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Guest Columns

Green Lodging News provides a forum for anyone in the lodging industry to offer their take on a particular topic. All are welcome to participate. Submissions should be approximately 700 to 1,200 words and should include a photo of the writer. Authors can include a paragraph about themselves and their company at the end of the article. Contact Glenn Hasek, editor, at (813) 510-3868, or by e-mail at: greenlodgingnews@gmail.com.

Guest Columns

Home Guest Columns
Green Lodging News provides a forum for anyone in the lodging industry to offer their take on a particular topic. All are welcome to participate. Submissions should be approximately 700 to 1,200 words and should include a photo of the writer. Authors can include a paragraph about themselves and their company at the end of the article. Contact Glenn Hasek, editor, at (813) 510-3868, or by e-mail at: greenlodgingnews@gmail.com.

Meeting Planners Dictating Terms for Green Destinations

If trends are any indicator, the state of hospitality, having undergone a recent boom, now approaches a trough. Standards, whether in quality or performance, are low; the product has significant highs, a modest middle ground, and a disappointing base. Service delivery is spotty, the attitude is careless, and the reception is disinterested. And now we layer another consumer expectation—green. Enter the meeting/convention planner, who must navigate the unsure landscape, further exacerbated by the down economy. We will see new momentum and demand for change through the efforts of those agents who dictate the most traffic—the meeting and convention planners. They...

How to Squeeze Energy Savings Out of Your Laundry Operations

As the manager of your property, you know every inch of it. That’s helped you identify key areas where green practices can be employed to save the facility in expenses and create a better feeling for guests staying on the property. Now be honest, have you taken a close look at your laundry? Have you talked with your chemical company representatives and equipment distributor to assess how the laundry’s setup and practices mesh with your green focus? Take a moment to think about how many hours your laundry operates. I suggest even stopping in and taking a look at the...

A ‘How To’ Guide to Help Hoteliers Plan Green Wedding Events

NATIONAL REPORT—Weddings are always good business for hotels, and holding an eco-friendly event is the latest trend. This environmentally-conscious wedding/event “how-to” guide will help “green minded” facilities take advantage of this significant opportunity. Buy Local, Organic Food Buy seasonal and local foods, organic if possible. Local food is fresher and tastier, and requires less processing, packaging, refrigeration, transportation and marketing. To find local food producers, including farmers’ markets and community-sponsored agriculture, try networking sites like Local Harvest (www.localharvest.org) or GreenLeaf Market (www.greenleafmarket.com). Conventional production of meat requires huge amounts of resources and contributes greatly to pollution of rural areas. Choose meat certified...

Orbitz, EPA Partnership Makes it Easier to Find Energy Star Hotels

With more and more Americans looking to go “green” when they travel, a number of Web sites have begun to offer eco-friendly travel options. In a partnership announced April 15, Orbitz—a leading online travel company—has aligned with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program to give travelers the option of choosing Energy Star labeled hotels when they book with Orbitz. As an Orbitz “micro-site” that was launched in April 2007, www.eco.orbitz.com provides eco-friendly options and guidance to help individuals make informed decisions and reduce their environmental footprint when traveling. Now, in addition to renting hybrid vehicles, purchasing carbon offsets,...

How to Get Noticed for Your ‘Green’ Trade Show Practices

In a previous column (click here) I detailed how to make it known you’re “green” during your trade show experience. I covered the trade show booth, general marketing tips and effective ways to disseminate your information in a green way. You’ll next need to get the word out and create a buzz (more PR functions); these can be done through announcements, events, and so forth. Just make sure they are green. Prior to exhibiting at a trade show or consumer show, you need to get the word out about your company and the fact that it will be exhibiting green. If...

The Benefits of Energy and Water Audits

As any facility manager will tell you, energy costs have become a major budget concern for those in the lodging industry, and as energy prices continue to climb, the future doesn’t appear to offer much relief. And while energy-wise green building principles are quickly catching on for new construction, many managers are unaware of the basic opportunities for saving energy in their existing facilities. How does one go about finding such opportunities? Often, the solutions begin with an audit of your facility’s existing energy and water use. While such audits can come in many levels of detail, even a simple...

Partnering With an Energy Management Firm Can Help Reduce Utility Costs

Businesses nationwide are feeling the pinch as energy prices continue to rise. As the price of energy increases, so does the cost of production, transportation, and commodities necessary to keep hotels up and running. The need to cut expenses and maximize each dollar is more important than ever. For many hotel property managers facing rising energy bills, energy costs have come to the forefront as a major budgeting issue. The current energy market makes large bills unavoidable to a degree, but what many facility managers don’t know is the volatility of the energy market is a huge factor in determining...

What Makes Window Film a Smart Choice for Hotel Owners

At $100 per barrel for crude or “black gold” as the “Beverly Hillbillies” sitcom suggested, we all wish we’d strike oil in our backyards. Before erecting your own rig, there are ways to minimize the impact that astronomical crude oil prices have on our budgets. Servicing HVAC equipment, adding insulation, purchasing energy-efficient lights and equipment are all laudable conservation measures. However, the greatest source of heat loss and gain is often overlooked—windows, the environmental and security Achilles’ heal of any building. A quality insulating window film retrofit will reduce the flow of energy in and out of windows and...

Hotel Lawyer with Green Gems from the ALIS Conference

Hotels are going green (really)! And sustainability is the hot issue in the hotel industry. Although hotels have been the last real estate asset class to embrace sustainability, it looks like things are really changing. At the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS), trash recycling containers were a welcome sight, and the program featured a full panel on green hotels, a keynote, and lots of mentions about sustainability by many of the speakers. I thought some of the most interesting comments came from the Hotel Leaders Outlook panel. Here are a few of the gems from hotel industry leaders on the...

It’s Trade Show Time–How to Make it Known That You Are Green

It’s that time of year again—time to exhibit at a trade show or consumer event, and it’s time to make it known that your hotel is green, or at least striving to be. It’s great that consumer and industry trade shows are now greening themselves. They (the shows) definitely make it known that they are green or environmentally friendly through their marketing, promotions, publicity and often advertising. And if you’re exhibiting there, it only makes sense that you make travelers aware of your eco-friendly facility. The question remains, just how do you accomplish this? Because there are so many...