PANAMA CITY—The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. is expanding its collection of Reserve hotels with plans to open a luxury sanctuary on Pearl Island, a private island situated 45 miles south of Panama City. The resort is the sixth planned Reserve property, joining current locations in Phulay Bay in Thailand and Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico, and upcoming locations including Molasses Reef in Turks and Caicos, Tamuda Bay, Morocco and Cabos San Lucas, Mexico, among several projects slated for the near future.Surrounded by pristine beaches, one of the most bio-diverse marine environments on the planet, azure waters and virgin tropical...

PHOENIX—Food has always had a powerful way of bringing families together, and now families visiting Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort in Phoenix can enjoy a memorable private dining experience with the resort’s executive chef at his urban garden.The urban garden at Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort has been a labor of love for the resort’s Executive Chef Kenneth Arneson for more than two years. Today, the garden is ripe with a diverse array of vegetables like carrots, bell peppers, mung beans and Swiss chard and a robust mix of herbs from dill to lavender. With a personal passion for...

NATIONAL REPORT—For architects and engineers, determining the right HVAC system for their commercial and industrial building projects is critically important. An air curtain may be a small part of a building’s HVAC package, but it can help turn a good building design into a great building design. Many commercial HVAC systems require additional products to ensure that they provide the intended results, and even enhance the environment, such as maintaining the temperature-controlled air within the building’s footprint and reducing the building’s total energy consumption. One of those key products is an air curtain. An air curtain produces an invisible...

LONDON—Marriott International has launched a limited edition tote bag with an exclusive print by British luxury accessories brand, Lily and Lionel. The print is featured on a SleepingBags tote bag made in England from 100 percent recycled bed linen provided by U.K. Marriott hotels. This first of its kind bag is available to purchase with Marriott donating a portion from the sale of every bag to The Prince’s Trust.Marriott is the first major hotel company to partner with pioneering British social enterprise, SleepingBags, to transform retired hotel bed linen into items that can be put back into hotels as...

PARSIPPANY, N.J.—Wyndham Worldwide, one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, announced it has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index for the first time. The company is one of three hospitality companies, and the only one in North America, recognized in the hotels, resorts and cruise line segment.The S&P Dow Jones Indices are one of the most recognized sustainability performance rating tools, with the Sustainability Index identifying leaders in the areas of sustainable economic, environmental and social performance. Companies listed to the annual Index demonstrate best-in-class performance against numerous metrics. Wyndham Worldwide was recognized in particular...

BETHESDA, MD.—This fall, more than 350 Fairfield Inn & Suites hotels across North America are preparing to extend their hospitality and “Spirit To Serve” to families in need of affordable housing through Habitat for Humanity. To celebrate the brand’s 18-year relationship with the nonprofit organization, Fairfield Inn & Suites has also launched its Design for Habitat Facebook application, which will culminate in a brand donation of up to $50,000.“For nearly two decades, we have worked with Habitat for Humanity affiliates to give back to the hundreds of communities that have supported the Fairfield brand over the years,” said Shruti...

DALLAS—Approximately 185 people, including hoteliers, exhibitors, speakers and others, attended the first annual Lodging Green + Sustainability Conference & Expo. The event, organized by Lodging Magazine, was held at the LEED Gold certified Omni Dallas Hotel from October 1 to 3. The conference offered many educational and networking opportunities with highlights including a tour of the 1,001-room host hotel and a keynote presentation by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.James Cannon, Director of Engineering at the Omni Dallas, toured attendees through guestrooms and back of house areas, pointing out the ways in which the $500 million hotel is saving energy, water...

ATLANTA—InterContinental Hotels & Resorts announced that it is the first hotel chain to have all of its IHG corporate-managed restaurants in the United States and Canada become Certified Green Restaurants.In September 2011, the InterContinental Boston hotel’s Miel Brasserie Provençale was the first of the hotel chain’s restaurants to receive the certification. Based on the hotel’s positive feedback about the certification process, the InterContinental brand made the decision to require all of its internally managed restaurants to meet the rigorous environmental certification standards of the Green Restaurant Association (GRA), and last week the hotel chain achieved this goal.InterContinental Hotels &...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently launched the 2013 Energy Star National Building Competition: Battle of the Buildings. Teams from more than 3,000 buildings across the country are competing to see who can most reduce their buildings’ energy use. In support of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, which calls for buildings to cut waste and become at least 20 percent more energy efficient by 2020, the competition specifically targets wasted energy in commercial buildings and motivates businesses to improve energy efficiency, reduce harmful carbon pollution, and save money.More than 25 different types of commercial buildings are facing...

BERKELEY, CALIF.—The installed price of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the United States fell substantially in 2012 and through the first half of 2013, according to the latest edition of Tracking the Sun, an annual PV cost tracking report produced by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).Installed prices for PV systems in 2012 fell by a range of roughly $0.30 per Watt (W) to $0.90/W, or 6 to 14 percent, from the prior year, depending on the size of the system. “This marks the third year in a row of significant price reductions for...