It is an old management adage still true today: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Fortunately, the lodging industry is getting better all of the time at managing its environmental impact. One sure proof of this is the just-released “Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index 2016: Energy, Water, and Carbon.” The report was produced by Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research. Eric Ricaurte, Founder & CEO of Greenview, was the lead researcher and compiled 2014 data from 11 global hotel firms. I spoke with Ricaurte and he told me the data set grew by 40 percent—from 3,250 properties to 4,457 properties...

Legionellosis is a respiratory disease caused by Legionella bacteria. Sometimes the bacteria cause a serious type of pneumonia (lung infection) called Legionnaires’ disease. The bacteria can also cause a less serious infection called Pontiac fever that has symptoms similar to a mild case of the flu. Unfortunately, Legionella bacteria make frequent appearances in hotels. Legionella was discovered after an outbreak in 1976 among people who went to a Philadelphia convention of the American Legion. The convention took place at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel and 34 people died. Last year there was an outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease in New York City...

The 100th birthday of the National Park Service is just a little more than one month away—August 25. The anniversary will be marked in many ways this year at the parks and by businesses that support and benefit from the parks. Our industry benefits greatly from these parks. It is difficult to even imagine how many room nights each year are attributable to the parks. The National Park Service was created by an act signed by President Woodrow Wilson on August 25, 1916. The system includes 412 areas covering more than 84 million acres in every state, the District...

On Tuesday of this week, Points of Light, the largest organization in the world dedicated to volunteer service, recognized its 2016 Civic 50 winners at the Conference on Volunteering and Service in Detroit. Only two hospitality companies made the 2016 Civic 50 list: MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment Corp. MGM and Caesars joined companies such as the Ford Motor Co. and General Mills. Not every company is eligible for the Civic 50. A company must have $1 billion or above in annual revenue. The Civic 50 is based on the results of a survey that focuses on four...

Mandala Research and Sustainable Travel International recently released the results of their 2016 Role of Sustainability in Travel & Tourism report. The findings are based on a survey of 2,292 leisure travelers. A lead sponsor of the study was Visit California. Additional sponsors included Travel Oregon, G Adventures, Destination Better, Shop America Alliance, Louisiana Tax Free Shopping, and Wild Rivers Coast Alliance. According to the report, 60 percent of U.S. travelers (105.3 million) have taken a sustainable trip in the last three years. They spend more (on average $600 per trip), stay longer (seven days compared to four days)...

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is winding down its Garden State Green Hotels Project. At the same time, the Travel Green New Jersey website is on schedule for updating with green lodging establishments that are located in New Jersey. So says Ky Asral, Manager, Small Business Environmental Assistance Program at New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection. Asral has been managing the Garden State Green Hotels Project that has provided 120 hotels in New Jersey with on-site assistance in four areas: the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, reduction of use of hazardous material, reduction of use of water...

To what degree does climate change drive you to make operational improvements and investments? Do you provide preferred parking locations for guests and staff driving fuel efficient vehicles (hybrids, electric vehicles)? Do bathroom fans include humidity sensors to shut them off when no longer needed? These are just a few examples of questions included in the Green Lodging Survey that just went “live” today and that will close on August 31. Green Lodging News partnered with Greenview to produce the survey. There are 108 questions to complete. Some of the questions require simply a yes or no answer. Others...

Along with the mattress and pillow, the towel has got to rank as one of the top few guestroom items impacting the guest experience. In my travels I have experienced many hotel towels that were anything but fluffy or that had an unpleasant odor from the laundering process. I suspect you have experienced the same. Xeros, maker of a laundry system that replaces up to 80 percent of the water with polymer beads, just released the results of its survey entitled, “Why Towels Matter: The Surprising Role that Towels Play in a Hotel’s Success.” The survey had an impressive...

Few, if any, suppliers have conducted large-scale surveys of hoteliers to better understand their energy and water management efforts. MACH Energy, a provider of energy and water management software services and solutions, recently conducted a survey that reached out to more than 5,000 industry professionals. Wei-En Tan, Ph.D., Vice President of Research at MACH Energy, told me there were about 1,000 respondents but only about 300 that completed all of the survey. The survey is available for downloading. Be sure to check it out. There were a number of interesting findings detailed in the survey report. For example, while...

E.ON, one of the United Kingdom’s leading power and gas companies, last week released the results of its survey of 2,000 travelers. The survey primarily focused on traveler attitudes toward green hotel practices. According to the survey results, one-third of guests say hotels and B&Bs should be judged on sustainability, with an accreditation system similar to food and service quality. One in five people would be more likely to stay in or recommend a B&B or boutique hotel if it used renewable energy sources. Similar numbers would be swayed by knowing the hotel used energy efficient measures such as...