SANTA FE, N.M.—La Fonda on the Plaza Hotel has been named “Sustainability Champion” in the Historic Hotels of America and Historic Hotels Worldwide 2018 Awards of Excellence. Each year, the Historic Hotels Awards of Excellence honor the most exemplary historic hotels, hoteliers, and leadership practices in multiple categories. The winners were chosen from more than 200 nominees. “Congratulations to the recipients of the 2018 Historic Hotels Awards of Excellence,” said Lawrence Horwitz, Executive Director, Historic Hotels of America and Historic Hotels Worldwide. “These 2018 winners represent more than 400 years of history and include the finest legendary and iconic historic...

MIAMI—Nuvola, a hotel optimization and guest engagement software company, announced the release of its newest intelligence tool, Preventive Maintenance & Asset Management. The latest addition to Nuvola’s suite of intuitive hospitality-specific solutions creates a new avenue for both monitoring the status of assets, in addition to scheduling, assigning, and closing work orders in a user-friendly digital format. “Our mission is to continue modernizing hotel operations by looking for new ways to maximize efficiency and ultimately reduce costs for hotels around the world,” said Juan Carlos Abello, Nuvola CEO. “Our Preventive Maintenance & Asset Management product is the next step in...

BOSTON—Lapels Dry Cleaning, an innovative, environmentally friendly dry-cleaning company headquartered in Hanover, Mass., recently signed an agreement to provide dry cleaning to the Boston Harbor Hotel. Lapels Dry Cleaning of South Boston and its satellite locations—Lapels Dry Cleaning of Boston Longfellow and Lapels Dry Cleaning of the Seaport District—will offer dry cleaning services to Boston Harbor Hotel guests and staff. “We formed our corporate/hospitality division a little over a year ago with the express purpose of providing better service to hotels, restaurants and corporate accounts that require and/or offer dry cleaning services for guests and staff,” said Kevin Dubois, CEO...

ST. PAUL, MINN.—Ecolab Inc. has signed an agreement to support Clearway Energy Group’s 419-megawatt (MW) wind farm, Mesquite Star, in Fisher County, Texas. Construction of the Mesquite Star wind farm is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2019. Through a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA)—Ecolab’s first—the company will support construction of 100 MW of new renewable electricity capacity within the Mesquite Star wind farm. The renewable electricity generated under Ecolab’s 100 MW VPPA is expected to cover 100 percent of the company’s annual domestic energy use and builds upon the 5 MW of community solar subscriptions in Minnesota...

FOREST, VA.—With a flurry of news reports about germs in airports and hotels, travelers have never been more concerned with cleanliness, and businesses have never been more concerned with traveler experience. NanoTouch Materials’ new self-cleaning surfaces address these traveler concerns. In just the first few months after moving to their new headquarters, The Center for Innovation in Smart Materials, NanoTouch has released a self-cleaning film for touch screens that can turn any airport check-in kiosk or in-flight screen into a continuously self-cleaning surface. They have also released self-cleaning elevator button covers. These innovations add to their current lineup of travel...

ODESSA, FLA.—Green Lodging News welcomes BioBag Americas, Inc. to its Green Product & Service Directory in the “Cleaning & Maintenance/Bags” category. BioBag compostable liners can alleviate cleanliness issues that come alongside collecting organic waste and reduce landfill tipping fees. BioBags: • Reduce labor costs, keeping containers clean; • Offer a very high penetration barrier against bacteria, viruses, spores and mold; • Are Star sealed for extra strength and durability; • Manufactured in the USA with resin sourced from Italy; • Non-GMO Project Verified; • Certified Compostable by the Biodegradable Products Institute, meet the US Standard ASTM D6400; and are available in different sizes. Call (727) 789-1646...

CINCINNATI—The Procter & Gamble Co. was recognized this week as the eighth Most JUST Company in America and first among personal care companies, according to Forbes and JUST Capital, a nonprofit that ranks the largest publicly traded corporations in the United States on the issues Americans care about most. The ranking compares America’s companies head-to-head, based on performance in environmental sustainability, employee treatment, community support, product impacts and sourcing responsibly. The JUST Capital rankings encompass nearly 1,000 of the largest publicly-traded companies in the United States and are based on comprehensive surveys conducted on public attitudes toward corporate behavior, involving...

PARSIPPANY, N.J.—Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, the world’s largest hotel franchising company, has received a Gold recertification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program for the company’s headquarters in Parsippany, N.J. The recertification designates Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’ corporate campus as one of the highest-performing green buildings in the country, reflecting the company’s commitment to minimizing its environmental footprint. LEED is a third-party certification program and premier benchmark for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. It uses a point system to determine the environmental merits of a building, with four levels of...

NEW YORK—A solar powered USB charging station. An electric bicycle lending program. A one hundred percent recyclable wine glass. A system that integrates an alarm clock, HVAC and lighting controls, Wi-Fi and more into a single unified platform. A salad-making robot (vending machine) named “Sally” that delivers eight-component meals in seconds. These are just some of the products that were introduced at HX: The Hotel Experience and Boutique Design New York (BDNY). Both events were held November 11 to 12 at the Javits Center in New York City. It would be impossible to list all the eco-friendly products and...

A good idea gone bad? What do you think? It was almost a decade ago that the “Make a Green Choice” program first emerged at a couple of Sheraton hotels. It then began spreading throughout Starwood Hotels & Resorts. In case you are not familiar with the program, it allows guests to opt out of housekeeping for up to three or four days in exchange for a vouchers or loyalty points. Once Marriott acquired Starwood, it continued the program and added a similar “Your Choice” program at some of its hotels. When the program was first gaining traction, I remember...