FOREST, VA.—Are travelers paranoid about cleanliness? That question was answered at this year’s ISSA InterClean conference in Las Vegas, which had more than 16,000 attendees, 700 exhibitors and 54 innovation entries from around the world. For the second year in a row, NanoSeptic self-cleaning surfaces took home the innovation award. Travelers now have a cleaner surface to rest personal items in the TSA security bin with the new NanoSeptic self-cleaning mat. Portable NanoSeptic self-cleaning surfaces can be used by travelers and custom branded for hotels, airlines and cruise lines. Last year, NanoSeptic won the award with their line of self-cleaning touch...

Forty years ago, if you didn’t see it, you weren’t worried. Today, given advances in science and technology, we now understand that gases and micro-pollutants in our air—even those we can’t detect by sight or smell—can impact our health and well-being. Air quality is no longer something we can judge by our senses alone, especially indoors. According to a 2016 Newsweek article, indoor air quality “gets about 100 times less research funding than outdoor air, even though the average American spends about 90 percent of the time inside.” Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulates, carbon monoxide, and radon are among the...

ODESSA, FLA.—Green Lodging News has added a PathoSans case study to its website. The case study details the implementation of the PathoSans® ElectroChemically Activated (ECA) Solution system for On-Site Generation (OSG) of cleaning and disinfecting products at the Marker Hotel in San Francisco. With the PathoSans system, staff can make their own cleaning solutions on-site. PathoSans also reduces the hotel’s eco-footprint by eliminating shipping, storing and disposal of most conventional cleaning chemicals, replacing 90 percent of such products formerly used there. The Marker’s nearly 40 housekeepers clean and disinfect every room and public area daily—including 11,000 square feet of meeting space—using...

It’s time for the owners of hotels, inns and spas to take a fresher, closer look at saline-based sanitization systems for keeping their pools—whether above ground pool or in ground pool—and Jacuzzis disinfected. Saline-based technology delivers a greener, safer, more cost-effective way to kill algae and bacteria in pool water and destroy chloramines and dirt. Swimming pool sanitization depends on chlorine, but it doesn’t depend on the use of bulk chlorine. On-site chlorine generators use a mild saline solution to produce free chlorine—or bleach—in a sufficient concentration to meet health and safety requirements. It can be surprising how little chlorine...

I attended the recent Florida Restaurant & Lodging Expo in Orlando. There were about 450 suppliers there. The event has got to be one of the largest state-level hospitality trade shows in the country. Be sure to read my article about the event. Before I continue about the trade show, allow me to backtrack more than five years to when Best Western rolled out its “I Care Clean” program. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it involved the use of UV wands and black lights in the cleaning of guestrooms and common areas. The UV wands...

ORLANDO—The 2017 Florida Restaurant & Lodging Expo wrapped up last week at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. Among the 450 suppliers were companies offering new innovations to help you clean better, save energy, reduce waste and grow food more locally. Be sure to follow the links included here to learn more about the entrepreneurs and their inventions. Sustainable Gardens 2gether launched its unique new Chefs Choice and Chefs Garden microgreen growing systems for restaurants. The Chefs Choice system allows chefs to grow fresh high-quality microgreens in a specialized environmentally controlled cooler right in their own kitchens. The new Herb...

ORLANDO, FLA.—Violet Defense Technology, an Orlando-based startup that incorporates the proven germ-killing power of UV light into its patented technology, announces the launch of its first product from the Surface & Air Germ Elimination (S.A.G.E.) product line. S.A.G.E. UV is a new anti-microbial line of germ-killing products that combines a broad spectrum of UV and violet blue light with motion sensor technology and artificial intelligence to automatically kill germs whenever a room is unoccupied. The patented S.A.G.E. UV System effectively kills up to 99.9 percent of the most common germs, including MRSA, E. coli, Salmonella and Norovirus, from as far...

NATIONAL REPORT—As Green Lodging News has learned in its own research and by talking to industry suppliers, there are numerous ways to reduce the environmental impact of a towel. Certainly chemicals and laundry equipment come into play, as does whether or not that equipment is matched with an ozone laundry system. Of course towel reuse programs can make a huge difference as well. But can your choice of the towel itself—how it is made and what it is made from—help you reduce your annual laundry-related costs? Many suppliers say yes and each has its own unique story to tell....

ODESSA, FLA.—Hasek Communications, the Odessa, Fla.-based publisher of Green Lodging News, has added a ClearWater Tech case study to its website. The case study focuses on the Holiday Inn Express in Atascadero, Calif. and its implementation of an EcoTex™ ozone system from ClearWater Tech. The system is saving the inn substantial amounts in gas, water, and other expenses. “The ClearWater representatives thoroughly covered how the process worked, how the installation would proceed and how much money I would start to save, primarily in gas for hot water,” explained the hotel’s General Manager, Amar Sohi. “Right away, I could see savings...

NATIONAL REPORT—For our second annual Green Lodging Trends report we asked survey participants: If you considered an ozone laundry system but then later decided against it, what was the biggest obstacle(s) to its implementation? They all said cost. Should cost really be an obstacle to implementing an ozone laundry system? According to several suppliers we spoke with, an ozone laundry system being a prohibitive cost is really just a myth. The benefits are so many and the return on investment can be so reasonable that the purchase of an ozone system should be a “no brainer”. “If you use our...