NEW YORK—Starwood’s new aloft brand, a vision of W Hotels, has announced a “see green” program with guest awareness in mind. The program was created to introduce and promote ecologically friendly products and services, and highlights options both inside and outside each hotel.
The aloft landscaping plan takes what used to be the standard parking lot and re-imagines it as an outdoor park-like environment, with a variety of deciduous trees and shrubbery. A special area of parking spots will be reserved specifically for hybrid cars, raising awareness of the benefits of environmentally friendly vehicles. The aloft team is currently in discussions with a number of car companies to provide a hybrid aloft “house car” at each location, available to interested guests. When guests want to tidy up their cars, they’ll be provided with eco-friendly cleaning agents.
A major portion of aloft’s eco-friendly approach lies inside the hotel and starts with the guestrooms. Instead of offering the typical bathroom amenity packaging, which usually comes in individual plastic bottles, all aloft guestrooms will feature eco-friendly dispenser units in the oversized showers. The dispensers hold shampoo/conditioner and body wash—created specifically for aloft by bliss—and help to reduce the use of non-biodegradable plastic materials.
Guests can conserve water by simply indicating whether they want to reuse their guest towels and change the linens daily. The brand has also chosen eco-friendly construction materials like recycled teak wood which is used throughout the property in both the guestrooms and the public space.
Each aloft hotel has its own laundry facilities where Seventh Generation eco-friendly detergent has been established as the brand standard. The “splash” pool will be cleaned with Clarity Water Products or Sal-Chlor cleaning agents.
“Our vision is to empower each guest to make ecologically-responsible choices and to provide the operators the tools to help reduce our overall impact on the environment,” says Brian McGuinness, vice president of aloft hotels. “aloft raises awareness of eco-friendly options, and offers a refreshing alternative to what’s currently available.”
