As published on Green Lodging News, Xanterra Parks & Resorts just released its 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report. For those of you not familiar with Xanterra, its assets include operations at Grand Canyon National Park, Yellowstone National Park and numerous other parks, two resorts, two hotels, and companies such as Windstar Cruises and VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations. Xanterra is one of the companies I have been reporting on the longest. The company has been tracking its environmental footprint since 2000. Since that year Xanterra has reduced its total fossil fuel consumption across park and resort operations by...

I am one of the few people in America who has never had a cup of coffee. And no, thinking about it does not keep me up at night. What should keep me up at night, however, is the incredible amount of waste created by single-serve coffee and other beverage pods (a.k.a. K-Cups, k cups, kups). An estimated 20+ billion k cups will be consumed in 2015. Stack them end to end and yes, they do go pretty far outside of our planet. If you have a Keurig Green Mountain brewer in your guestrooms, lobby or breakfast area, it...

I have often heard speakers cite figures about the number of green certification programs available to businesses. Typically the inference is that there are too many of the programs. That may very well be true but there should always be room for one more in our industry if it has been thoughtfully developed, is innovative, of value to the user, and of benefit to guests.  This past week I spoke with Debra Duneier, Founder and President of New York-based EcoChi, LLC about her company’s EcoChi 180° certification program (see article). It is just beginning to be adopted by hospitality...

Could the battery in the electric vehicle you are driving today help store and provide energy for your hotel tomorrow? It may happen soon thanks to the partnership between Green Charge Networks and Nissan that was announced last month. Green Charge Networks is one of the companies mentioned in the article I posted last week on energy storage technology. For those of you not familiar with energy storage systems, they are currently being deployed primarily in California. They help reduce demand charges that typically account for at least 30 percent of a commercial electricity bill, and often as much...

The International Hotel, Motel + Restaurant Show (IHMRS) has long been my favorite industry show. In recent years the show has experienced a steady decline in attendance, and yes, importance, as other shows have come along and people’s buying and networking habits have changed. In 2013 and 2014 Green Lodging News worked with the managers of the event to create a Hospitality Green Division—an area where green exhibitors were grouped together. It was a great idea and, I believe, a positive step in helping to stabilize the show. Yet, that step and several others were just not enough to...

If you read this column regularly you will recall my late March column about the opening of the first 1 Hotel in South Beach in Miami Beach. The “1” concept was first introduced by Starwood Capital Group in 2006 and is the idea of Barry Sternlicht, Chairman and CEO, Starwood Capital Group. The South Beach hotel is the first of three 1 Hotels to open. Every 1 Hotel will be LEED certified.Many of the details about the 1 Hotels already have been published on Green Lodging News. All of the hotels will have significant green features. At 1 Hotel...

Critical to the success of any green program is getting employee buy-in. How do you improve the likelihood of that happening? Consider the findings of some researchers at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a co-researcher. Their paper, “What Drives Employees’ Intentions to Implement Green Practices in Hotels? The Role of Knowledge, Awareness, Concern and Ecological Behavior,” provides some interesting clues.The researchers conducted a survey at 10 Hong Kong hotels, eight of which were 4 or 5 star and two of which were 3 star hotels. Half of the respondents were...

Two columns ago I mentioned that I would soon be writing an article on eco-friendly alternatives to pesticides used on bedbugs. I posted that article this past week. Be sure to read it. Probably the biggest lesson I learned during research for my article was that if you really want to know the truth about bedbugs and bedbug treatments, talk to an entomologist. Paul Curtis, a Board Certified Entomologist and Manager, Technical Services, Terminix International, was very helpful as I was writing my article. (Paul has written for Green Lodging News in the past. See article.)About six and one-half...

Hersha Hospitality Trust released its first sustainability report this past week. For those of you not familiar with Hersha, it is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and operates upscale hotels in urban gateway markets including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Miami. The report can be found on Hersha’s website. It successfully captures some of the highlights of Hersha’s many green initiatives.Being a REIT, Hersha is of course focused on financial performance. According to Bennett Thomas, Vice President of Finance & Sustainability for Hersha, any green investments Hersha makes always have to be the right...

Earlier this year Orkin released its 2014 Bed Bug Cities List. Needless to say, it is not the kind of list your convention and visitors bureau is going to be crowing about. Topping Orkin’s list was Chicago, followed by Detroit, Columbus (Ohio) and Los Angeles. My hometown of Cleveland came in at No. 5. A number of cities made big jumps on Orkin’s list. Omaha, Neb., for example, jumped 16 spots, and Sacramento, Calif. jumped 14. The annual list is not based entirely on hotel reporting but all of the different types of places Orkin services.In the press release...