PORTLAND, ORE.—GMIC (Green Meeting Industry Council), the nonprofit professional meetings association dedicated to promoting sustainable meetings, has reached an agreement with iCompli, a division of BPA Worldwide, a global third-party assurance provider, to develop a certification program for the event industry’s sustainability standards. The standards, known as the APEX/ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Event Standards, were released last year to address environmental and social sustainability in the meeting and event industry.“Certification drives adoption of industry standards,” says Tamara Kennedy, executive director of the GMIC, whose members led the development of the APEX/ASTM Standards. “We saw a real need in the industry...

NEW YORK—Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, a pioneer and leader in sustainable luxury hospitality, is embarking on an era of expansion, announcing five new-build properties across five countries. All are scheduled for completion by 2016. The new additions will include the brand’s Western Hemisphere debut, with properties under development in St. Lucia, Dominican Republic and Colombia; its first presence in Bhutan, and the opening of Six Senses Qing Cheng Mountain, China at the end of 2013.The significant growth of the distinctive brand comes to fruition under new leadership, with Wolf Hengst as executive chairman and Neil Jacobs as CEO...

IRVING, TEXAS—The Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau (ICVB) announces the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas (ICCLC) project as the fifth convention center in the country to achieve LEED Silver certified by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). LEED is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. “We had a distinct opportunity with the design and construction of the ICCLC to create a new icon for the destination that would set a standard, for sustainability as well as for a new category...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) has joined forces with Clean the World Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization that collects and recycles used soap and bottled amenities from hotels, to offer AH&LA members an exclusive additional 5 percent discount per room.More than 1,700 hotels across North America currently participate in the program. Since 2009, Clean the World has distributed more than 12 million bars of soap to homeless shelters and in countries suffering from high death rates due to acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease, the top killers of children under the age of five.Properties that participate...

GREENWICH, CONN.—Starwood Capital Group announced the launch of two new hotel brands, the luxury brand Baccarat Hotels & Resorts, and the lifestyle eco-brand 1 Hotels & Resorts, with five hotel openings scheduled under the group’s hotel brand management company, SH Group. The initial five hotel openings will occur over the next 24 months and include: Baccarat Hotel & Residences New York, N.Y.; Baccarat Hotel Rabat, Morocco; 1 Hotel & Residences South Beach, Fla.; 1 Hotel Central Park, N.Y.; and 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge Park, N.Y.“With two revolutionary hotel brands entering the marketplace and five hotel openings in the next...

LAS VEGAS—Governor Brian Sandoval has awarded MGM Resorts International the 11th Annual Nevada Governor’s Points of Light Award for its employee volunteer initiative. The recognition comes on the heels of MGM Resorts’ announcement that in 2012, employees donated more than 113,000 volunteer hours to the community, far surpassing the corporate goal of 100,000 hours set by Jim Murren, chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts. A total of 850 charitable organizations benefited from the employees’ community service last year. The value of time donated by MGM Resorts’ employees is estimated at more than $2.1 million, according to the Independent Sector,...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Green Seal, the nation’s oldest nonprofit environmental certification organization, announces the publication of GS-51, a new standard designed specifically to address the life cycle impacts of laundry care products for institutional and industrial settings.Traditional laundry products are significant contributors to water pollution, and both manufacturers and users risk exposure to harmful chemicals through inhalation and skin contact when using many of these products. In addition to minimizing or eliminating the use of many hazardous ingredients often found in these products, GS-51 provides an important benchmark in terms of product concentration. The standard establishes minimum requirements for concentrated (2X)...

While “green” cleaning in hotels is common, less is known about green carpet care. This is unfortunate because, in many facilities, carpet is the largest surface used on a daily basis, and some carpet cleaning methods have the potential to negatively impact the environment. Let’s define green carpet care to help facilitate the discussion. A working definition may be as follows: “Green carpet care involves using systems, products, and procedures to help keep carpets clean and healthy with the least impact on the cleaning worker, building users, and the environment.” The goal of green carpet cleaning can be accomplished when the...

STAMFORD, CONN.—Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. announced that it has completed the sale of Aloft and Element Lexington to Rockwood Capital for $36 million. As part of the agreement, the dual-hotel development in Lexington, Mass., will be managed under long-term license agreements by Paramount Hotel Group and continue to fly the Aloft and Element flags. In 2008, the Element Lexington was the first Starwood property to earn LEED Gold certification. The hotel has often been used as a working green laboratory by Starwood. “This sale is consistent with Starwood’s asset-light strategy as we continue to seek opportunities to...

CHICAGO—George McKerrow Jr., co-founder and chief executive of casual-dining restaurant chain Ted’s Montana Grill, recently signed a straw-free pledge that would require diners at his restaurants to ask for drinking straws instead of automatically being given one with their beverage orders.McKerrow, a longtime proponent of sustainability and sustainable business practices at his restaurants, signed the Be Straw Free pledge January 29, as a way of educating the public on how the use of plastic straws impacts the environment.The campaign is the brainchild of 11-year-old Milo Cress, a Boulder, Colo., resident who started the campaign in 2011. He is encouraging...