WASHINGTON, D.C.—Green Seal Inc. announced that the Green Seal Environmental Standard for Restaurants and Food Services, GS-46, has been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). First published in May 2009, GS-46 is based on real data on the environmental impacts of restaurants and food services including the impacts of food, energy and water use, and supplies. As a result, the GS-46 standard provides a comprehensive framework to guide operations on how to reduce their environmental impacts and is the basis for Green Seal Certification. GS-46 is the first Green Seal specification to be approved as an American National...

NEW YORK—Green Choice Vendors Distribution, a wholesale distributor of sustainable products and packaging for food service, announces the launch of their online store FoodBizSupply.com. FoodBizSupply.com offers a one stop shop for more than 300 biodegradable and compostable products made from natural renewable resources, like sugarcane bagasse, bamboo fiber and corn. Unlike Styrofoam and petro-based plastics, FoodBizSupply.com products are biodegradable with 70 percent being compostable. Their plant-based offerings combined with biodegradable polymers create products that help reduce the impact on the environment in absolute carbon footprint terms. FoodBizSupply.com products include straws, hot and cold cups, plates, bowls, trays, cutlery, take-out containers,...

SHEFFIELD, MASS.—Cypress Bath, Bed & Spa, a leading designer and manufacturer of luxury bathrobes, towels, slippers, and sheets for the global hospitality and spa industries, is encouraging hotels that are participating in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to consider implementing the Green Earth towel into their linen purchase program, due to documented LEED credits that the Green Earth towel can potentially contribute to. The seven LEED credits identified under the Existing Building certification category that are applicable to use of the Green Earth towel include: • Water Efficiency Credit 1: Water...

NAPA VALLEY, CALIF.—Silverado Resort’s frenetic executive chef Peter Pahk believes some things must be done slowly. Pahk has been instrumental in driving the Napa Valley resort’s numerous food-related environmental initiatives, and he has realized that to be a true leader you cannot expect overnight results. One of his many initiatives is to embrace organizations such as Slow Foods Napa and Slow Foods USA, organizations committed to identifying, preserving and promoting small agricultural producers and to educate the public about distinctive regional food traditions. The resort’s membership in Slow Foods aptly illustrates the commitment of Pahk and other resort leaders in...

TROY, OHIO—Hobart announced the redesign of its website. The new site integrates the Hobart, Traulsen refrigeration and Baxter Bakery brands into one seamless front-end user experience from site to site. The interface uses a tab mechanism that highlights all three brands in a cohesive style so Hobart can showcase its full line of commercial food equipment and unique nationwide network of Hobart Service. “The new Hobart site brings Hobart, Traulsen and Baxter together in one online environment,” said Tom Szafranski, president of ITW Food Equipment Group-Commercial. “The updated site provides a seamless connection between the three brands while giving each...

ORLANDO, FLA.—AAA has updated its Restaurant Approval Requirements & Diamond Rating Guidelines, the blueprint for evaluating and rating more than 27,000 restaurants throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. The guidelines are revised as needed to reflect changing industry trends and member expectations, with the last update occurring in 2003. As an example of change that impacts the guidelines, AAA’s director of tourism information development Michael Petrone cites increased consumer awareness of food content. “Many of today’s restaurant customers seek healthier options and are more knowledgeable than ever before about the food they eat,” Petrone said. “As a...

SHEFFIELD, MASS.—Cypress Bath, Bed & Spa, a leading designer and manufacturer of luxury bathrobes, towels, slippers, and sheets for the global hospitality and spa industries, announced that Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa has chosen their environmentally-friendly Green Earth towel for property-wide use. A recently completed six-month pilot program by Gaia demonstrated credible and successful results to prove Cypress’ claim that the Green Earth towel provided energy savings, detergent use reductions and lowered water usage. “Loosely translated as Greek for ‘Mother Earth,’ Gaia is truly a special property, and a property founded on a vision of sustainability,” said Gene Faul,...

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF.—As of July 20, the owners of the Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe Hotel & Ski Resort had spent $250,000 less than they had expected to spend on energy this year. According to David Hansen, director of engineering at the 400-suite property, the hotel could come close to a total of $500,000 in energy savings by the end of 2009. When comparing the first six months of this year against the first six months of last year, electricity consumption dropped by 575,000 kilowatt hours ($98,902 savings) and natural gas consumption by 9,314 dekatherms ($67,709 savings). The hotel...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Hasek Communications, the Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of Green Lodging News, has added a ClearWater Tech, LLC case study to the Green Lodging News website. The case study details the positive impact of the installation of an ozone laundry system at the Apple Farm Inn and Suites in San Luis Obispo, Calif. The case study documents the savings the ozone system generated in numerous charts and graphs. The payback time on the system was just 7.7 months, with more than $22,000 in annual labor savings. Overall, the ozone laundry system has saved the Apple Farm Inn nearly 40...

BERKELEY, CALIF.—VASKA, a Berkeley, Calif.-based producer of green, botanically-based laundry care products for the commercial, institutional and consumer markets, announced that Royal Laundry of South San Francisco, the largest privately owned commercial laundry on the West Coast, is washing one million pounds of laundry a week using Vaska’s green laundry solutions in its three state-of-the-art tunnel systems. Royal Laundry washes laundry for more than 100 Northern California hotels. Royal Laundry has been a major commercial laundry service provider in the Bay Area for 47 years. When Royal began to encounter challenges with its previous chemical supplier, Don Luckenbach , Royal’s...