With summer winding down it is a good time to take a look at the fall conference season. There will be many events at which sustainability will be a focus. The most significant green-focused event will be the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo. This year’s event will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from October 5 to 7. Greenbuild will include a trade show, many educational sessions, building tours and even a Water Summit. Author Sebastian Junger will be the plenary speaker. His recent book is entitled “Tribe.” According to Junger’s website, the book is about why...

News from the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center often crosses my desk. It usually has to do with good things the Center is doing in the community or in other areas of sustainability. One recent example was a canned food drive. Each Center department recently was challenged to come up with the most creative representation of a Louisiana icon or landmark, using only non-perishable food cans. Employees donated from their personal pantries and pooled their own money and resources together in order to build their canned goods masterpieces. Some of the creative ideas included a replica of...

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Zero Waste Challenge recently wrapped up with six hotels participating. The Zero Waste Challenge is part of the administration’s comprehensive OneNYC plan to send Zero Waste to landfill by 2030. Collectively, 31 businesses diverted 36,910 tons of waste that would have otherwise been sent to landfill or incineration. This was done by composting over 24,500 tons of organic material and donating 322 tons of food to New Yorkers in need. “With the Mayor’s Zero Waste Challenge, the new commercial recycling rules and commercial organics law, we aim to help businesses make choices that...

For the second year running, HX: The Hotel Experience will be held in November (13 to 15 this year) at the Javits Center in New York City. Also for the second year running, I will be moderating sessions on the show floor. Be sure to make your plans now so that you can attend my two green sessions as well as the many other educational sessions. The first topic I chose for this year’s HX: “Greenwashing or Nothing But the Truth—The Untold Story of the Greening of Amenities.” I have followed the greening of amenities for many years now...

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...