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...

A big tip of the hat this week to David M. Stipanuk. David is the author of the new book entitled, “Hospitality Facilities Management and Design.” It is the fourth edition of the book and David has authored it each time. David, Professor Emeritus, taught at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University from 1983 to 2008. I highly recommend the book that includes a chapter on “Environmental and Sustainability Management,” as well as chapters such as Water and Wastewater Systems, Electrical Systems, Lighting Systems, Laundry Systems, Facility Design, and Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning Systems. Jeanne Varney,...

The evening of Friday, May 8 was unlike any other for Ruben Hernandez, Security Supervisor at New York’s Hotel Pennsylvania. Ruben had just started his shift, which typically runs from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., when he got a call that a guest was unresponsive in a fifth floor room. Ruben grabbed the hotel’s automated external defibrillator (AED) and started running. Fortunately, the elevator door on the ground floor was open. That alone could have meant life or death for the guest. When Ruben arrived at the scene, he and his fellow Security Officer, Danny Sandoval, began administering cardiopulmonary...

I just returned from the annual HD Expo at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. For those of you not familiar with the event, it is primarily a trade show but with many educational opportunities as well. I had an opportunity to walk the entire trade show floor. More than 850 manufacturers and service providers were present. Many of those exhibiting offered products with some type of sustainability component. In lighting everything is LED these days and that was clear in what was offered by the many lighting-related suppliers. If I ever see a compact fluorescent at a trade show...

Cold water is “hot.” Last month P&G Professional (not an advertiser of Green Lodging News), the away-from-home division of Procter & Gamble, announced that the Tide Professional Coldwater Laundry System was named a 2015 Award Winner by the internationally renowned Edison Awards. This laundry system enables hotel facilities to reduce the energy needed to heat the water in a commercial washer by as much as 75 percent and to reduce the water used in a commercial washer by up to 40 percent.According to P&G Professional, Tide Professional Coldwater features an advanced system using unique enzymes that are specially designed...

The two conferences focused specifically on green lodging that took place in 2014 have yet to be rescheduled but there are a number of opportunities coming up to attend events at which there will be opportunities to learn about various aspects of lodging and restaurant sustainability. First, HD Expo, set to take place at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas from May 13 to 15, will include four Green Voice Conversations organized by NEWH as part of its Green Voice Conversations series. Topics will include Biophilic Design, Futuristic Materials, Detoxifying Hotel Interiors, and Smaller Footprint Trends and Guest Experience. NEWH...