SAN FRANCISCO—The Orchard Garden Hotel, California’s first hotel to be built to the nationally accepted standards for green buildings developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), will open in mid-September. The new construction followed the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System in order to earn the coveted LEED certification. The hotel’s green practices also include chemical-free cleaning products, a 100 percent tobacco-free environment, recycled paper and soy-based inks. In addition to the LEED certification, the Orchard Garden Hotel will be San Francisco’s first hotel to implement a guestroom key card that controls...

LOS ANGELES—Bentley Prince Street has made another step toward its Mission Zero goal of eliminating its potential negative impact on the environment by the year 2020 by thinking not just about what is in its carpets, but what is underneath them. The company announced the launch of a new eco-friendly adhesives line that sets a new industry standard for environmental innovation. These adhesives complement the company’s new recycled content backings launched earlier in the year. Healthbond 1500 Ultra Green Plus adhesive, designed for broadloom applications, and NexStep 2300 Ultra Green Plus adhesive, for carpet tile applications, both...

ATLANTA—ASHRAE will present its Introduction to Green Buildings and Sustainable Construction seminar on September 13 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. (EDT). The seminar will present the basic principles related to sustainable construction and green buildings, including a review of the integrated approach needed to achieve green/sustainable buildings, developments and projects. While motivations differ for pursuing green building design, the fundamental principles remain the same. These include incorporation of a whole-building approach to environmental improvement; decision making based on life-cycle assessment; greater balance between quality, budget and schedule; and a positive collaboration between professionals. “For design and...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—“Green” projects will increase 30 percent per year during the next five years, making them one of the major development trends in commercial real estate, according to Developing Green: Strategies for Success, to be released next week by the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP). The book, authored by Jerry Yudelson, is designed for professionals engaged in financing, building and marketing projects with green features. It illustrates the practice of marketing green developments and includes case studies, exemplary projects, and companies that are transforming the building and development industry. In addition to the case...

Recently, “Colorado Company” magazine highlighted a developer who believes in nothing but “green” building. It was a wonderful article, but it gets at an underlying question: Why is this still a story? The idea of green building has not spread like wildfire. The mass-market building sector is oblivious. Most of the structures in trade magazines like “Architectural Digest” aren’t green. Two months ago, “The New York Times” ran an article in which Robert A.M. Stern, dean of Yale’s architecture school, said, “I think the trouble with environmentalism is that at most architecture schools it’s been confined to a dreary backwater...

LOS ANGELES— Bentley Prince Street recently launched an innovative simulation technology system, named the “Zoom Room,” in its newly opened Chicago showroom during the NeoCon World’s Trade Fair. Developed by Tricycle, this 3D visualization tool provides customers with instantaneous life-sized recreations of custom color carpet products in an actual room environment, providing an effective design tool with significant environmental benefits. The Zoom Room meets today’s designers’ needs for technology-driven visualization to speed up and assist in their design and specification process. It also reduces environmental impact by decreasing sample production, preserving non-renewable resources and reducing landfill waste. ...

NATIONAL REPORT—With baby steps. That is how the lodging industry is approaching the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Only two hotels have been LEED certified—one in Sri Lanka, and the Marriott-managed Inn & Conference Center at the University of Maryland University College in Adelphi. The Hilton Vancouver, Washington, and other hotels are pursuing LEED certification. What is USGBC? It consists of a coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. LEED certification distinguishes building...

VANCOUVER, WASH.—The 226-room Hilton Vancouver, Washington, will know later this summer if it will become one of the United States’ first hotels to obtain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. LEED is a building rating system established by the U.S. Green Building Council, Washington, D.C. The hotel, which is owned by the city of Vancouver, is managed by Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Hilton Hotels Corp. It was designed by Portland, Ore.-based Fletcher Farr Ayotte (FFA). The design incorporates myriad sustainable design strategies, including sensors that adjust the climate control systems when rooms and hallways are vacant,...

GUILFORD, MAINE—Interface Fabrics, a leader in textile manufacturing, announces that its Terratex family of environmental textiles will now be available to meet a growing need for green products in the hospitality market. Introduced in 1996, Terratex has deeply penetrated the corporate market with its branded family of environmental textiles. Terratex fabrics are made from 100 percent recycled and/or renewable materials and are sold through jobbers, furniture manufacturers and re-manufacturers in the commercial interiors industry. “Hotels and resorts, feeling an increased corporate responsibility to preserve the beautiful places in which they are located, are also realizing that sustainable practices...

BOSTON—Green is rapidly becoming a necessity as companies as diverse as Bank of America, Genzyme, Goldman Sachs, IBM, and Toyota are now pushing green buildings fully into the mainstream, according to “Building the Green Way” by Charles Lockwood. This article in the June 2006 issue of the Harvard Business Review makes the case for green and cites the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) and its LEED Green Building Rating System. The article examines the national energy crisis, and raises a looming threat to commercial real estate portfolios. The Green Tipping Point Before 2000, companies generally regarded green...