You are most likely reading this column while I am attending HX: The Hotel Experience in New York City. The event, what was once the International Hotel, Motel + Restaurant Show (IHMRS), is taking place from November 8 to 10 and is adjacent to Boutique Design New York (BDNY) which is being held November 8 to 9. Both events are at the green roofed Javits Center. I am writing this column in advance of the show and am very excited to see how different HX will be from IHMRS. The owners of the event have invested a lot in...

One of the most impressive reports to come along in recent years is the Green Venue Report. Just released for the second time, it is available for free (sign up here to download it). The 59-page report highlights the results of a 158-question survey. Topic areas range from energy, waste and staff involvement to food and beverage, water and air quality. Conducted in the spring and based on 2014 information, this year’s data set includes 30 convention centers from six countries and four continents. Compared to year one of the report, the number of participants nearly doubled. Twenty-one of...

This past week was a busy news week. First, Marriott International released its 2015 Sustainability Report. Found here, it includes 12 different sections ranging from Business Ethics and Human Rights to Environmental Performance. Of note, Marriott has reduced its energy intensity (kWh of per square meter of conditioned space) by 9.4 percent since 2007, its water intensity (cubic meter per occupied room) by 22.9 percent, and its greenhouse gas emissions intensity (kilograms per square meter) by 10 percent. If you would like to compare Marriott’s performance from year to year, the company now has six years of sustainability reports...

I have written a number of times about shipping containers and how they have been used in our industry. Early this year I posted an article about the Days Inn-Sioux Lookout in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, a property made from 120 shipping containers. At least one hotel—the Ritz-Carlton, Naples (Fla.)—is using a shipping container in a different way—to grow crops. I spoke briefly with Gabrielle O’Boyle, Communications Manager at the hotel, and she told me the container sits in a service drive area of the property and is “not guest facing.” I plan to interview George Fistrovich, the Executive Chef...

Is it just me or do you also feel a bit guilty each time you use a paper towel to dry your hands in a public restroom? Given the advances that have been made with hand dryers (read my hand dryer article that I posted this week) I really don’t understand why commercial establishments and public facilities still offer paper towels. Am I missing something here? If you are still offering paper towels to your guests, perhaps even in combination with hand dryers, what is your rationale for doing so? I would love to know. I asked Robert Green,...

The Spafinder Wellness 365 eighth annual 2015 State of Wellness Travel report offers a glimpse at the evolving travel habits of those travelers interested in “maintaining or enhancing one’s personal well-being.” This includes the pursuit of physical, mental, spiritual or environmental wellness while traveling for either leisure or business. The study was conducted in July and August. More than 200 travel agents in North America and Europe participated. I found the results quite interesting. Eighty-six percent of agents reported that they expect wellness travel to grow this year. Fourteen percent expected it to stay the same. No respondent thought...

Of the five educational sessions I moderated at last year’s International Hotel, Motel + Restaurant Show in New York City (event now called HX: The Hotel Experience), the session that drew the most participants was entitled, “Crafting a Career in Sustainability in Hospitality & Tourism—Sustainability Trends in Hospitality Education.” It was great to see young people so excited about sustainability. Whenever I see a young person trying to make a difference in our industry, I do my best to give that person a lot of exposure and encouragement. In 2013 I profiled the work of Milo Cress, an 11-year-old...

Let’s call him “John Smith.” This is a true story but I will protect the gentleman’s privacy. John drives an electric vehicle (EV) in Las Vegas and also lives in Las Vegas. One evening he decided he would go to a casino for dinner and gambling. He chose that casino because it has an EV charging station. He figured he could charge his vehicle while having a nice evening out. Upon arrival at the casino he was told by a resort associate that the charging station was for guests only. Let’s call this negative experience No. 1. Keep in...

I would not call it a flurry of announcements about LEED Platinum hotel developments but it is quite unusual to read about two in less than a month. The first one, in case you missed it, is the College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center in Hyattsville, Md. That property, originally named the Marriott Inn and Conference Center University of Maryland University College, was the first hotel in the United States to earn any type of LEED certification. The property, which has 237 guestrooms and suites, recently went through several years of renovation and emerged as one of just...

Those attending this November’s HX: The Hotel Experience (November 8 to 10) and Boutique Design New York (November 8 to 9) will be doing so in a building—the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center—that has undergone some dramatic changes in recent years. High above the trade show floors, up on the roof of the complex that offers 840,000 square feet of meeting space, there is a 6.75-acre green roof.“As the second largest of its kind in the country, the nearly seven-acre green roof is serving as a model for sustainability nationwide, reducing our energy consumption while becoming a living laboratory...