TALLAHASSEE, FLA.—Four Points by Sheraton Tallahassee Downtown has completed a multi-million renovation and is the newest incarnation of a 12-story round building that has been a city landmark since 1969. Owned by Union Hotel Company Tallahassee RLLLP, the hotel has 164 guestrooms.To attain LEED status, Union Hotel Company Tallahassee, RLLP partnered with Boulder, Colo.-based UHG Consulting, a sustainability consulting firm specializing in LEED certification and green building. UHG worked with Four Points by Sheraton Tallahassee to advance the hotel’s sustainability initiatives, achieve total cost savings from energy efficiency, and create public awareness of its green practices.“Four Points by Sheraton...

NATIONAL REPORT—It’s a meeting at an inn in Vermont designated as a “Green Hotel in the Green Mountain State” that, among other benchmarks, composts leaf and yard waste. It’s a corporate event by a firm that checks for needed products in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing database. It’s a meeting arranged by a planner who considers a destination’s public transportation system and a venue’s recycling program. A green meeting may be any one of these things, and more. Increasingly, greener—or more sustainable—meetings are occurring across the landscape. Today, more sustainable meetings, encouraged by EPA guidance on the...

OGUNQUIT, MAINE—Committed to sustainability and preserving the environment, The Cliff House Resort & Spa has installed one of Maine’s largest solar thermal projects. The installation uses 2,100 tubes on 70 collectors. That’s 10 times the size of an average solar project. The solar installation will save an estimated 11,000 gallons of propane annually and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 140,000 pounds per year.Solar energy will be used to provide heat and hot water for the resort’s spa building, which includes 32 guestrooms and 10 treatment rooms. The resort estimates it will reduce fossil fuel consumption in this...

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, COLO.—Glenwood Hot Springs is famous for many things, particularly its two enormous spring-fed mineral hot springs pools and its award-winning Spa of the Rockies. Equally impressive, though less well known, is the fact that Glenwood Hot Springs has been an environmental trailblazer since long before terms like “carbon footprint,” “eco-friendly” and “sustainability” became commonplace. Now, in addition to harnessing geothermal heat sources on-site, Glenwood Hot Springs has adopted practices that include the use of state-of-the-art materials and energy-efficient technology that add up to not only dollars saved, but to a cleaner, healthier environment for visitors and the...

NATIONAL REPORT—There has been a lot of attention lately on green meetings—from green meeting standards to industry agreement on the measurement of the carbon footprint of a meeting. What has been little talked about is the role a simple meeting table can play in the greening of meetings over many years. Increasingly, suppliers are offering tables that are not only recyclable but that can also be used without linens. In the manufacturing of these tables vendors are also taking steps to be environmentally responsible—recycling scrap, recapturing and reusing paint, purchasing supplies locally, incorporating highly unique materials, and making quality...

Ashley Halligan, an analyst who regularly reports on sustainability issues, recently published an article defining and breaking down the idea of net zero building. Beginning with an agreed-upon definition from experts she interviewed, she explains, "Net zero indicates that a building has generated at least as much power as it has consumed over a 12-month benchmarking period--which allows for seasonality to be factored into the measurement." She interviewed several experts including, Brian Anderson, Founding Partner of Anderson Porter Design, Dru B. Crawley, former Commercial Buildings Team Lead for the Department of Energy and current Director of Building Performance at Bentley Systems,...

MONTEZUMA, COSTA RICA—Anamaya Resort and Retreat Center is located in the small beach town called Montezuma, which is known as having a large community of artists, yogis, surfers, and environmentalists among expats as well as the ticos of Costa Rica. Anamaya is well known for their week-long yoga retreats and surfing camps. Their guests enjoy three organic and healthy meals per day with all their Yoga Retreats. Yoga Teacher Trainings are also becoming extremely popular at Anamaya and over the past few years they’ve had to quadruple the amount of trainings they offer in order to keep up with...

WAIKIKI, OAHU, HAWAII—In its efforts to continue to support the State of Hawaii’s ongoing efforts for a cleaner and more sustainable future, Outrigger Enterprises Group recently announced the installation of electric vehicle charging stations at 10 of its Waikiki and Oahu properties. Working with manufacturer and charging station provider AeroVironment, new EV charging stations are now available at the following locations: Outrigger Reef on the Beach, Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach, OHANA Waikiki East, OHANA Waikiki West, OHANA Waikiki Malia, OHANA Honolulu Airport Hotel, Embassy Suites-Waikiki Beach Walk, Holiday Inn Waikiki Beachcomber Resort, Ala Moana Hotel, and Best Western...

CHICAGO—Travelers are an eco-conscious group according to a joint survey conducted by The GO Group, LLC, an international ground transportation provider, and GO Airport Express, a GO Group member company based in Chicago. Seventy-one percent of the survey respondents say it is either important or very important to try and reduce their carbon footprint while traveling.The companies, which provide door-to-door airport shuttle services, asked travelers: “How important is it to you to reduce your carbon footprint while traveling?” More than 2,000 people responded.Just 13 percent of participants responded that it was not important, while 15 percent said they hadn’t...

BOSTON—Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Hostelling International USA (HI-USA) officials, community leaders and travelers last week celebrated the grand opening of the new Boston hostel located in the heart of downtown Boston at the intersection of the Midtown Cultural District, Theater District, and Chinatown. The new 480-bed Boston hostel, which replaces the 208-bed hostel currently located in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood, has been built to LEED green building certification program standards and is expected to be the first LEED Certified hostel in the nation.“I congratulate Hostelling International on this great new facility and welcome the many new visitors it will...