SAN FRANCISCO—Argonaut Hotel, an award-winning boutique hotel on San Francisco’s waterfront, announced it has been named an SF Green Business by the San Francisco Department of the Environment, as a result of its year-long efforts to implement comprehensive eco-friendly initiatives at the hotel and its popular Blue Mermaid Restaurant & Bar. Located in the historic Haslett Warehouse in the heart of the San Francisco Maritime National Park, the Argonaut is one of the most iconic San Francisco hotels leading the charge on sustainable hospitality, to preserve and protect the building and its environment. Originally built as a 200,000 square foot...

BUFFALO, N.Y.—PURE Rooms has named Jill Dean Rigsbee as Vice President, Business Development. Rigsbee will be responsible for the leadership of the PURE sales and business development team, managing new business opportunities and customizing solutions to meet hotels’ needs and guest demands. Rigsbee is a well-known trusted advisor in the hospitality industry with over 30 years of experience. She began her career working in hotels with various management companies for over a decade. For six years, she focused on hotel room operation supplies, FF&E and innovative products with Guest Supply. Rigsbee joins PURE Rooms from Avendra, a leading hospitality procurement and services company,...

LOS ANGELES—VivoAquatics, a leader in providing innovative and sustainable aquatic solutions, has just announced the publication of the first data driven assessment of water safety and management: “State of Market - Recreational Water Safety in Commercial Facilities”. The report, the result of analyzing over 7 million data points and surveying hundreds of commercial hotels, waterparks, apartment buildings, fitness clubs and municipalities is the first publication of its kind to provide detailed analysis of water safety and management practices in commercial properties. The State of the Market report also provides insights into emerging regulations, trends and technologies that properties are using...

It takes a lot for me to call a new product or process a game changer in our industry but the new recyclable—yes recyclable—sheets, pillow cases and duvet covers being produced by Pürlin, LLC are just that. Can you imagine reducing your laundry load and related costs by about 50 percent? Offering your guests linens that are high quality, hypoallergenic and that have never been used by any other guest—every single time a guest stays in that room? My article posted this past week explains these new products. I had a chance to sit down and chat with the lodging...

FAIRFIELD, CONN.—Johnson Controls (JCI), a leading supplier of air handling and building controls equipment worldwide, and AtmosAir Solutions, a leading manufacturer of air purification systems using Bi-Polar Ionization, have partnered to deliver measurably cleaner indoor air quality. This collaboration will help JCI provide outstanding air purification performance in their YORK Air Handling Systems. “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Johnson Controls,” stated Steve Levine, President and CEO of Clean Air Group, Inc. who manufacturers the AtmosAir Solutions product line. “There has been so much recent press and research on the negative impact poor indoor air quality has on people’s...

SARASOTA, FLA.—Hotel industry veteran Richard Ferrell, President of Pürlin, LLC, is aiming to revolutionize how sheets and pillow cases are managed in hotels across the United States. His company’s linens are not laundered; instead, after being used by a guest they are picked up to be 100 percent recycled. Made of high-quality microfibers designed to simulate cotton—the same as those used in products such as baby diapers and athletic wear—the sheets and pillowcases are produced and recycled by companies based in Florida and North Carolina. Once heated to 500+ degrees Fahrenheit, the linens are liquefied and become the ingredients...

NATIONAL REPORT—Been sleeping around a lot? That is what just about every hotel mattress and box springs does every night and the results can be not only unhealthy but creepy as well. Dust mites, bed bugs, other insects, bodily fluids of one kind or another—at some point in time a mattress and box springs will experience these. Mattresses, especially, impacted by such things, often are thrown away—far short of their intended life span—not recycled, and end up in the landfill. Fortunately, hoteliers can easily extend the life of a mattress and box springs with encasements that form a protective...

ST. PAUL, MINN.—For the fourth consecutive year, Ecolab has been recognized for its commitment to sustainable business practices by Newsweek, which ranked the company second on its 2017 list of the greenest companies in the United States. “It is an honor to again be recognized by Newsweek’s annual Green Rankings,” said Emilio Tenuta, Ecolab Vice president of Corporate Sustainability. “Our commitment to operating responsibly and sustainably is core to our culture, and demonstrated both within our own operations and at the more than one million customer locations we serve throughout the world.” Ecolab’s Green Score ranked second on the 2017 U.S....

ODESSA, FLA.—Hasek Communications, the Odessa, Fla.-based publisher of Green Lodging News, welcomes Stern Engineering as a Green Product & Service Directory partner. Stern’s Touch-Free Electronic Faucets are operated by infrared sensor and automatically activate when users place their hands within the sensor range, providing cold or premixed water. The water efficient, touch free faucets automatically shut down after being used for more than 90 seconds. The faucets combine minimalistic designs with high quality materials to ensure washrooms remain hygienic, safe, cost efficient and sustainable. Customizable functions with optional remote control are sensor range, security time, delay in, delay out,...

I recently came across a group of hotels that are a perfect fit for Green Lodging News: Conscious Hotels. In case you are not familiar with the properties, there are three located in Amsterdam and one more in The Netherlands slated to open in 2018. Details can be found on the company’s website but here is how the hotels are described: “Conscious Hotels strive to be as green, sustainable and eco-friendly as possible. But they’re more hip than hippy. And by hip we don’t mean our staff are too cool to answer the phone. You might not even notice...