ÉVORA, PORTUGAL—Tivoli Hotels & Resorts announced its first property in the Alentejo region of Portugal in the historic city of Évora, joining the brand’s other properties in Portugal, Brazil and Qatar. The Tivoli Évora Ecoresort is a nature retreat boasting gorgeous scenery and unique cultural experiences. The property is located on the plains of Portugal’s south-central Alentejo region, just a five-minute drive from the historic center of Évora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a one-hour drive from the capital Lisbon. Surrounded by age-old cork oak and olive trees, the property is designed in sustainable contemporary style. Soft architectural lines blend...

SINGAPORE—The smart hotel of the future got a step closer with the launch of Interact Hospitality from Signify. The hotel room management system enables guests to alter lighting, temperature and make room service requests at the touch of a button. This smart system also lets hotel staff know if a room is occupied and helps them to respond quicker to guest requests, providing useful information to improve the guest experience, optimize operations and save energy. The first commercial implementation of this smart system takes place at the 1,261-room Swissôtel The Stamford in Singapore. Imagine a hotel room where hotel staff...

ATLANTA—The 1,260-room Hyatt Regency Atlanta is investing in three major systems that will position it as one of the most efficient buildings in the United States—rain harvesting, solar thermal, and guestroom energy management. Wes Shirley, Director of Engineering at the 51-year-old hotel, is overseeing the improvements. On the rooftop above the Centennial Ballroom begins the rain harvesting system. Currently, the system covers one-half of the Ballroom’s rooftop—about 22,000 square feet. Shirley says the hotel may end up almost doubling that by using most of the roof’s remaining space. The water collected is stored in 16 tanks—60,000 gallons total—in the hotel’s...

MACAO—The Venetian Macao has been awarded the Macao Green Hotel Platinum Award, the first and only hotel in Macao to earn the new top designation of platinum, which was introduced in the latest edition of the awards. Award criteria met by the integrated resort include showing evidence of year-on-year waste reduction; availability of electric vehicle parking spaces and charging stations for staff and guests; establishing an eco-friendly mattress replacement program; monitoring the environmental performance of shuttle buses, including turning off idling engines; establishing a management plan for reducing food waste; and carrying out regular carbon audits to identify areas for improvement. The...

CHICAGO—Wireless, cloud-based in-room control and management solutions provider, Evolve Controls, announced the launch of Evolve Guest Interface (eGI), the hospitality industry’s first multi-protocol gateway built into a touch-screen interface device. The eGI device will interface with Z-Wave, Zigbee, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. “With the multiple options for connecting IoT solutions in today’s fragmented technology industry, any product for the hospitality industry isn’t complete without multiple radio frequency connectivity options that include Wifi, Zigbee, Bluetooth, and Z-Wave,” according to Armand Rabinowitz, Senior Director of Strategy and Workgroups at Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG). “These options enable operators to choose the most reliable...

ODESSA, FLA.—Green Lodging News has just added a new case study to its Vendor Case Studies section. The case study details the efforts of a Fortune 100 company to improve water conservation in its cooling system to reduce costs, save energy and reduce chemicals. HydroTech Solutions initiated its Total Water Management program in April 2016 that continues as a monthly service. Each of the two headquarters buildings has a 1,000-ton cooling tower on the rooftop and two chillers in the basements. The water consumption for each building exceeded 500,000 gallons per month during summer. The facility manager sought to safely...

NATIONAL REPORT—The Third Annual Green Lodging Trends Report Survey will be launched by Greenview on July 9, 2018. The survey will close on August 10, 2018. You can participate in the survey by clicking here. There is no cost to participate. Tens of thousands of green lodging establishments around the planet are being encouraged to benchmark their sustainability practices by completing this survey which last year saw some 2,100 properties participating from 46 countries. The survey encompasses topics ranging from energy management to communication to Health & Wellness. The Green Lodging Trends Report Survey has the support of Green Lodging...

NATIONAL REPORT—Ice machines operate continuously to manufacture large quantities of ice, and while the low temperatures will slow the development of bacteria and algae, they actually provide an ideal environment for many strains of bacteria, which must be controlled continuously to prevent contamination. Ice machines are central to daily life, whether at home, restaurant, or wherever we have a drink we will have ice in our beverages. Health departments in most cities visit every restaurant on a schedule, and the ice machine is usually the first place they look for potential health issues. Ice makers require scheduled disinfection and wiping down to...

HOUSTON—HITEC, the lodging industry’s leading technology trade show, was held at the LEED Silver George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston June 18 to 21. Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) just announced that the event broke barriers as the highest attended event in the association’s history with over 6,650 attendees. There were approximately 400 exhibitors, many of whom displayed their latest innovations to help reduce energy consumption in the guestroom. Other exhibitors concentrated on other aspects of sustainability—indoor air quality, for example. The following is a summary of the HITEC announcements having some type of “green” connection: Honeywell launched the...

NEW ALBANY, MISS.—Master-Bilt, manufacturer and supplier of a full line of commercial refrigeration, announced that Rodney Johnson has assumed the role of Regional Sales Manager. As Regional Sales Manager, Johnson will manage the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada and will be responsible for managing seven manufacturer representative groups. Johnson has over 30 years of sales management experience. Most recently, he worked with Acosta Sales and Marketing where he was Vice President of Sales—Midwest. He was responsible for leading the national sales and marketing company in retail food, commercial food service and non-foods (equipment) industries. Prior to Acosta Sales, Rodney managed...