QUINCY, MASS.—Next Step Living’s EcoThermal Filter System has earned the Green Restaurant Assn. endorsement by meeting its rigorous environmental endorsement standards.The EcoThermal Filter System can earn a restaurant up to nine GreenPoints towards becoming a Certified Green Restaurant. This one step can help restaurants achieve 90 percent of their energy requirements.“Installing an EcoThermal Filter System is a big step towards helping commercial kitchens save energy, while making use of what’s already in kitchens: the cook line,” says Michael Oshman, CEO and founder of the Green Restaurant Assn. “It’s not often that such an innovative product comes to the marketplace...

NATIONAL REPORT—Green walls, also known as vertical gardens or living walls, increasingly are being used in interior and exterior areas of hotels to make a green design statement. Aside from being aesthetic symbols of a property’s commitment to sustainability—perhaps even a means to earn LEED credits—green walls offer many other benefits. They can help deaden sound in large spaces, absorb and clean toxins from the air, reduce carbon dioxide levels, keep air temperatures down, improve employee alertness and energy levels, increase humidity, reduce airborne dust levels, and even help increase the property values of commercial buildings. According to Ambius,...

REDMOND, WASH.—To help building owners and operators easily manage their heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) energy consumption while maintaining a comfortable indoor environment, Alerton has released an updated version of its Ascent Compass Software. The solution provides users a cleaner, simpler interface that reduces the steps required to optimize building systems and energy efficiency.Introduced in 2014, Compass is a part of the Alerton Ascent building automation suite of products that monitors and controls a host of building systems, including HVAC; lighting; security/access control; fire and life safety; elevators and escalators; and others.Compass 1.2 software features an enhanced navigation tree...

MILWAUKEE, WIS.—Telkonet, Inc., whose complementary business divisions include EcoSmart, a leading energy management technology platform featuring Recovery Time technology, and EthoStream, one of the largest hospitality high-speed Internet access providers, announced that its EcoSmart Solution was selected as the winner of the Holiday Inn Express Stay Smart Business Challenge at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.With nearly 2,300 properties, Holiday Inn Express is one of the fastest growing hotel brands in the world. Looking for an innovative partner to deliver a breakthrough solution to address and ultimately deliver the best night’s sleep for guests staying in any...

ATLANTA—The Westin Buckhead Atlanta has implemented an INNCOM Energy Management System as part of a comprehensive strategy to support its Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ “30/20 by 20” environmental initiatives. The 358-room property installed e4 Smart Digital Thermostats with the patented ecoMODE feature, INNcontrol 3 Central Room Management software, and a full INNCOM property management system interface. “The goal of Starwood’s “30/20 by 20” program is to reduce energy use by 30 percent and cut water consumption by 20 percent by 2020 at every property,” said Robert Attaway, Director of Engineering for The Westin Buckhead Atlanta. “We implemented INNCOM’s guestroom...

ANAHEIM, CALIF.—Master-Bilt will showcase a new line of vertical and horizontal open air merchandisers in the What’s Hot! What’s Cool! New Product Gallery at The NAFEM Show, February 19 to 21, at the Anaheim Convention Center, and in Master-Bilt booth #1608. These models offer easy access, contemporary styling, increased capacity and quiet operation.With a total of 16 models available, the HOAM and VOAM series offer the variety to meet practically any sales space requirement. All models offer significant energy savings over legacy models and already meet 2017 Department of Energy standards. VOAM vertical models offer greater pack-out thanks to...

HONOLULU—Hawaii Energy’s largest incentive for a hotel to date was recently awarded to Hawaii’s largest hotel—the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort. Hawaii Energy, the ratepayer-funded energy conservation and efficiency program for Hawaii, Honolulu and Maui counties, presented a $471,192 incentive check to the Hilton after the completion of phase I of a multi-phase, multi-million dollar energy efficiency upgrade project. Phase I included a major lighting retrofit in 1,839 guestrooms and the installation of energy-saving fan coil motors in all 2,860 guestrooms. The incentive will help Hilton offset its phase I project costs of more than $1.91 million. Hawaii...

ATLANTA—In recognition of the changing role of HVAC&R since it was first published 20 years ago, ASHRAE’s HVAC&R Research has a new title, an expanded scope and an updated look. Beginning in January 2015, the journal will be known as Science and Technology for the Built Environment. All manuscripts in process now will be published in the journal under its new name.“This new name reflects its expanded scope, which includes papers in many areas of science and technology for the built environment,” Reinhard Radermacher, Journal editor, said. “In addition to traditional areas of research in HVAC&R, the Journal’s papers...

NATIONAL REPORT—Most chafing dish fuel gels found today are made from corn-based ethanol, methanol and other additives to help the product burn hotter. Methanol is added to make it too toxic for consumption. Fuel gel using methanol and other additives is considered hazardous waste and should be treated as such, several industry experts told Green Lodging News for this article. Methanol gel, according to Don Haldenby, CEO of Ecoflame International Inc., is poisonous and contains dioxin and emits nitrous oxide, arsenic, carbon monoxide and excessive carbon dioxide when burned. It is dangerous to touch and dangerous to the environment...

PLANO, TEXAS—NexRev Inc., a leading manufacturer of performance-improving energy efficiency upgrades for HVAC equipment, announced the availability of DrivePak Advanced Rooftop Control (ARC), an expanded model of the company’s DrivePak HVAC retrofit upgrade incorporating advanced controls that allow customers to further capitalize the savings from DrivePak as well as additional prescriptive energy rebates and incentives.By incorporating integrated economizer control and CO2 Demand Control Ventilation (DCV) with their DrivePak load-matching fan speed control, DrivePak ARC further optimizes energy savings and indoor air quality. Built-in Fault Detection further addresses a common problem related to failed or non-functioning economizer equipment, providing notification...