Following last spring’s earthquake in Nepal, employees of the Radisson Blu Resort Fujairah (UAE) donated an average of five percent of their salary to support their four Nepali colleagues whose families were affected by the earthquake. One of the affected staff lost two close family members in the quake. This is just one example of steps taken by employees of Rezidor Hotel Group properties to help those in need. The story comes from the Rezidor Hotel Group’s 2015 Responsible Business Report. Be sure to read the report. Rezidor has long emphasized responsible business. It implemented its first environmental policy...

Dawn Baldwin, Director of Sales for the Halifax Convention Centre, recently wrote a case study detailing how the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) was able to green its 2015 meeting at the World Trade and Convention Centre in Halifax. The four-day, 537-attendee meeting was held last August. CMA wanted its event to be a model of event sustainability by focusing on three areas: food, pollution and waste, and power. Creating a sustainable menu was the first step. According to Baldwin, the Convention Centre culinary team focused on sourcing local menu items that were organic, fairly traded, seasonal and not processed,...

Earlier this week I attended Sustain 2016, the Mid-Atlantic’s Annual Hospitality Conference. The event was held at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in Dover, Del. It is one of just a few green lodging oriented events being held this year. The conference was a two-day event. Critical to the success of any conference is attendance and I have to say this one was easily the least attended conference I have experienced. I was told that attendance was 110 but if you subtract the exhibitors and the speakers, there were very few actual lodging owners or managers in the room—especially...

Fortune Magazine recently released its annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. The list is in its 19th year and recognizes companies that have exceptional workplace cultures. There are five lodging companies on the list: Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants (No. 20 and now owned by IHG); Hyatt Hotels (No. 47); Hilton Worldwide (No. 56); Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts (No. 70); and Marriott International (No. 83). Google (Alphabet) is the No. 1 company on the list. How does Fortune determine what companies will make its annual list? Each year Fortune partners with Great Place to Work...

I am currently working on an article on hydration stations. They are not water fountains but are sometimes paired with them. They make it easy to fill bottles with water and sometimes offer filtered water. Some machines even calculate the volume of plastic bottles you have filled or diverted from the landfill. The Hilton San Francisco Union Square has four of them. Zion Lodge in Springdale, Utah also has installed them. Hydration stations are an ideal way to eliminate, or at lease dramatically reduce, the volume of plastic bottle waste flowing from your property. Plastic bottle waste is a...

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) last week released the results of the Dodge Data & AnalyticsWorld Green Building Trends 2016 SmartMarket Report, to which USGBC is a contributing partner. If you would like to get a sense of the magnitude of the green building market, I highly recommend getting a copy of the free report. The report reflects the results of more than 1,000 survey participants from 69 countries. The survey was conducted in 2015. The report says global green building continues to double every three years. Increasing consumer demand has pushed the world’s green building market to...

For its most recent sustainability report, for 2014 to 2015, Soneva conducted its first Total Impact Assessment (TIA) of its activities. According to Soneva, it is the first time an evaluation of this kind has ever been conducted in the hospitality industry. The TIA takes into account the total impact of Soneva’s business—in areas including environmental, human, social, economic and fiscal. Soneva has resorts in locations including the Maldives and Thailand. Soneva’s TIA differs from the usual sustainability reporting in that it assesses the impact of both the company’s direct activities as well as those of its supply chain....

Earth Hour and Earth Day are two occasions that have been marked by many hotel companies and individual hotels in years past. How will you be marking the occasions this year? This year, Earth Hour will be celebrated around the world on March 19 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. local time. The World Wildlife Federation has created a video that summarizes 2015 Earth Hour activities. Be sure to check it out. Last year lighting at more than 10,400 landmarks and monuments was turned off during Earth Hour. Wyndham Worldwide participated in Earth Hour by turning its lights down and...

I had an opportunity to attend the first day of the Ecotourism and Sustainable Conference North America last week. The event was held in Tampa, Fla. at the Patel Center for Global Solutions at the University of South Florida. It was the first North America conference for the International Ecotourism Society. Approximately 100 attended the first day of the event. About 30 or so could not make it because of weather-caused flight cancellations. The conference featured speakers who provided a global perspective on the environmental challenges we all face while also featuring case studies on specific properties or projects....

Just a few months ago the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) and Greenview launched the Hotel Footprinting Tool. With the free tool one can access the carbon and energy footprint of thousands of hotels worldwide—ideal for those interested in benchmarking their own hotels’ performance. The Hotel Footprinting Tool uses data from the annual Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Study. Using the tool one can create reports of the carbon footprint of an individual or businesses’ hotel stays and meetings. Travel planners and corporate responsibility managers can use it to report on or offset their business travel emissions. If you have not...