Hotels and restaurants that have been taking steps to green their cleaning operations may mistakenly be setting back their green cleaning programs as a result of H1N1 and other public health concerns that have surfaced in recent years. The problem is that eradicating from surfaces the germs, bacteria, and pathogens that can spread these diseases often requires the use of powerful, EPA-registered, hospital-grade disinfectants which they erroneously believe cannot be part of a green cleaning program. In the United States today, there are no disinfectants that can be marketed or labeled as green. Currently, disinfectants are classified as pesticides, which are...

This is the first in a series of regular columns. It is the result of conversations with many top industry professionals regarding the greening of lodging properties. Throughout those discussions there were several threads regarding how best to make impactful, cost effective green measures happen. Engaging employees, developing a sound plan, and successfully implementing it all involve the human side of the organization, not just the hardware. In a service sector company, there is even more of a need to better understand the process, not just the products. Most travelers share similar experiences: sleeping in a strange bed, eating different...

Social media applications such as Facebook, You Tube and Linked In are becoming quite popular, but what is really making an impact, since Oprah Winfrey discovered it, is Twitter. Tweeting, as many refer to it, is sending a 140-character real-time virtual message from just about anywhere. You can send it from your cell phone or computer; wherever you are as long as you have the right applications. It’s quite easy. According to Nielsen Claritas, which provides in-depth segmentation analysis of consumer behavior, online data shows that about half of the U.S. population visited a social networking website in the last...

In recent years, the use of stone floors has dramatically increased. In fact, while attending a recent trade show in Las Vegas, I noticed that most of the newly remodeled hotels used stone for hard-surface floors, adding a touch of luxury and contemporary style. Ideal for the hospitality industry, there are actually two basic types of stone flooring: • Natural, such as granite, marble, slate, and limestone; and • Man-made, such as terrazzo and poured concrete. The most popular hard-surface flooring is granite. And, similar to its stone floor counterparts, granite is preferred in hotel properties because it can look great and, with...

The hospitality industry has been dramatically affected by the growing green movement. Sustainable, eco-friendly design and construction practices are now part of almost all major hotel building projects, including retrofits and property operations. Yet despite these changes, there are still many situations in which green cleaning is being overlooked. Hotel administrators and housekeeping departments must realize that sustainable building and design practices are just one piece of the puzzle. Maintaining a facility with outdated cleaning chemicals, tools or machines defeats the intended goal of green building and design, which is to operate facilities with less impact on the environment and...

Consumers think that recycling is about “stuff.” This is not true. The true value of recycling is not about materials—although it is good materials policy to recycle—it is about energy. Recycling saves a tremendous amount of energy and, as we all know in today’s world, energy equals pollution. Look at the materials that have a high recycling rate—aluminum being the best example—they are the materials that use a tremendous amount of energy to initially produce, thus recycling aluminum, glass, steel, paper etc… saves huge amounts of energy. Making something from recycled uses far less energy than making it out...

From restaurants to room service, bars to banquet halls, and catering to continental breakfasts, hotels offer a broad range of food service options. Since commercial kitchens and restaurants consume roughly 2.5 times more energy per square foot than other commercial building space types, any hotelier seeking to reduce energy consumption and costs cannot ignore food service operations when designing an energy management strategy. ENERGY STAR estimates that the total savings potential in a commercial kitchen ranges from 10 percent to 30 percent, based on the technologies installed and the overall energy management strategies put in place. By making energy-efficient choices...

The lodging industry is clearly undergoing a major shift in the way that business is done. Hotel owners and operators are seeing the clear bottom line impact of green building strategies as well as increased consumer demand. Increasingly, reliable third-party tools and verification is being used by hotels to ensure that they are getting the results they expect, both in building performance and in marketing and credibility. The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED green building certification program is an instrumental tool moving the built environment towards sustainable building practices and is being widely used by the lodging industry for...

Luxury resorts and small motels alike benefit financially from being energy efficient. Cutting energy usage is good for the planet, it helps the economy, and it puts money in hotels’ pockets. However, while energy efficiency opportunities abound, they are frequently not taken. Why? In working with hotels, sustainability analysts at BlueMap Inc. found that many managers simply did not understand how fast the cost of wasting energy adds up to real money. In our experience, it is not unusual for hotels to save from $10,000 to well over $30,000 per year, per property, by employing the right measures. To...

I relish the times when I get out of the office to visit functioning laundries and speak with those in charge of the operations as well as the employees. These visits are important to see our company’s equipment in action. I always leave having learned something or at the very least having had a key point reinforced. Recently, my travels took me to Cavallo Point-The Lodge at Golden Gate in Sausalito, Calif. This unique, 142-room luxury hotel resort property, located in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, has fully embraced green. Their task was tall and goals lofty in...