I just added another hotel to the Geothermal Powered page on the Green Lodging News website—The Hotel at Oberlin in Oberlin, Ohio. Anyone familiar with Oberlin College would not be surprised by the college’s latest venture. The 70-room hotel, set to have its soft opening this month (May), is on track for the rare LEED Platinum certification and will join just a handful of hotels in the United States in that group. I recently spoke with Christopher Noble, Project Developer, SMART Hotels LLC, to learn more about this outstanding property.“Our path to LEED Platinum is based on energy efficiency...

I used Earth Day to announce the launch of the planet’s premier Green Lodging Survey. Set to launch in June (watch for it!), the survey is being produced in partnership with Greenview. Eric Ricaurte is the Principal of Greenview and I will be working with him on this exciting project. Greenview has helped launch several innovative industry initiatives including the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative, the Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking study, the Hotel Footprinting Tool, the Green Venue Report, and the UNWTO’s sustainable cruise development strategies for South-East Asia.In June and months following hoteliers and innkeepers will be asked to...

Earth Day is April 22. I have been hearing from some companies and individual hotels regarding their plans. All 11 of Greystone Hotels’ California and Oregon based properties will donate a portion of gross room revenues from Earth Day to the Nature Conservancy. Earth Day will also be an organized day of service for all employees. Kimball International, Inc. is recognizing Earth Day and Arbor Day by continuing its traditional “Trees for Tomorrow” program. For 2016, the program involves a $1 donation for every employee to the Arbor Day Foundation which will plant a seedling in forests on behalf...

On April 22, 2013—Earth Day—TripAdvisor launched its GreenLeaders program. Almost three years later, that program that recognizes lodging establishments for their green initiatives has more than 11,000 participating properties in 66 global markets across North America, Latin America, Europe, as well as Australia and New Zealand. In the last year, TripAdvisor has added nearly 3,000 GreenLeaders participants. The free, voluntary program is clearly one of the most successful green programs to have ever launched in our industry. I interviewed Ryan Dillon, Responsible Travel Specialist at TripAdvisor and manager of GreenLeaders, for a Green Lodging News article that was posted...

At the top of a Marriott website dedicated to lesbian and gay travel, a Marriott statement reads as follows: “At Marriott, there is no room for inequality. We believe that every guest, whoever they are, wherever they go, should feel comfortable and welcome the moment they walk through our doors.” Marriott is just one example of many companies in our industry that have made sure that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is welcome in its hotels. Of course it makes sense—legally, ethically, economically, etc.—to welcome all people just as much as any other without discriminating based...

This past week I had an opportunity to chat with Dominique Cocquet, CEO of Villages Nature. I am working on an article on the very impressive Villages Nature project. For those of you not familiar with it, it is a joint venture of Pierre & Vacances Center Parcs and Euro Disney and is located 20 miles east of Paris and just a few miles from Disneyland Paris. Villages Nature is expected to open next spring with 916 dwellings, more than two-thirds of which will be cottages and one-third family suites. Within the next five years there will be more...

Last week’s article on water bottle filling stations was tweeted about by many and already has had about 1,000 page views. It was great that so many folks got to read the article. While traveling this past week, I saw one of the bottle filling stations I had written about at Philadelphia International Airport. They are certainly becoming more common. In response to my article, I heard from Jack Hlavec, General Manager of the Hilton Concord in Concord, Calif. Jack told me his property, which I have written about numerous times in the past few years, began implementing bottle...

Experts generally agree that approximately 50 billion plastic bottles are used each year in the United States. Only about one-quarter of those are recycled. The lodging industry is certainly an enabler when it comes to plastic bottle waste. One can typically find plastic bottled beverages wherever there is a soda machine or gift shop. What I consider to be a no brainer when it comes to reducing plastic bottle waste is bottle filling stations. This past week I wrapped up an article on bottle filling stations. They are just beginning to take hold in our industry and are currently...

Anniversaries are the types of things that can sneak up on you. In this case, however—my 500th column and 500th weekly e-newsletter—I clearly saw it coming for years. Each week, at the top of my e-newsletter, the “Issue Number” is moved ahead one click. You just can’t avoid the passage of time.Five hundred columns and newsletters. Wow. Early on, it was not always easy generating original content for “green lodging.” Today, however, it is truly a challenge to keep up with all of the developments in green building, operations, products and technologies.Looking back on all of the columns I...

It is a success story that just is not getting the attention it deserves—our industry’s utilization and embracing of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating program. In case you missed it, USGBC recently released its LEED in Motion: Hospitality report which provides an update on our industry’s LEED participation. Compared to when I first launched Green Lodging News almost 10 years ago, the level of interest in LEED has grown tremendously.According to the report, there are more than 400 LEED certified hotels globally, comprising nearly 133.9 million square feet. The...