The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) just published the Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2024. GWI defines wellness as: the active pursuit of activities, choices, and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health. Green Lodging News has frequently reported on the impact of wellness on the global economy in the past. The global wellness economy has grown rapidly in the aftermath of the pandemic and reached a new peak of $6.3 trillion in 2023 (representing 6.03 percent of global GDP). The wellness economy is expected to reach nearly $6.8 trillion in 2024, and march toward nearly $9.0 trillion in...

Arlo Hotels, the independent lifestyle hotel brand with properties in New York, Chicago and Miami, announced that its Arlo Washington DC officially opened this past week. The 445-room hotel is expected to achieve LEED certification in spring 2025. The property is demonstrating over 25 percent reduction in energy cost and will have a 6,000-square-foot green roof, including a 12,000-gallon cistern to capture rainwater that will be treated and reused on-site. The Arlo Washington DC will join hundreds of other hotels that have earned the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED certification. USGBC recently announced the release of its USGBC Impact Report—a comprehensive review...

NEW YORK—The annual Boutique Design New York (BDNY), held this past week at the Javits Center in New York, featured a long list of companies with sustainability initiatives. The following is just a partial list of those companies and their product introductions. Solar powered since last year, Moore & Giles featured its carbon neutral leathers—Mont Blanc and Tribeca. “When you choose Moore & Giles carbon neutral leather, you are helping to offset the cradle to gate embodied carbon impact through third-party verified carbon offsets,” the company says, adding that it partners with UPS and FedEx to offset CO2 emissions from...

A leading national nonprofit, Keep America Beautiful inspires and educates people to act every day to improve and beautify their community environment. Keep America Beautiful envisions a country in which every community is a clean, green, and beautiful place to live. Established in 1953, Keep America Beautiful provides the expertise, programs and resources to help people End Littering, Improve Recycling, Beautify America’s public spaces, and Restore & Support resilient communities. The organization is driven by the work and passion of millions of individual volunteers, nearly 700 community-based Keep America Beautiful affiliates, and the support of municipalities, elected officials, and corporate partners. Hilton Sponsors Greatest American Cleanup Hilton recently announced sponsorship of Keep...

Nuveen Green Capital made the news twice recently, and for good reason. First, the leader in sustainable commercial real estate financing solutions announced that it has closed on the financing of $190 million in C-PACE capital for the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. The project marks the first C-PACE financed deal in Clark County, as well as the largest in Nevada, and second largest C-PACE financed deal in the country to date. Second, it announced that it has closed on a $76.2 million financing package for Bishop’s Lodge Auberge Resort in Santa Fe, N.M. The closing marks the first-ever C-PACE...

Denver’s Populus hotel, developed by Urban Villages, a leading real estate developer and environmental steward, and managed by Aparium Hotel Group, is staking its claim as one of the greenest hotels on the planet. A recent press release described it as the first carbon positive hotel in the United States. The hotel’s embodied carbon footprint has been reduced through a combination of sustainable design and construction techniques—including the use of low-carbon concrete, an insulated façade system and GFRC rainscreen, and intentionally not having onsite parking—then offset by the acquisition of 7,000 tons of certified carbon credits as a part of its evolving,...

In April, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and the Hotel Association of Canada (HAC) announced a partnership to jointly operate the Green Key Global sustainability certification program in the U.S. and Canada. Since then, many of America’s top hospitality companies have signed up for the program, which provides third-party certification for hotels’ sustainability policies and processes. To find out what hoteliers need to know about this leading sustainability certification program, Green Lodging News spoke with Green Key Global Managing Director Anick Levesque and AHLA Interim President & CEO Kevin Carey about how Green Key Global certification supports sustainability...

There are several certification programs that recently got my attention—all of which are now listed on the Green Lodging News certifications page. Be sure to visit the programs’ respective websites for additional information, as only a portion of the programs' details are included here. The first program, launched by Wellness in Travel & Tourism (WITT), aims to transform the hospitality sector by providing prestigious certification criteria that sets properties apart in a competitive market, enabling them to enhance their wellness offerings and attract travelers. “The WITT Certified seal provides hotels and resorts with a significant advantage in attracting travelers by offering objective and rigorous...

With its new Liquifill, Hotel Emporium is changing the way hoteliers fill waste-saving dispensers. The hospitality industry generates substantial plastic waste due to the frequent disposal of single-use bath liquid bottles. Additionally, the manual refilling of pump bottles is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and often inconsistent, leading to inefficiencies and varying guest experiences. Liquifill is an innovative machine designed to refill bath liquid dispensers efficiently and sustainably. By automating the refilling process, Liquifill drastically reduces plastic waste, lowers labor costs, and ensures a seamless refilling process. According to Hotel Emporium, this smart solution empowers hotels to adopt eco-friendly practices while improving operational efficiency and enhancing guest satisfaction. The single bath liquid filling machine offers a compact and efficient solution, filling one...

More than 500 articles on the Green Lodging News website reference the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building certification system. According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. Many hotel companies have embraced LEED and for good reason. The system provides a framework to create healthy, highly efficient and cost-saving green buildings. Also, according to USGBC, LEED buildings have a higher resale value than non-LEED buildings. LEED-certified buildings are a solid asset for investors, occupiers, and communities. LEED is available for every project: Building Design...