I am excited to announce that Green Lodging News is celebrating its fifth anniversary this month. When I first began working on Green Lodging News more than six years ago, I had no idea what it might become. I have to say I am very pleased so far. Thank you to all of our readers, writers and sponsors for helping us to get to this point. After a recent renewal campaign, our e-newsletter and Green Supplier Spotlight currently reaches almost 3,000 subscribers and our website attracts 17,000 different people, 90,000 total visits, and generates 450,000 page views each month. Here are some more numbers for you: 26 Founding Sponsors, 113 Green Product & Service Directory listings, 4,131 online articles (including 261 publisher’s columns).
It has been fascinating watching the greening of our industry over the last five years. What I see as the most significant developments are the following: the creation of internal resource consumption and waste tracking programs at the large chains; the widespread adoption of green certification at the levels of building design and operations; the movement toward defining what is a “green” meeting or product; and the proliferation of new products and technologies that make minimizing one’s environmental footprint easier.
The primary challenges that confront us: maintaining high-speed development (especially outside the United States) without compromising the integrity of natural environments (increasing air pollution, fuel consumption, greenhouse gas production, water shortages, species extinction, etc.); coming to agreement on, and enhancing, the green standards that guide us in what we build and purchase; creating a viable, meaningful national green lodging association that represents the interests of its members; properly educating and guiding tomorrow’s leaders—those individuals in hospitality programs who one day will be charged with running lodging establishments sustainably; and continuing to transform how we all think about building design, operations and purchasing.
While we here at Green Lodging News cannot do it all, we can at least help point you in the right direction, challenge you to go beyond what you have done in the past, encourage you to be curious about new ways to “go green,” and inspire you to give back to your local communities and the planet.
In the coming months and years, Green Lodging News will continue to thrive but it will need your help along the way. Continue to support our sponsors and tell them you saw them here on Green Lodging News. Send your story ideas, contribute guest columns, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Share videos if you have them.
It is our goal to continue to be the lodging industry’s leading environmental news source. With your support, it will be much easier to do that.
Green Lodging News Adds ECPAT-USA as Directory Partner
Green Lodging News welcomes ECPAT-USA (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) as a Green Product & Service Directory partner. ECPAT-USA offers TassaTags, luggage tags made by women at The Regina Center in Nongkhai, Thailand. A TassaTag (Travelers Against Sex Slavery and Trafficking) is a 4″ x 6″ bright, hand-woven cotton, fair trade luggage tag that helps one spot one’s luggage more easily. Proceeds from the sale of TassaTags support ECPAT-USA’s efforts against child sex tourism. Working with ECPAT organizations around the world, ECPAT-USA promotes the “Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism.” For more information on TassaTags, e-mail tassatag@gmail.com, call (925) 451-0028, or go to www.tassatag.org.
Who is Your Environmental Champion?
In our Personnel Profile section we frequently profile individuals who lead sustainability efforts at either the corporate or property level. (Click here for examples.) We are always looking for new people to profile. Do you have someone in mind for our Personnel Profile section? Be sure to contact Glenn Hasek, publisher and editor of Green Lodging News, at (440) 243-2055, or by e-mail at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
Looking for Guest Columnists
Every two weeks Green Lodging News posts a new guest column on its website. (Click here for examples.) The guest column also appears in the weekly e-newsletter. Green Lodging News is currently in need of industry experts to contribute occasional guest columns. Experts may include consultants, architects, designers, suppliers and those who own or operate green lodging establishments. Columns may be articles that take a stance on a particular subject or be strictly educational in nature. Columnists benefit by having their photo included along with a one paragraph description of their company. Interested in writing a column? Contact Glenn Hasek, publisher and editor, at (440) 243-2055, or by e-mail at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
Advertising Opportunities
Green Lodging News is accepting reservations for advertising spots. Several new slots have opened up on the Green Lodging News website—two skyscraper ad spots on the right hand side of the site, and the Featured Product ad spot in the weekly newsletter and in the lower center area of the home page. Be sure to contact me as soon as possible at (440) 243-2055, or by e-mail at editor@greenlodgingnews.com if you are interested in these ad spots. There are also many Green Supplier Spotlight dates available, and other spots on the website and in the weekly e-newsletter. The 2011 media kit is available by request or by clicking here. Thank you to all of those companies that consistently support Green Lodging News.
Green Lodging News Blog, Twitter & Facebook
Be sure to bookmark the Green Lodging News Blog in your browser. More importantly, participate with your comments. Green Lodging News is also now on Twitter and Facebook. To follow my Twitter postings, go to http://twitter.com/greenlodging. Be sure to add Green Lodging News to those tweets that you follow. Also be sure to “Like” us on Facebook. Green Lodging News now has 859 Twitter and 60 Facebook followers.
As always, I can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
