LAS VEGAS—Investigative and magazine journalist Charles Fishman, author of “The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water,” will be keynote speaker for the 4th annual WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition luncheon Thursday, October 6, at the South Point Hotel and Conference Center in Las Vegas. A finalist for the Goldman Sachs “Financial Times” Business Book of the Year award in 2006, Fishman is a former metro and national reporter for The Washington Post. Since 1996, he has worked for the innovative business magazine Fast Company. His story about bottled water, “Message in a Bottle,” was a finalist...

NATIONAL REPORT—When building sustainability programs, many properties easily conquer the projects that are considered low hanging fruit—towel and linen reuse programs, low-flow fixtures, compact fluorescent lamps, etc. But when it comes to the smaller items that still have a negative environmental impact, sustainability is often forgotten. Two good examples are menus and guest services directories. Almost every restaurant utilizes menus with menu covers and has other table-top accessories to promote drink, dessert or other items. Almost every guestroom still includes a guest services directory. From the point of their creation to their disposal, each of these items can have...

SNOWMASS, COLO.—Viceroy Snowmass, which opened to rave reviews in late 2009, announced that it has been awarded LEED Gold certification, established 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. Viceroy Snowmass is the first hotel in Aspen/Snowmass to be awarded LEED Gold as well as the first luxury hotel in Colorado to receive this prestigious designation. By incorporating sustainable design and construction, innovative operational practices, and a culture of environmental stewardship, Viceroy Snowmass aims to...

TORONTO—Fairmont Hotels & Resorts announced an extension of its partnership with German automaker BMW Group to provide guests with complimentary hotel bicycles. Just in time for summer, Fairmont hotels all across the world will offer state-of-the-art stylish BMW Cruise Bikes to guests. The new bikes will provide an active and environmentally sound way for travelers to explore the many unique places Fairmont calls home—from Fairmont Beijing, where guests can cycle through the Hutongs of Old Beijing to Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, where guests can explore Lake Geneva and the Swiss countryside. Lock and helmets are also provided to keep both...

PARIS—Accor Hotels has announced the launch of Earth Guest Research, a platform for sharing knowledge on social and environmental issues relating to the hotel industry. The goal of sharing the research is to help advance the tourism industry’s efforts in this area by making sustainable development surveys and methodologies available to all industry operators, as well as to the general public. To identify effective improvement drivers and enhance support from guests, Accor initiated the survey by finding out exactly what their concerns and expectations are with regard to sustainable development. As a result, the first Earth Guest Research publication is...

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.—The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) International has collaborated with NSF International, a leading ANSI-accredited developer of more than 75 American National standards, to develop Product Category Rules for the furniture industry. The National Center for Sustainability Standards (NCSS), founded by NSF, will serve as the Program Operator for developing the furniture Product Category Rules (PCR). Product Category Rules (PCR) help meet the growing demand for science-based support to verify environmental product claims and eliminate greenwashing. PCRs define how to conduct a life cycle assessment for a particular product group and what to include in the...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced that LEED Volume Program for Operations & Maintenance is now available for existing green building projects. The track, which focuses on operations and maintenance needs, debuted at the 2011 BOMA International Conference held in Washington, D.C. “With the launch of the Operations & Maintenance track, LEED’s largest users are now able to make a sizable impact in greening their existing building portfolio as well as achieving green design and construction of their new builds,” said Scot Horst, senior vice president, USGBC. “Because existing buildings make up the vast majority of the...

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN—Scandic Hotels was rewarded by the Nordic Council for its efforts to promote sustainable tourism in the Nordic Region and beyond. A conscious environmental strategy and a series of apparently minor and simple initiatives have proven highly successful. The theme of the Nordic Council Nature and Environment Prize 2011 is sustainable tourism. Businesses, organizations and individuals with a proven track record of lessening the environmental impact of tourism in the region were all eligible to be nominated for the $68,000 prize. The winner is the Norwegian part of Scandic Hotels, a pioneer and trendsetter in sustainable tourism for the...

QUINCY, MASS.—Elevators don’t use a lot of energy compared to air-conditioning, heating—or even compared to computers and lighting. But when you add together all the little ways to cut energy use in a large building, the savings can add up. According to John Powers, president of Century Elevator Co., a family-owned firm based in Quincy, Mass., new elevators use a small percentage—less than 5 percent—of a building’s overall energy consumption. Elevators more than 20 years old use motor generators that must convert AC power into DC power to move the cab. DC used to be the current needed to control...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the release of the comprehensively updated LEED Demand Response Pilot Credit. Originally launched in 2010, the revised and enhanced Demand Response Pilot Credit establishes guidelines that are anticipated to increase participation in automated demand response programs. Leading industry experts from the Demand Response Research Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), Schneider Electric and Skipping Stone contributed to the development of the credit. LEED projects that satisfy the credit by demonstrating their ability to shift energy consumption during peak events by 10 percent of peak load demand will earn a point towards...