Name: Laura Kane
Title: Business Travel Sales/Sustainability Manager
Organization: Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago
Years at Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago: Almost six years
Primary responsibilities: “I lead our green team and green efforts. I continue to promote environmental responsibility—minimizing waste, hazardous substances, improving energy efficiency—doing anything internally to promote sustainability.”
Organization’s most significant environment-related accomplishment so far: “Earning our Green Seal certification. It was a huge accomplishment.”
Organization’s most significant environment-related challenge: “Developing a complete composting system. We are currently only doing a small amount. We would like to be able to completely compost our wet waste.”
CHICAGO—If you visit the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago and ask for Laura Kane, business travel sales/sustainability manager, you may want to check the basement or, if the weather is warm enough, the roof of the 27-story, 752-room hotel. In the basement are 5,000 worms consuming food scraps as part of a vermicomposting project. Kane oversees this project she would like to see expanded from three to five pounds composted every few days to 15 to 20 pounds a day. Up on the roof is a garden that Kane manages. Grown are vegetables such as peppers and squash and herbs such as basil and dill. The items are used by the executive sous chef or offered in the employee cafeteria.
Vermicomposting and gardening are just two duties on the plate of Kane who spends, she estimates, about 70 percent of her time on business travel sales and 30 percent on green projects. While she has been working at the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago for almost six years, she has had her current title since February 2011. She has participated in green initiatives since 2007.
“Starwood really wants to have at least one sustainability champion at each property,” Kane says.
While just about one-third of her time is spent on green projects, sustainability is always top of mind, emphasizes Kane, who previously worked at the Hotel Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, Calif. as a front office manager and who is an Illinois State graduate with a focus on art and tourism.
Sincere Green Seal Commitment
The Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago’s commitment to Green Seal certification goes back to 2007 when then-Mayor Daley challenged 25 downtown hotels to join his Green Hotels Initiative. Only a half-dozen of those 25 hotels today continue to maintain Silver certification from Green Seal. The Westin Michigan Avenue is among those six.
“Having third party certification really helps us,” Kane says. “We promote it internally.”
Kane adds that the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago has an active single-stream recycling program with a waste diversion rate of 16 percent. Recycling containers are positioned in guestrooms and in front and back of house areas. Last year, 86 tons of recyclables were diverted from the waste stream. As part of a partnership with Clean the World, 887 pounds of soap was diverted from the landfill from July 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011. The hotel hopes to double its donation to Clean the World in 2012. Partially used rolls of toilet paper do not go to waste; they are donated to various area shelters.
Particularly effective at the hotel has been its Make a Green Choice program that allows guests to opt out of housekeeping for up to three nights in exchange for a Starbucks gift card or Starwood rewards points. Kane says the program typically has an up to 18 percent participation rate. This year the hotel expects to save 411,000 gallons of water, 102,700 hours of electricity, 256 million BTUs of natural gas, and about 4,500 pounds of chemicals.
Meeting Space Has Eco-friendly Touches
A $7 million meeting room space renovation, which just ended last month, incorporated many green features. All carpet is 80 percent wool and 20 percent recycled nylon. The carpet pad includes recycled content. Compact fluorescents were replaced with LEDs. All steel used on the job included 80 percent to 90 percent recycled content. Gypsum wall boards include 90 recycled content. All new motors have variable frequency drives. All paint used has either no VOCs or a low quantity.
“When we began talking about a comprehensive renovation to our ballrooms, banquet and conference space, we wanted to make sure that every component and renovation feature was earth-friendly,” says Brent Menzel, general manager at the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago. “Not only are we seeing the financial gains from these earth-friendly efforts, but our guests enjoy doing their part for the environment, too.”
What is purchased by hotel staff is considered carefully. Styrofoam has been eliminated entirely. Green cleaning products meet Green Seal standards. This year the hotel will be purchasing linen-less banquet tables.
“It has been a learning process for all of us,” Kane says. “Each department does its own purchasing.”
Part of a Green Team Effort
Kane attributes much of the hotel’s environmental accomplishments to the many associates at the hotel. “They’re very forward-thinking,” she says. “They care about the environment, but also know there’s a big environmental impact that can be made in this industry. I personally love to have the feeling that someone is making the right choice and is excited about it. There are so many people making the right choices in our hotel.”
Kane says her interest in the environment, especially composting, has family roots.
“I’m not a country girl, but composting is in my blood,” she says. “My grandparents survived the Depression by reusing and recycling things. Nothing went to waste. I was raised the same way, and my mom had us composting at an early age.”
Go to the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
