SAN FRANCISCO—Rasa Technologies, Inc., provider of the standard infrastructure layer for conversational AI, announced the open source release of Carbon Bot, a research project created by the company to illustrate the power of contextual assistants. Carbon Bot is an interactive assistant deployed on Facebook Messenger and was designed to help climate-conscious individuals planning to travel this holiday season. Here’s how it works: a traveler can send a message to Carbon Bot on Facebook, asking for help finding carbon offsets for their flights. Carbon Bot will ask questions specific to the traveler and suggest projects to donate to in exchange for...

PALMA, SPAIN—Combatting climate change is one of the biggest challenges on the global agenda, a priority for the travel industry, and one of the key drivers of the Meliá Hotels International Sustainability Master Plan, which includes public commitments made within the framework of the Paris 2015 COP21 agreement and including an objective of reducing emissions by 50 percent by 2035. The company has been named the Most Sustainable Hotel Company in the World this year, achieving the highest score in the global travel industry in the latest Corporate Sustainability Assessment by SAM thanks to its performance and commitment to social...

PHILADELPHIA—Aramark, a leading U.S.-based provider of food, facilities and uniform services, announced a new 2025 sustainability plan, Be Well. Do Well., focused on positively impacting people and the planet. Be Well. Do Well. is built around several key priorities. People priorities: to engage employees, empower healthy consumers, support local communities, and source ethically and inclusively. Planet priorities: to source responsibly, operate efficiently, and to effectively manage food waste, packaging, emissions and other activities that could adversely impact the environment and planet. “Aramark strives to do our part with respect to environmental, economic, social and ethical considerations,” said Kathy Cacciola, Aramark’s Vice President, Enterprise Sustainability. “Be...

HAMBURG, N.J.—Crystal Springs Resort announced it has commenced commercial operations of the largest resort based solar farm in the Northeastern United States. Developed in partnership with New Jersey based Marina Energy, the 25-acre solar field has over 19,000 solar panels and has the annual capacity to generate 3.5 megawatts of electricity, which is more power than is consumed annually by the resort’s two hotels. Development of this solar farm aligns with other efforts taken by the resort in pursuit of ongoing environmental stewardship, such as its recent partnership with Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) and the New Jersey Audubon Society...

Name: Kristen Royal Title: Sustainability Program Director Company: Tayst Coffee Years in Current Position: 1+ years Primary Responsibilities: “I do a lot of outreach and communication on sustainability. I am in constant communication with other sustainability directors. I research lifecycle reports. I analyze our product and compare it with others. I analyze the machines themselves and the complexities and differences between plastic pods and a compostable one like ours.” Organization’s most significant sustainability-related accomplishment: “Our pod return service. Our clients are demanding this. We are hoping to scale up the service nationwide in January 2020.” Organization’s most significant sustainability-related challenge moving forward: “Making sure we...

MCLEAN, VA.—The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) announced that Hilton’s corporate responsibility management system has achieved “GSTC-Recognized Standard” status. Hilton is the first major hotel company to achieve this recognition. In 2009, Hilton launched LightStay, its award-winning platform that enables the company to track its environmental and social impact across its entire global portfolio of nearly 6,000 managed and franchised hotels. Originally designed to track environmental data, LightStay has evolved to measure, manage and report all of Hilton’s environmental and social metrics. LightStay tracks energy, carbon, water and waste data, as well as social impact metrics including local sourcing, youth training...

PAUL, MINN.—Ecolab Inc., the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services, announced that it will align its operations and supply chain to the U.N. Global Compact’s Business Ambition for 1.5⁰C, and will work to reduce its carbon emissions by half by 2030 and to net-zero by 2050. The company is committed to doing its part in limiting the rise of global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) or less above pre-industrial levels, the limit deemed necessary by the U.N. to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. “Climate change demands urgent action, and it’s absolutely critical...

PHILIPPINES—Hotel of Asia, Inc., the hotel arm of DoubleDragon Properties Corp., has engaged Barone International as its sustainability consultant in its application for the LEED Gold certification of Hotel 101 Resort Boracay which is poised to become the largest green hotel to rise in the Philippines. “In this day and age when most modern buildings are built to have customary green features, DoubleDragon looks to go a step further in developing Hotel 101 Resort Boracay to become a true beacon of sustainability in the hospitality industry. With its 1,001 hotel rooms, it is poised to become the largest truly green...

NEW YORK—For the fifth year, the Hotel Association of New York City (HANYC) has presented its Sustainability Awards. The awards celebrate well known industry champions and bring attention to sustainability for people, planet and profit. Properties competed in the categories of Environmental Protection, Sustainable Community and Innovation. Competitors were selected from applicants all over New York City who have invested great care, time and finances into reducing use of energy, water, resources and waste. This year, the award categories focused on individual champions of sustainability, spearheading eco-friendly programs and mindful practices. Winners of the awards incorporated sustainability programs at the...

LAS VEGAS—MGM Resorts International says it has reached the milestone of donating more than 1 million meals through its Feeding Forward program, which safely recovers unserved food from conventions, mini bars and warehouses to help feed those in Southern Nevada suffering from food insecurity. In addition, the company has donated over 500,000 meals through Restaurant Week and Backpacks for Kids, which are also part of Feeding Forward. The food donation portion of the program started in 2016 and works as a partnership with Three Square food bank. According to Hunger in Nevada, Feeding America, one in eight Nevadans is affected by...