Energy is headline news and the pressure to affect savings is mounting. Balancing how best to maintain guest comfort with the drive for more efficient guestroom energy management is an ongoing challenge, despite the fact that guests are becoming more tolerant of greener energy measures. This conflict between guest comfort and property savings is compounded by the rapid increases in heating and cooling costs. This forces hotels to tackle the issue of cutting energy consumption and is encouraging utilities to recognize the potential within hospitality to achieve energy savings. Creative incentive programs are spurring the installation of guestroom energy management...

Business Week recently published an eye catching story on “Little Green Lies”—why some environmental initiatives may not currently make economic sense, even if others do. But what are the real economics behind green hotel development, conversion and operation? Is this the time to go green? Can you afford to wait? Here are some solidly documented answers based on substantial and reliable studies. The answers may surprise you. What Does a Pragmatist Say About This? A few friends who know me well as the “ultimately pragmatic” hotel lawyer asked me why I have jumped onto the green bandwagon for hotel development, conversion,...

A press release is one of the best techniques for publicizing an event or calling attention to a specific issue, your product or service. A well-written, well-distributed and well-timed press release is not difficult or expensive to produce. The key to writing an effective press release is getting it read and the information published. With these objectives in mind, the most important elements of a press release are clear and engaging text, careful selection of recipients, and good timing. When you add “green” into the mix, you should keep in mind the following essentials to getting your release noticed: 1. The...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may soon be pushing the green bandwagon. Technically, most SEC disclosure guidelines or rules only require “disclosure.” They do not impose substantive regulation. But SEC guidelines tend to set the disclosure standards for state laws, and establish industry standards for fair disclosure. And frequently the bright spotlight of disclosure focuses such intense attention on particular issues, that it changes behavior as effectively as a substantive regulation. That might well become the case with “green.” Here is what is happening: Investors and government officials are urging the SEC to adopt guidelines requiring public companies to...

There’s an aftershock rippling across the country and it’s starting in California. No, it’s not from an earthquake, but it does involve the planet. After the initial jolt that Al Gore delivered with An Inconvenient Truth, California lawmakers addressed global warming head on by enacting the first piece of legislation in the country to directly mandate reductions of greenhouse gases (GHG) linked to climate change. The effects are being felt nationwide. In fact, industry worldwide is feeling the impact of climate change, and those in the hotel business, whether they want to or not, are taking notice. Last year, California...

One of the legacies of the Industrial Revolution is the introduction of cleaning chemicals into the marketplace. Since WWII, more than 75,000 industrial chemicals have been registered with the EPA. Of those, less than 2 percent have been tested for toxicity, birth defects, and cancer. Moreover, chemical companies are under no legal or regulatory obligation to study the long term health effects their products have on the human body, nor are they required to fully disclose all of the ingredients in their products. Citing proprietary privilege, they only report on active ingredients. This accounts for less than 5 percent...

You may be on a tight budget or just looking to create renewed exposure and interest for your green hotel or B&B efforts, yet cannot seem to find anything newsworthy to report. We’ve all encountered that from time to time. Don’t worry; there is still hope. There are hundreds of ways for you to create some news of your own to get the exposure you need. Here are some of them: Stage a green event. For those of you who are unfamiliar with doing this, you may think it sounds difficult. With a little creativity and proper planning, you can pull...

Hosting a sustainable event means integrating environmental, social and economic considerations into all aspects of the event planning and management process. It means working with all involved to reduce environmental impacts and to contribute to positive social and economic development whenever possible. Sustainable event management entails assessing existing policies and practices and taking a holistic approach to integrating sustainability into every day tasks and decision making. Sustainability entails a different way of doing business and not necessarily a more onerous one. Events require the consumption of resources and result in the generation of wastes and pollution. A sustainable event management...

My travels recently took me to Detroit and Chicago for meetings and speeches. By the time I returned home to California, my travels—if my accounting is correct—accounted for 51 plane flights during the first half of 2007. I’m not bragging, mind you. Indeed, it’s rather embarrassing (and more than a little exhausting). But like many of my environmental professional brethren, air travel is far and away my biggest personal and professional footprint. And it’s not likely to change any time soon. This reality notwithstanding, the airline industry seems poised to finally confront its environmental impacts—and mine. The past few weeks have...

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but there’s a big leak in your hotel’s kitchen. It’s a veritable gusher. And it’s been going on for a long time. However, before you send maintenance running with a wrench, I recommend a call to your F&B manager and executive chef. Because the leak isn’t caused by water; it’s from pre-consumer food waste. And it’s not anyone’s fault; it’s a by-product of the way hotel conference centers forecast and produce food for banquets, buffets and receptions. In fact, 4 to 8 percent of the food you purchase will...