VICTORIA, B.C.—When the Parkside Victoria Resort & Spa is awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification—its application is in the final stages—it will be one of just three lodging facilities in North America to earn the Platinum honor. The other ones include the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, N.C., and the Bardessono in Yountville, Calif. The 126-suite, two-tower property in Victoria, British Columbia was built to be approximately 50 to 60 percent more energy efficient than the Model National Energy Code for Buildings. According to Jim Pearson, CEO of Aviawest Resort Group, the developer and manager of...

NEW YORK—Greening some of the bright lights of the Great White Way has translated to another kind of green—$13,200 in cash and more than $130,000 in annual savings in electricity costs—for the Crowne Plaza Times Square. The hotel is the first business to receive a rebate from Consolidated Edison (Con Edison), for an energy-saving initiative under the utility’s new Commercial and Industrial Energy Efficiency Program. The hotel received the rebate as a reward for replacing the 3,300 40-watt incandescent light bulbs of its 80 by 20 foot Crowne Plaza Times Square sign with 8-watt compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. The...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its list of the top 50 organizations using the most renewable electricity. The Green Power Partnership’s top purchasers use more than 12 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the electricity use of more than 1 million average American homes. Green power is generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, and low-impact hydropower. Hilton Worldwide is the only lodging-related company in the top 50 at No. 37. Twenty-nine percent of Hilton’s power purchases are for green power. The Intel...

ROSWELL, GA.—Facility and HVAC engineers can now obtain critical operating cost data for HVAC air filters anywhere, any time, thanks to a new mobile smart phone tool from Kimberly-Clark Filtration. The mobile analysis tool works with a variety of smart phones and other mobile devices and is available for free. It allows people to compare the energy costs and environmental impact (i.e., greenhouse gas emissions) of any two similar HVAC systems using different filters simply by entering data into an easy-to-use form. (Online instructions are available to help.) The tool then automatically calculates the energy costs and annual CO2...

MINNEAPOLIS—The solar array at the Minneapolis Convention Center now has 403 of its 2,613 solar panels installed. The Minneapolis Convention Center’s solar array will be the Upper Midwest’s largest solar photovoltaic system, connected directly to the convention center’s internal electrical system and producing 750,000 kWh of renewable energy per year. This system will produce the equivalent of powering 85 homes annually, while offsetting 539 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions (the amount given off by 60,587 gallons of gasoline). Solar energy is clean, renewable and—once the capital costs are paid—free. “The Convention Center is Minneapolis’ living room, where we welcome...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star program announced that Morrison Residence Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has won the first-ever EPA National Building Competition. The competition, launched on April 27, 2010, challenged teams from 14 buildings across the country to measure their building’s energy use with help from the Energy Star program and work off the waste. After a hard-fought competition, Morrison Residence Hall reduced its energy use by 35.7 percent in just one year, saved more than $250,000 on their energy bills and reduced more than 730 metric tons of...

NEW YORK—Humanscale’s groundbreaking Element LED Task Light received a 2010 Green GOOD DESIGN Award. Among thousands of submissions from more than 46 countries, Element was selected as an outstanding example of green design. The Green GOOD DESIGN Awards are organized by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. Green GOOD DESIGN’s goal is “to emphasize the importance of sustainable design and to develop a public awareness program for the international general public about which companies are doing the best job in sustainable design for our environments,” said Ioannis...

TORONTO—A three-floor, 114-bed hostel in Toronto that will open within the next couple of weeks could very well be the most energy efficient lodging establishment in North America. Incorporating solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, geothermal and heat capture technologies, the “low carbon” hostel will produce 75 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a comparable building its size. The hostel’s name is the Planet Traveler and co-developer Tom Rand says the property is by far the best in class for hostels and was built to the standards of a boutique hotel. The cost for the energy-saving systems was $200,000, just 5 percent...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Consumers searching for the latest hybrid can soon look beyond their local car dealership. Beginning in 2011, GE Lighting will bring hybrid technology to the lighting aisle in the form of a unique, new incandescent-shaped light bulb that combines the instant brightness of halogen technology with the energy efficiency and longer rated life of compact fluorescent (CFL) technology. The initial product launch will bring U.S. and Canadian consumers GE Reveal and GE Energy Smart Soft White varieties that offer significantly greater instant brightness than current covered CFLs, while preserving the energy efficiency and long life attributes that have elevated...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Hasek Communications, the Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of Green Lodging News, welcomes Energy Cinch as a Green Product & Service Directory partner. Energy Cinch is a highly effective energy saving Roman Shade style window treatment. It has an R-value of 7.69 and is designed to close off the convective loop, significantly lowering energy consumption and costs. Energy Cinch reduces winter heat loss by as much as 80 percent and summer heat gain by as much as 70 percent, making it a highly effective thermal barrier. The Energy Cinch shade installs behind existing drapes or by itself. Numerous fabrics and...