DALLAS—VingCard Elsafe, a leading hospitality security provider and part of the ASSA ABLOY Hospitality Group, recently completed the installation of Orion by VingCard Elsafe, its new intelligent energy management solution; VISIONLINE, the company’s leading wireless RF-online system; and Signature RFID, its contactless electronic door locks with NFC cell phone compatibility, at the 74-room Comfort Suites in Gothenburg, Neb. The newest innovation by Orion by VingCard Elsafe is an intelligent energy management solution, designed to reduce energy costs while ensuring guest comfort. Incorporating proprietary technology, the system’s intelligent thermostat detects whether a guest is in the room to automatically control room...

MADISON, WIS.—The Ozone Company, located in Madison, Wis., recently unveiled its new Ecowash Premier Ozone Laundry System. Like other ozone laundry systems, Ecowash allows one to reduce energy, water, chemical and labor costs at any laundry facility. It features a proprietary logic control board developed by The Ozone Company that allows it to independently supply ozone to four separate washing machines at the same time. Other ozone laundry systems can at most control only two washers, resulting in lower capital expenses for Ozone Company customers utilizing the Ecowash system. In addition, the Ozone Company’s Ecowash system only produces ozone when...

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—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 Jumby Bay, a Rosewood Resort located in Antigua, West Indies. Each of the 40 guestrooms, suites and villas, scattered across the 300-acre private island resort, is now equipped with a Control4 system. Guests use a single Control4 remote and simple, on-screen interface to control the television, NXTV system, Bose sound system, DVD Player and iPod docking station. The hotel can upgrade the ZigBee-based wireless Control4 system with additional capabilities, such as lighting control...

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...