for the entire green hotel movement.”
Our biggest environmental challenge: “The No. 1 environmental challenge is to speed up innovation so that our accomplishments become more widespread.”
BOSTON—Careers often take dramatic turns. That is what happened to Dan Ruben about five years ago when he went from working as a health care administrator to helping to green the 2004 national political conventions as executive director of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions (CERC). Today he is still executive director of that organization but his primary job is working as executive director of Boston Green Tourism.
Formed in 2005 as an outgrowth of CERC, Boston Green Tourism is working to position America’s Walking City as the place to go to find green hotels and meeting facilities. The organization already has 40 hotels represented, as well as restaurateurs, vendors, and convention center and government officials. Each six to eight weeks, Dan organizes a meeting at which topics such as energy efficiency, solar energy and food waste composting are explored.
Hoteliers actively participating in Boston Green Tourism have earned many awards and designations for their achievements, including the Energy Star rating. Boston Green Tourism itself received a 2008 Environmental Merit Award from the EPA for its “exceptional work and commitment to the environment.”
Industry-Leading Expertise
In his roles as executive director of Boston Green Tourism and executive director of CERC, Ruben has positioned himself and the organizations he works for as experts in hotel and convention greening.
“Boston Green Tourism has worked with the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center,” Ruben says. “We helped them get a free consultant who enabled them to develop an outstanding recycling program—an essential component to bringing Greenbuild to Boston. Greenbuild is expected to draw about 30,000 people this fall.”
The organizers of the 2008 Democratic National Convention tapped Ruben for his expertise and professionals from Philadelphia and Cleveland, Ohio have sought his advice when forming their own green hotel and tourism initiatives.
“We are creating a model that can be replicated and that will bring benefits far beyond Boston,” Ruben says.
A Competitive Necessity
As Ruben and other travel and tourism leaders are discovering, it is imperative to be prepared today for meeting planners and leisure and business travelers who are seeking green facilities. Positioning a city or group of hotels as “green” provides a competitive advantage.
“Boston is attracting meeting planners,” Ruben says. “It has attracted at least eight green-oriented conventions in 2008. The environmental field is enormous, and other industries are beginning to include environmental criteria in their RFPs, too. It is critical that large groups choose green hotels and convention centers. It is also important for the public to demand green facilities.”
Ruben, who has had a life-long interest in the environment, says his big break was getting asked to lead the effort to green the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Now, besides his work with Boston Green Tourism, he is taking part in a green reality TV show.
Choosing Earth care over health care has turned out to be a pretty good decision.
Go to Boston Green Tourism and CERC.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
