I suspect that most of you are familiar with the term “greenwashing”. According to Wikipedia, it is a term used to describe the perception of consumers that they are being misled by a company regarding its environmental practices or the environmental benefits of a product or service. (Picture a TV commercial that includes a Hummer driving through a pristine forest with birds singing and deer dancing.) Did you know that the term was born in the lodging industry? It is kind of embarrassing, but true. This is what Wikipedia has to say about the origin of the word: “Greenwashing was...

Dennis Quaintance, the CEO and CDO (Chief Design Officer) of Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels, must be a football fan. During a conversation with him this past week, he kept on using the phrase “go deep” when asked what advice he would give to a hotel developer pursuing green building. Quaintance had every reason to be excited when we spoke—Super Bowl level excited. He just learned that his Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, N.C., had earned LEED for New Construction Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The Proximity Hotel is the first hotel in the United States to...

Could the measurement "Greenhouse Gas Emissions Per Occupied Room" (GEPOR) one day be as common as revenue per available room (RevPAR)? In putting together its 2007 Sustainability Report—probably the first one produced by an individual hotel in the United States—the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. used the GEPOR metric to establish its specific annual carbon footprint. The Willard worked with Washington, D.C.-based EnviRelation, LLC to put together the report. EnviRelation, which provides emissions management services, created the GEPOR metric which takes into account criteria such as a hotel’s square footage, electricity and natural gas consumption, gallons of water...

What a week it was. Let’s hope we don’t see another one like it. While attending The Lodging Conference in Phoenix last week, an event that drew more than 1,400 people to The Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, America’s leaders in Washington, D.C. debated how best to get our country out of what many were calling the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Added to that was the largest bank collapse (Washington Mutual) in U.S. history, and an almost unnoticed $25 billion in guaranteed government loans granted to Ford, General Motors and Chrysler to help keep them afloat....

I have written a lot of articles about products, technologies and programs that are no-brainers from a return on investment (ROI) standpoint. Compact fluorescents, LED exit signs, low-flow toilets, aerators and showerheads, towel and linen reuse programs, and guestroom energy management systems are some of the ones that come to mind. Since launching Green Lodging News more than two years ago, I have written twice about ozone laundry systems. If you have to deal with a high volume of sheets, towels, rags and possibly even uniforms on a daily basis and have not yet considered ozone, you should—soon. As detailed...

As it does every year in the lodging industry, the official beginning of autumn signals the start of the conference and trade show season. This fall there are a number of events around the United States that will feature opportunities to learn about green lodging trends, new products, and ways of doing business that can help the environment and your bottom line. Next week, from Tuesday through Friday, The Lodging Conference will be held in Phoenix at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa. I will be moderating a green hotels workshop that will focus on “Initiatives That Save Money...

In the little more than two years that I have been writing this column, I have received a number of requests to read and write about new books. Up until this point, I have written about and recommended just one book: “Green to Gold,” a book co-authored by Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S.Winston. There is another book that I would like to recommend for anyone interested in making their lodging operation a greener and healthier one. The book is called “easy green living” and the author is Renée Loux. Even though the book’s focus is on things you...

I am excited to announce that Green Lodging News has started a blog on its website. For those of you not familiar with blogs, they are simple websites that give one the capability to post news, comments, video, etc. Blogs are interactive. At the end of each blog posting, there is a “comments” link that allows one to post a response. There are numerous ways to link to the Green Lodging News Blog. On the website home page there are three links. The first one is located in the upper left area under “departments.” The second link is below...

California has been a hub for green hotel activity for quite some time. Two of the first U.S. hotels to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification are located there—The Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco and the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa in American Canyon. The first hotel in the United States to obtain LEED certification for an existing building (LEED-EB) is The Ambrose in Santa Monica. There are many other properties in the state that have been the first to do great things operationally and from a design and build standpoint. Soon, all new hotels...

I am among the group of travelers that takes home unused amenity bottles for final consumption and recycling. I have about 15 bottles sitting on my bathroom sink waiting to be used. Only three of the bottles have ingredients listed. While writing an article on amenities this week, I learned that it is not required that ingredients be listed when products are given away—which they are in hotel guestrooms. Eight of the bottles list where they were made (two in India, six in China). It should come as no surprise that most amenity bottles, even some containing what is...