SAN FRANCISCO—The Green Meeting Industry Council has announced highlights of their ninth annual Sustainable Meetings Conference taking place in San Francisco April 15 to 17, including a diverse array of sustainability leaders and activities exploring the best practices in the green event industry in San Francisco and beyond.The 2014 conference program will feature combined short presentations with large and small group collaborations integrated as a whole. The keynote presentation, “The Value of Sustainability Across Brands, Organizations and Sectors,” will address the big ideas around sustainability, while subsequent sessions will address specific challenges in hosting green meetings. Speakers include pioneers...

ATLANTA—PURE Solutions, a provider of allergy-friendly hotel rooms, will install 18 new rooms at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead. “The JW Marriott brand provides a strong emphasis on health and wellness, from locally sourced and organic cuisine to our state-of-the-art fitness center,” said General Manager, Mike Giamundo. “We believe PURE Rooms will enhance that experience for visitors to Buckhead.”PURE Rooms are treated according to a patented seven-step process that kills and protects against 98 to 100 percent of viruses, bacteria and other harmful surface and airborne irritants. PURE technology creates a hypoallergenic environment that is more comfortable for asthma...

DALLAS—The Ellis Hotel, downtown Atlanta’s premier boutique hotel, recently converted an entire floor to feature exclusively Beyond by Aerus allergy-friendly rooms. Well known for its private-access women-only floor, the hotel now offers a second private-access floor offering allergy-friendly rooms by implementing the Beyond by Aerus purification process. This patent-pending system includes 15 unique treatment programs. The Ellis Hotel partnered with Beyond by Aerus to provide a solution for travelers that suffer from allergies and asthma. Every Beyond by Aerus room features ActivePure technology that works constantly to provide the highest levels of protection against airborne and surface contaminants. ActivePure is based...

NATIONAL REPORT—Last year was a big year for national green lodging certification with the launch of TripAdvisor’s GreenLeaders program but at the state level there was still a lot of certification and recognition activity and that will continue through 2014. There are currently 27 state level programs that offer some degree of certification or recognition for lodging establishments actively working to reduce waste, energy consumption and water consumption. Green Lodging News previously had listed 28 states but Montana has been removed from the list. Its partnership with Green Directory Montana is no longer active. Within the 27 states that...

TORONTO—Green Hotels Global, a system that provides metrics-based information on the environmental footprint of hotels, and TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel site, announced a partnership to add 1,375 Marriott properties, which are Green Hotels Global’s clients, to TripAdvisor GreenLeaders. The addition makes TripAdvisor GreenLeaders the largest program of its kind in the United States with more than 3,600 participating accommodations.TripAdvisor GreenLeaders helps TripAdvisor’s community of more than 260 million travelers plan greener trips by highlighting U.S. accommodations engaging in environmentally-friendly practices.Through the partnership, hotel properties participating in Green Hotels Global’s environmental sustainability benchmarking tool will now be automatically screened...

CHEVY CHASE, MD.—The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company recently announced the launch of new, exclusive Ritz Kids children’s programming through an expanded partnership with Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society.“We are very excited to continue our highly successful relationship with a unique individual whose entire life has been spent dedicated to preservation of the environment, with particular attention to marine conservation and education,” said Herve Humler, president and chief operating officer of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.The new global brand standard for children’s programming includes activities for resorts, in addition to multiple touch points for children at city and urban properties. The refined...

LAKE FOREST, CALIF.—For the first time, travelers who enjoy smoking have instant access to more than 100,000 hotels worldwide that cater to guests who smoke. Smoketels.com is a new online reservation service dedicated to smoking hotel rooms only. Bookings allow travelers the freedom to choose from more than 250,000 smoking hotel rooms across the country and around the globe.The site was designed to save travelers hours of surfing the Internet in their search for a smoker-friendly hotel. With this underserved demographic in mind, Smoketels.com provides immediate access to hundreds of rooms in many cities. It is becoming increasingly harder...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Hasek Communications, the Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of Green Lodging News, welcomes Garage Juice Bar as a Green Product & Service Directory partner. The Juice Bar Electric Vehicle Charger and Green Garage Oasis Amenity Center are an upscale, sustainable branded experience and environment for electric vehicle driving guests and visitors to upscale hotels and resorts. Juice Bar EV charging stations are available as a Juice Bar Double, which includes one Level 2 plug and one Level 1 plug, and as a Juice Bar Quad, which includes two Level 2 plugs and 2 Level 1 plugs. Juice Bar’s premium product...

PORTLAND, ORE.—MeetGreen has increased its bandwidth and announces the addition and promotion of several staff members.Della Green joined the team in May 2009, and has been working to expand business opportunities for MeetGreen.  Recently promoted to Director of Business Development, “Della brings her unique customer-focus to our team, communicating our cutting edge sustainable conference management and consulting services to a wide range of existing and potential clients,” according to Nancy Zavada, MeetGreen Principal. “Della really understands the meetings industry and how the pieces fit together. She takes this knowledge, along with her sincere interest in our clients’ personal and...

LOS ANGELES—Often lost in the conversation about green lodging certification in the United States and Canada is the Green Globe brand. There is good reason for it. Only one hotel in the United States—the Pan Pacific Hotel Seattle—is Green Globe certified. There are none in Canada. The InterContinental Chicago will soon be certified. A handful of non-lodging businesses in the United States are also certified but that is it. Yet, the Green Globe brand is thriving outside of the United States and Canada. Guido Bauer, CEO of the Los Angeles based Green Globe, says there are now 433 lodging...