SINGAPORE—PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay, Singapore, owned by Pan Pacific Hotels Group, has established its position as Singapore’s first “Garden-in-a-Hotel” with over 2,400 plants and trees spread across 15,000 square feet of space in the hotel. As part of its long-term commitment to sustainability and business growth, the hotel has actively embraced sustainable practices across a broad spectrum of its operations. Taking on a “rejuvenate” approach to enhance existing assets instead of tearing down and reconstructing the building during its SGD45-million transformation in 2020, the hotel preserved the iconic structure, designed by Architect John Portman, and prevented over 51,300 metric tons...

LAGUNA BEACH, CALIF.—Soul Community Planet (SCP) Hotels—a holistic hospitality company founded on the values of wellness, social good and sustainability—announced it has partnered with EarthCheck, a leading scientific benchmarking, certification and advisory group for travel and tourism, to provide scientific benchmarking and certification of its company-wide regenerative practices. EarthCheck helps businesses, communities, and governments to evaluate their environmental footprint, improve sustainability and enhance business performance. SCP Hotels’ certification is done in two phases including Benchmarking—the quantitative evaluation of a property’s environmental and social performance, and then Certification—the verification of those standards by an approved independent third party EarthCheck Auditor. While the full...

NEW YORK—Hotel housekeepers are sharing stories about filthy rooms, painful workloads, and lost income as they ask guests to choose daily housekeeping in a new digital ad campaign by the hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE. The ads launched Monday, May 16 and will be served to frequent travelers and bookers of business meetings. Hotel guests might think it helps workers to skip cleaning, but housekeepers report that hotel brands’ decision to end automatic daily housekeeping makes rooms dirtier and harder to clean while also cutting jobs. Ads feature housekeepers from Marriott, Hilton, Caesars Entertainment, and more coming off shifts and...

SAN FRANCISCO—A plastic alternative made from seaweed is now a reality thanks to the work of LOLIWARE and its founder and CEO Chelsea Briganti. On Earth Day, April 22, the company announced that it has developed the first seaweed pellet—the SEA Tech Pellet—created from natural biomaterials to replace plastic at scale. Already, with the help of American manufacturer Sinclair and Rush, LOLIWARE has produce a seaweed straw that has captured the interest of the hotel industry’s leading chains. The company has also produced disposable cutlery and single use packaging products. From a cost standpoint, the straws are competitive with other leading...

HONOLULU, HAWAII—Prince Resorts Hawaii (PRH) has been named the number one Best Place To Work In Hawaiian Hospitality in the state and one of the Best Places To Work in Hawaii across all industries by Hawaii Business Magazine in its annual survey of the state’s employers. PRH is one of ten large companies named as the Best Places To Work and the only one to receive the Best Place To Work In Hawaiian Hospitality award. According to Hawaii Business Magazine, all nominated companies face two tests: a confidential survey of their employees, which accounts for 75 percent of each company’s...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Events DC, the official convention and sports authority for the District of Columbia, announced it has earned the WELL Health-Safety Rating for its three primary venues including Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Entertainment & Sports Arena, and the DC Armory through the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). The WELL Health-Safety Rating is an evidence-based, third-party verified rating for all new and existing building and space types focusing on operational policies, maintenance protocols, stakeholder engagement and emergency plans to address a post-COVID-19 environment now and into the future. Designed to empower owners and operators across large and small businesses alike to...

LOMBOK, INDONESIA—Invest Islands, the leading Asian real estate investment company, has unveiled Gran Meliá Lombok, a new beachfront and hillside resort. Conceived by Invest Islands’ project team in conjunction with Bali-based Inspiral Architecture & Design Studios, and managed by Meliá Hotels International, one of the leading companies in resort hotels worldwide, Gran Meliá Lombok is a masterpiece of high-style, low-impact design that weaves seamlessly into its tropical surroundings. It is located at Torok Bay, a sheltered crescent-shaped stretch of sand on Lombok’s secluded south coast, overlooking the Indian Ocean and framed by emerald headlands and rippling rice fields. Guests and...

SAN FRANCISCO—Hipcamp, the world’s largest provider of outdoor stays, released the summary of a report highlighting the positive economic and environmental impacts outdoor stays provided California’s San Luis Obispo County from March 2020 to March 2021. The report, commissioned by Hipcamp and authored by Earth Economics, highlights the benefits of low-intensity private land camping. According to an analysis of publicly available and internal data, Hipcamp infused the local economy with more than $3.2 million in direct and secondary spending across supplemental income, transportation, retail spending, and more, while enabling local landowners to preserve more than $274 million in ecosystem services...

MONTEVERDE, COSTA RICA—Hotel Belmar, a family-owned and operated boutique hotel located in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica’s cloud forest, has won the Silver award at the Latin America Responsible Tourism Awards. Presented by World Travel Market (WTM) recently in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Responsible Tourism Awards showcase best practices in responsible tourism to inspire others across the industry, and Hotel Belmar was recognized for Sustaining Employees and Communities Through the Pandemic. “We are honored to be recognized by WTM for our efforts to support our staff members and our community during one of the most challenging times since opening our doors,” said Pedro...

INTERNATIONAL REPORT—If we don’t act now, by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. Humanity produced an estimated 9.2 billion tons of plastics between 1950 and 2017. Of this, approximately 7 billion tons are now waste, either deposited in landfills or accumulating in terrestrial and aquatic environments and ecosystems. To compound the problem, more than 98 percent of plastic is made from fossil fuels and plastic production is expected to double by 2050. Emissions from plastic alone will take up between 10 and 13 percent of the world’s remaining carbon budget to meet a 1.5-degree Celsius target under the Paris Agreement. In our...