Still on the fence about whether to invest in electric vehicle (EV) charging stations? A new report from researchers at Storage Café may help you decide. The report identifies the best-equipped metro areas for EVs. Researchers analyzed the 100 largest U.S. metro areas based on 14 key metrics, including the number of registered electric vehicles, EV infrastructure, the cost of an eGallon and other criteria. The San Jose (CALIF.) metro area is the ultimate electric car hotspot. The metro area has the most EV public charging stations per 1,000 households (2.4), as well as the most apartment units (12.3 percent)...

In case you missed it, The Boring Company’s people-moving “Loop” beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center has started carrying passengers. The $52.5 million tunnel is filled with Tesla vehicles that carry passengers around the 1.7-mile stretch. The construction took about 18 months. The system is ten times faster than walking around the convention center. “We’re grateful to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and all local stakeholders for providing us the opportunity to construct our first commercial project in one of the world’s most dynamic destinations,” Boring Co. President Steve Davis said in a statement reported by The Los Angeles Business...

Preferred Hotels & Resorts recently wrapped up its International Pineapple Week (June 20 to 27)—a time to focus on acts of service. Throughout the week, in the run-up to the official International Pineapple Day on June 27, more than 200 member hotels from around the world shared their most memorable “Acts of Service” from the last year using the hashtag #PreferredPineappleWeek. “It has been an incredibly humbling time for our industry and, for many of us, this exciting period of recovery is inspiring a deeper appreciation for the talented people that create magical moments for loyal guests and I Prefer members globally,” said...

Like the recent survey conducted by Booking.com, a similar one conducted by The Vacationer indicates a strong preference for sustainable travel. When asked how important sustainable travel is to you, 82 percent said either somewhat important (56%) or very important (26%). “Sustainable travel is most important to the youngest generation aged 18 to 29,” the report said. “29.63 percent of people in this age bracket noted it was Very Important to them.” When asked, “Do you intend to make more sustainable (eco-friendly) decisions when planning travel?”, 48 percent said yes but only if it does not inconvenience them. Twenty-six percent...

If you could name the top five items on your property that are saving you on water consumption, what would they be? Please feel free to share them with me at greenlodgingnews@gmail.com. I will share them with my readers. I thought of that after a look at the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor. If you visit the Drought Monitor site, you will see how severe the drought is in the west. Take a look at a series of maps in The New York Times and you will see how conditions have worsened over the years and gotten especially bad...

Booking.com just released its 2021 Sustainable Travel Report. I will be running the entire press release about the report in the coming days. Be sure to watch for it. Insights in the report were drawn from 29,000 travelers across 30 countries. There were some survey results that jumped out at me. First, when looking just at the 40 percent of American travelers that said they have not stayed in a sustainable property in the past year, 37 percent said they did not even know that they existed, 16 percent said they could not find any options where they were...

Microfiber pollution awareness is spreading into the mainstream. More than half of consumers (56 percent) already know that washing clothes harms the environment, according to a survey released by PlanetCare as part of World Oceans Day (June 8). Microfibers are tiny plastic particles that synthetic clothes shed during washing. Up to 1,500,000 microfibers are released per wash. Without anything to stop them, microfibers enter wastewater, causing damage to the ecosystems. The growing awareness is also important because we are learning more about the health risks of microfiber ingestion for humans. Polyester and nylon microfibers, for instance, could stunt the ability of the...

Hersha Hotels and Resorts just released its 2020 Hersha Earthview Sustainability Report. Hersha’s proprietary sustainability platform, EarthView, was created in 2010 and exemplifies their belief that they can simultaneously deliver financial value while supporting the well-being of their guests, associates, communities, and the planet. For those of you not familiar with Hersha, they own and operate 48 hotels. Hersha has saved $20 million thanks to Earthview since its creation in 2010. Hersha has experienced a 1.7-year payback on its efficiency investments. In 2019, Hersha announced targets for reducing its environmental impact by 2030 (using a 2010 baseline) and has joined...

According to the Robb Report, Hayri Atak Architectural Design Studio (HAADS) is planning a spinning 152-suite hotel for Qatar that will float and feature the latest green technology—a combination of technologies never before seen in the lodging industry. “The futuristic design is characterized by its unique ability to spin and produce clean energy just like a giant hydro generator,” the article says. “As per the project specs shared by HAADS, the hotel generates electricity by automatically rotating its position and converting the energy of flowing water into electricity. To achieve this, the structure is equipped with a set of propellers and thrusters...

I reported on some examples of this year’s Earth Hour activities (March 27, 8:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. local time) in a previous blog. I since heard from Pechanga Resort Casino (Temecula, Calif.) that it also participated in the activity by extinguishing its bright and colorful exterior lighting for one hour. Pechanga joined thousands of other landmark locations throughout the country and the world in commemorating Earth Hour 2021. Guests at Pechanga at that time saw the ascending multi-colored lights at the ends of the hotel towers switch off (see video), followed by the beams of up and down...