CONSHOHOCKEN, PA.—​Keystone Property Group​, a leading real estate developer and investor of mixed-use properties, announced it has broken ground on the new Hotel West + Main, part of the Tapestry Collection by Hilton, a significant milestone in its 520,000-square-foot SORA West development. This $325 million mixed-use project includes a new global headquarters for Fortune 10 pharmaceutical distribution company AmerisourceBergen, the reuse of a 146-year-old historic firehouse, and a 12-story public and private parking garage. A groundbreaking event is scheduled for March 4, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. EST and will also be accessible via livestream​. Keystone has partnered with ​Concord Hospitality Enterprises​...

TORRANCE, CALIF.—LEDtronics announces a new lineup of next-gen, energy efficient LED T8 Tube Lights to replace fluorescents. The series offers a “Dual-mode” Ballast Ready/Ballast Bypass set of tubes, as well as a Ballast Bypass Only version. These Ballast-Bypass or Dual Mode Tubes are available with clear or frosted polycarbonate lens, and in options of 4000K, 5000K or 6000K white. They are ideal for such applications as office lighting, hallways, parking garage, parking structure lighting, production areas, warehouses, transportation, railroads, buses, coolers, freezers, vending machines, schools, retail store display lighting, under-cabinet or cabinet lights, light boxes, and signage backlighting. The T8KL1 Ballast...

COLOGNE, GERMANY—HRS, a leading global corporate lodging platform, introduced a first-of-its-kind solution that gives corporations and employees a way to organize travel more sustainably. HRS’ Green Stay Initiative, in pilot this quarter, leverages proprietary technology to give procurement leaders and everyday business travelers an intuitive system to identify, compare and prioritize hotels that contribute to reducing the ecological footprint of the lodging portion of the typical business trip. HRS is assimilating data from thousands of hotel groups and independent properties as part of a groundbreaking framework, including details on energy consumption, water use, and waste disposal. Through the unprecedented normalization...

PALMA, SPAIN—Iberostar Hotels & Resorts is a hotel chain with more than 120 four- and five-star hotels, located in the most popular holiday destinations in Europe, Africa, and America. The Iberostar hotel portfolio offers customers beachfront hotels, city hotels and heritage hotels. In addition, there is the Grand category, the highest level of luxury and excellence. Iberostar’s Wave of Change movement is an initiative based on three complementary but different action lines: eliminating the consumption of single-use plastics, promoting responsible seafood consumption and the improvement of coastal health. Leading Iberostar’s work under the Wave of Change movement is Dr....

CORK, IRELAND—Johnson Controls, a global leader for smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, announced it has joined The Climate Pledge, a commitment co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism. Signatories of the Pledge commit to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, ten years ahead of the goal set out in the United Nations’ Paris Climate Agreement. Johnson Controls is one of 53 organizations that have now signed the Pledge, and the move comes hot on the heels of the company’s announcement of new environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments, science-based targets, and its own net-zero carbon pledge. The pact will see Johnson...

Years ago I had a trip that took me from the United States to Iceland to Denmark. I must have come close to flying over the Faroe Islands. They are located about halfway between Iceland and Norway and are an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. I come across quite a few new and cool green hotel projects each week—even during this pandemic—and the Hilton Garden Inn Faroe Islands was one that caught my eye. It opened last October. I recently corresponded with Kate Mikesell, VP Corporate Responsibility, Hilton, and Martin Restorff, General Manager of the hotel, to learn...

FAROE ISLANDS—For those of you not familiar with their location, the Faroe Islands are a North Atlantic archipelago located 200 miles north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway between Norway and Iceland. Like Greenland, it is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Last October, the 130-room Hilton Garden Inn Faroe Islands opened on the islands in Torshavn with a bundle of unique green features. Green Lodging News recently corresponded with Kate Mikesell, VP Corporate Responsibility, Hilton, and Martin Restorff, General Manager of the hotel, to learn about those green gems. For Kate Mikesell, VP Corporate Responsibility, Hilton: Q: Explain how...

OAKLAND, N.J.—Amerlux, an award-winning design-and-manufacture lighting company, announced that it has released the newest addition to its dark sky-friendly family of LED luminaries, providing developers and municipalities with stylish solutions for effectively curtailing rampant lighting pollution and costs. The new DS770FC Series is a set of traditionally styled, post-top fixtures that can be specified and used in place of typical acorn-styled luminaries, which offer little in lighting control and typically have a large amount of wasted up-light. The decorative DS770FC post-top luminaire alternatively utilizes fully shielded optics to minimize glare while reducing light trespass and unwanted skyglow. Each solution has...

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND.—Concrete is not glamorous. It is the workhorse of building materials: versatile, durable, and almost universally ubiquitous, with 30 billion tons of concrete produced every year. Cement, a component of concrete, produces 8 percent of the world’s carbon footprint. Looking to lower that percentage, Purdue University engineers have discovered a way to make concrete more sustainable. Their new recipe for concrete has the potential to cut carbon emissions dramatically, creating building blocks for a better world. A team lead by Mirian Velay-Lizancos, an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Purdue, proposes adding small amounts of nanoscale titanium dioxide to...

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA—His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince, Chairman of The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC), has launched the Coral Bloom concept, which was created by architectural firm Foster + Partners, and designed to blend in with the island’s pristine natural environment. TRSDC, the developer behind the world’s most ambitious regenerative tourism project, has since shared the striking vision for its main hub island at the destination, Shurayrah. “We expect guests to be awed by what they see when they first arrive at The Red Sea Project, enjoying a truly immersive barefoot luxury experience. The Coral Bloom designs,...