MADISON, WISC.—By implementing a guestroom energy management system called Entergize from DBS Lodging Technologies, the Holiday Inn and Suites in Madison, Wisc. is saving more than $17,000 a year in energy costs. Entergize is installed in 157 guestrooms at the hotel. In addition to managing heating and cooling, the controls also work with the master entry switch to activate lighting. Holiday Inn and Suites partnered with Focus on Energy’s Business Programs to implement the new energy efficient technology. Wisconsin’s energy efficiency and renewable energy initiative offered incentives that helped offset project costs. The project came about when Wisco...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—Three years after installing its first Direct FuelCell (DFC) power plants at its Sheraton hotels in Edison and Parsippany, N.J., Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. is taking the technology to a new level at its 1,044-room Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. Soon, Starwood will launch a 500-kilowatt power plant there that will make it the largest commercial DFC installation in the world. Through an agreement with Alliance Star Energy LLC—a joint venture of Alliance Power and FuelCell Energy Inc.—Starwood purchases power generated by four 250-kilowatt DFC plants currently running at the San Diego property. The addition...

LUDLOW, VT.—Tim and Diane Mueller, owners of Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont, Mount Sunapee Resort in New Hampshire, and Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado, have entered into an agreement with Gunnison County Electric Assn. to purchase 27 million kilowatt hours of Renewable Energy Certificates from Sterling Planet, one of the United States’ leading retail renewable energy providers. Gunnison County Electric Assn. is a member owned, nonprofit cooperative located in Colorado. The amount of kilowatt hours represents enough renewable power to fully offset the annual use of electricity by the Mueller’s three resorts. “Protection of the environment...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program has come a long way since it was first introduced in 1992. Then, it was a voluntary labeling program designed to identify and promote energy-efficient products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Today, Energy Star is far more and hoteliers can benefit directly in many different ways. Here are some of those ways: • By purchasing products with the Energy Star label, hotel operators can save thousands of dollars in energy costs each year. The Energy Star label is currently on products in more than 40 product categories. Some of these categories include...

SPRINGFIELD, MO.—Less than two years after opening as the first all nonsmoking hotel in Missouri’s third-largest city, Springfield’s Krystal Aire Inn & Suites recently introduced yet another amenity designed to provide guests with even greater comfort during their stays—specially designed light bulbs that eliminate airborne odors. The Fresh Bulb light bulbs, developed by Aurora, Ohio-based Technical Consumer Products and introduced to the hospitality industry earlier this year by St. Charles, Mo.-based Pineapple Hospitality Inc., are titanium dioxide-coated fluorescent light bulbs that consume one-fourth the wattage of a regular light bulb—cutting lighting costs by as much as 77 percent....

DENVER—Vail Resorts announced that the company will offset 100 percent of its energy use by purchasing nearly 152,000 megawatt-hours of wind energy for its five mountain resorts, its lodging properties including RockResorts and Grand Teton Lodge Company, all of its 125 retail locations (operated through Specialty Sports Venture) and its new corporate headquarters in Broomfield, Colo. By purchasing renewable energy credits equal to the company’s entire electricity use, Vail Resorts becomes the second largest purchaser of wind power of all corporations in the United States. Vail Resorts announced this initiative as part of its ongoing environmental efforts. Vail...

HOUSTON—Goodman Company, L.P., a subsidiary of Goodman Global, Inc. (NYSE: GGL), maker of Amana brand heating and air conditioning products and packaged terminal air conditioners (PTACs), announced the introduction of its new wirelessly networked DigiSmart Control System, an operations management tool designed to be used with the company’s Amana brand PTACs. The company says it is the first wireless PTAC management product of its kind. “Our new DigiSmart Control System will allow our customers to not only control the environmental conditions in individual rooms—it will also help them to manage their energy costs,” says Dave Craven, Goodman’s director...

NATIONAL REPORT—Walk the hallway of any hotel and you are likely to find at least one or two cold drink vending machines and possibly a snack machine on each floor. Measure the amount of time a guest is actually standing in front of one of these machines and it probably is less than an hour a day—possibly more in a high-traffic location. Even in employee cafeteria or lunchroom areas, machines can go hours without being used. If food and beverage vending machines need not be powered up around the clock, why are they? Some hoteliers have tried using...

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—Henrietta’s Table, the award-winning restaurant at the Charles Hotel here, has staked its claim as one of the most environmentally friendly restaurants in America—and for good reason. Executive chef Peter Davis strongly advocates the purchase of local, organically grown vegetables, meat produced by farmers who practice humane animal husbandry, and seafood produced by well-managed fisheries. In 2005, Henrietta’s Table purchased close to $100,000 in food products directly from local farmers. As a member of the Boston-based Chefs Collaborative, a national nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable cuisine, chef Davis supports local farmers by buying as much organic produce as he...

NATIONAL REPORT—Everyone is familiar with Motel 6’s “We’ll leave the light on for you” campaign. It was definitely a hit. What is not such a good idea is when your guests leave the light on for you. Research conducted several years ago through the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research Program confirmed what most hotel operators already know: Many guests leave the lights on when they leave the room and use the bathroom lights as a night-light. You can’t blame your guests, especially seniors, for wanting the extra light but when the lights are on when nobody is there, or...