One of the hottest topics in foodservice is the electrification of the kitchen and there are numerous organized and even legislative efforts to push businesses to go all-electric and eliminate natural gas. The aim is to decarbonize food and beverage operations. To help guide hoteliers, restaurateurs and others toward all-electric kitchens, the William J. Worthen Foundation included a very helpful volume (volume 5) in its “The Building Decarbonization Practice Guide.” The volume title: All-Electric Kitchens: Residential and Commercial, 2nd edition. I highly recommend reading through this section. It builds a very strong case for eliminating natural gas. “Kitchens present superb opportunities...

It is “popping up” everywhere: cork. Known for its wine bottle role, versatile, sustainable cork is being used as a source material in a wide variety of new products. ReCORK just announced it has developed a material made from 75 percent recycled natural cork to be used as a replacement for petroleum-based foam used in shoe soles. The material will be featured in a new line of shoes by ReCORK’s founding company, SOLE. At this past fall’s Boutique Design New York, I was introduced to cork leather by TFS Natural Home’s Suzanne Diamond who showed me an example of how...

It is a start for Red Roof: releasing its first annual report for the company’s signature Purpose With Heart program which was launched in 2023. With this report Red Roof has established a baseline from which to improve. Purpose With Heart contains three essential pillars: Heart For The Planet, which is tied to Red Roof’s impact on the environment and responsible stewardship of natural resources; Room In Your Heart, its societal and charitable giving programs; and Lead With Heart, Red Roof’s responsible governance and leadership initiatives. To give you some sense of the scale of the Red Roof commitment,...

While researching for my article on toilet paper (TP) made from bamboo and bamboo and sugar cane this past week, I thought of the articles I have posted in the past on whether paper towels or hand dryers are the better option in public restrooms. Why so? In both cases there are stakeholders wanting to stand their ground in support of what they sell. In the bamboo TP scenario, you have the entrepreneurs who make bamboo toilet paper stating that the making of traditional TP results in the destruction of tens of thousands of trees each day. Makers of traditional...

A number of items of note this past week. First, I posted the promised article on Host Hotels & Resorts, based on my interview with Michael Chang, Vice President of Energy and Sustainability for the company. Be sure to give it a read. Second, scientists from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that 2023 was the world’s hottest on record. Averaged across last year, temperatures worldwide were 1.48 degrees Celsius, or 2.66 Fahrenheit higher than they were in 1850. (Records began in 1850.) The amount of heat stored in the upper layers of the ocean also reached a...

I had an opportunity to interview Michael Chang, Vice President of Energy and Sustainability for Host Hotels & Resorts this past week. Be sure to watch for the article soon on Green Lodging News. A little more than seven years ago, I featured Michael in the Personnel Profile section of my site and have frequently posted about Host Hotels & Resorts since. For those of you not familiar with Host, it is a Bethesda, Md.-based Real Estate Investment Trust with a portfolio of 77 hotels with 42,000 rooms in the top 20 U.S. markets. Notably, Host owns the New York...

Over the years the events industry has agreed upon several versions of steps it should take to reduce the environmental impact of events. On December 11 at ExCeL London, the Net Zero Carbon Events (NZCE) initiative published seven best practice guidance and methodology documents to aid the global events industry in reducing carbon emissions and achieving net-zero goals. The documents range from 12 to 93 pages in length and include links to many helpful resources. Be sure to review these documents and support the efforts behind them. The seven documents include: Smart Production & Waste Management Guidance—This document is divided into...

In Green Lodging News’ 18th year, 2023, there were many important articles published. The following are the Top 10 most read articles that were posted in 2023. 1. Car Free Las Catalinas Announces Completion of Beach Town Neighborhood. In 2006, the innovators behind a car-free town aspired to create a better way of life connecting people to nature in a place where 1,000 acres of a 1,200-acre property would remain undeveloped as a tropical dry forest reserve. After 16 years of planning and construction, that vision is now a reality with the completion of the neighborhood of Beach Town in...

Growing up, it was common for my father to have a couple of his buddies over for a card game. Sometimes I would join them. My father and his friends would all be smoking like chimneys. When my father joined the air force during World War II, the military gave enlisted men cigarettes for free. (Today I wonder, sarcastically of course, whose side the military was on.) Eventually, our ceiling turned quite dark from the toxins. Maybe you had a similar experience as a child. Today, when I travel, I am very sensitive to cigarette smoke in hotels. My wife...

Each day I receive a newsletter from the Good News Network highlighting the good news of the day. There could easily be a hospitality version of this newsletter given the volume of news I receive about hotel companies doing great things in their communities and around the world. The heart of our industry is big and that is one of the main reasons I have stayed in it for so many years. Compassion and giving are not just a holiday thing but something that happens year-round. It is ingrained in the DNA of so many companies. I try to post...