The National Restaurant Association’s (NRA) annual survey of American Culinary Federation members shows interest in sustainable food and beverage offerings remains strong. According to the NRA’s annual “What’s Hot” list, the top 10 current concept trends include the following: 1. Hyper-local sourcing (e.g. restaurant gardens, on-site beer brewing, house-made items); 2. Chef-driven fast-casual concepts; 3. Natural ingredients/clean menus; 4. Environmental sustainability; 5. Locally sourced produce; 6. Locally sourced meat and seafood; 7. Food waste reduction; 8. Meal kits (e.g. pre-measured/prepped raw ingredients for home preparation); 9. Simplicity/back to basics; and 10. Nutrition. Among the top 20 food trends this...

Many of you will be reading this column in the midst of the holiday season. I do wish all of you a very healthy and safe time visiting with family and friends. At this time of the year I have to thank all of you for your ongoing support of Green Lodging News—whether as a reader, advertiser, supporter or sponsor. I am looking forward to an even better 2017. Looking back on 2016, there were a number of highlights for Green Lodging News—record readership, the launch of the Green Lodging Survey with Greenview in April, our 10-year anniversary in July,...

December 8 was an important day for MGM Resorts International. It was then that it officially opened the LEED Gold MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. The 308-room property is located minutes from Washington, D.C. The MGM National Harbor is MGM Resorts International’s ninth LEED certification. Cindy Ortega, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer for MGM Resorts International, said in a press release that the hotel exemplifies MGM’s long-standing effort to implement sustainable and responsible practices across its resorts. I spoke with Todd Megrath, Executive Director of Sustainable Development, MGM Resorts International, about the new property and he...

One of the trends I am seeing in our industry is the increasing importance of amenity companies as agents of positive change. I will be writing about this in a feature article in the next few weeks. At last month’s HX: The Hotel Experience show in New York I spoke with a representative of LATHER about the company’s new baobab & shea collection—amenities that include extracts from Africa’s baobab and shea trees. The harvesting of both of these crops promotes the well-being of women and their communities in Africa. I recently interviewed the founder of Health 2 Humanity about...

This past week was an exciting one for Green Lodging News with the release of the Green Lodging Trends Report 2016. (If you have not yet seen the report, click here to download it.) The report is the culmination of more than a year of work on the first annual Green Lodging Survey and includes summaries of the results of the survey. Green Lodging News teamed up with Greenview to produce the survey and report. I owe a big thank you to Greenview’s Eric Ricaurte and Grace Kang for their work on the project. The project could not have...

One of the most important reports to come along in years was recently published by WWF (World Wildlife Fund). I strongly encourage you to read it. Living Planet Report 2016 will be shocking to those who have not kept up with the pace of the degradation of our planet’s natural systems and wildlife. It truly is shocking what has happened in the last almost 50 years. Wildlife populations have shown a concerning decline, on average by 58 percent since 1970. The decline is likely to reach 67 percent by the end of the decade. “We are entering a new era...

If you are planning to implement or beef up a sustainability program, attending a trade show geared toward hospitality products can be one of the wisest things you can do. I attended HX: The Hotel Experience and Boutique Design New York (BDNY) this past week and was overwhelmed by the number of green products and services available to hoteliers—most of which can lead to not only environmental savings but financial savings as well. Granted, HX: The Hotel Experience is quite small in size compared to what it once was as the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show. Yet, there was a...

The American Hotel & Lodging Assn. (AHLA) this past week released the results of its biennial Lodging Survey. The survey was conducted by industry data provider STR and funded by the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation. I always look forward to reading the results of this survey because of the size of the survey’s audience and its response rate. This year’s survey had more than 8,000 responses. More than 45,000 U.S. properties were approached to complete the survey. The survey is not perfect; it could use some improvement, but it is among the best we have. There were many...

I am very excited to announce the launch of our new website at www.greenlodgingnews.com. Have you seen it? The site is the culmination of more than 10 years of work and includes almost 9,000 articles. It will take a bit of getting used to if you were used to the old website. First, all of the links that previously were on the left side of the website have been moved under topic areas in the main navigation bar. Drop-down menus will take you to departments ranging from Energy Management to News Blog to Vendor Videos. The Events calendar includes...

When you have kids, you go through a lot of paper. My son, who is now five and in kindergarten, recently had a cold for more than two weeks. We had to put the Kleenex box on top of the refrigerator to stop him from using so many. He uses toilet paper like it is going out of style. And, the way he goes through napkins, you would think he had the mouth of a Saint Bernard. I thought of my son this past week while writing my article on the paper versus cloth napkin debate. What are your thoughts...