LONDON—Whitbread PLC, the United Kingdom’s largest hotel and restaurant group, announced that as part of this year’s capital investment program it will be spending more than $10.6 million on a sustainability program to boost the environmental performance of its hotels, restaurants and coffee shops. The move forms an important part of Whitbread’s ‘Good Together’ sustainability strategy and will help the business deliver against its targets of a 26 percent reduction in energy consumption and a 20 percent reduction in water use by 2020. The investment drive will focus on Whitbread’s existing estate and will see the introduction of a package...

DALLAS—Motel 6’s newest property in Northlake, Texas, is the first economy hotel in the nation to attain LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the first hotel for parent company Accor to gain the distinction. “With the brand’s ‘Phoenix’ prototype, we are setting the pace for the future of Motel 6, which, in line with our values, must be as energy-efficient as possible,” said Olivier Poirot, CEO of Accor North America, Motel 6 and Studio 6. “LEED’s high environmental standards lend a great deal of credence to our efforts, and we...

NEW YORK—New York buildings commissioner Robert LiMandri recently announced the launch of the New York City Energy Conservation Code (NYCECC), the first energy code developed specifically for New York City. The NYCECC amends the New York State Energy Conservation Construction Code, which previously set efficiency standards for construction in New York City. The NYCECC is more stringent than the state code, requiring thousands of more building projects to meet energy efficiency requirements. The NYCECC was introduced as legislation by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and New York City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn in April 2009 as part of the...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Hasek Communications, the Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of Green Lodging News, welcomes Bulbs.com as a Founding Sponsor. The company offers a wide selection of energy-efficient replacement bulbs, ballasts, fixtures and can consult on almost any lighting project. With its prepaid recycling containers, Bulbs.com also can help with bulb recycling programs. The company has certificates of proper recycling and disposal available and its prepaid containers follow EPA guidelines and keep businesses compliant. Bulbs.com first entered the lighting market in 1999. The company is now one of the largest Philips Lighting distributors, servicing more than 91,000 businesses operating 250,000 business locations. Bulbs.com’s...

HEALDSBURG, CALIF.—The July 4 holiday weekend turned out to be a good time to open for the new water-themed h2hotel in California’s Northern Sonoma Wine Country. The four-story, 36-room hotel sold out—a good sign for the owners of the $19 million property. A collaboration among David Baker + Partners, the architect responsible for the AIA design award-winning Hotel Healdsburg, Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture, and Marie Fisher and Jen Gadiel Interior Design, h2hotel is primed to earn a  LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Unique in many ways, h2hotel is located within 10 miles of 100 wineries and...

ORLANDO—INNCOM International and SAFLOK recently displayed their joint collaboration of a radio-frequency (RF) interface for energy management at the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference (HITEC) that provides a cost-effective EMS for hotels by allowing the electronic door lock and thermostat to communicate wirelessly. The joint integration, introduced first in November 2009, was quickly adopted across the industry due to its ability to allow hotels to use the door lock to communicate via RF to the thermostat. Every time the door is opened, it communicates to the thermostat and enables energy management algorithms to take effect and thus reduce...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Green Lodging News has just added a new case study to its website. The case study focuses on the Fontainebleau Miami Beach and its installation of dehumidification and HVAC control technology from Dectron Internationale, Roswell, Ga. The engineering firm for the project was TLC Engineering for Architecture (TLC), Fort Myers, Fla. Four DRY-O-TRON model DA-5 dehumidifiers manufactured by Dectron were installed in four aquatic areas: the men’s spa, the women’s spa, the rain shower/co-ed pool, and wet treatment area. The result of the investment for the Fontainebleau Miami Beach: $16,000 in annual energy savings.To read the complete case...

RYE BROOK, N.Y.—Doral Arrowwood, located in Westchester, N.Y., announced that it has partnered with American DG Energy of Waltham, Mass. American DG will serve as the hotel’s clean energy supplier. As part of this initiative, Doral Arrowwood will soon receive a significant portion of its energy from a 375 kW combined heat and power (CHP) system. Using energy produced by the CHP system, Doral Arrowwood will reduce its carbon emissions by up to 1,800 tons per year or 43 percent. The partnership is the latest addition to Doral Arrowwood’s green initiatives, which include measures to reduce energy usage, increase...

BOSTON—Spend some time chatting with Brian Gorski, director of engineering at the 498-room Hyatt Regency Boston and you will quickly understand how the all-electric hotel has been able to slice its annual power consumption by a whopping 42 percent—from 12.3 million kilowatt hours of usage per year to 7.1 million. The drop in energy consumption did not happen in just one year but over a time period of approximately 10 to 12 years when approximately $3 million was spent on improvements in infrastructure, equipment and other systems to improve energy efficiency. NStar, the Massachusetts-based, investor-owned electric and gas utility,...

ORLANDO, FLA.—Control4, a leader in IP-based home and hospitality control systems, announced that the Control4 platform is being used to enhance the guest experience at the luxurious Elbow Beach Resort in Bermuda. Each of the resort’s 98 guestrooms and suites, situated in secluded cottages scattered across 50 acres of gardens, is now equipped with a Control4 system. Guests use a single Control4 remote and simple, on-screen interface to control the television, Blu-ray player and satellite TV receiver. The hotel can upgrade the ZigBee-based wireless Control4 system with additional capabilities, such as lighting control and energy management, without complex rewiring...