PARIS—To celebrate Pollinator Month, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, a pioneer of responsible tourism and sound environmental practices, has announced the next evolution of its Bee Sustainable programming with the launch of a new interactive digital hub, fairmontbeesustainable.com. The new platform was created to help educate guests and Fairmont colleagues about the importance of global bee health and to encourage visitors to follow along through in-depth analysis, real time hive monitoring and the latest updates from its rooftop apiaries and bee hotels. “As the first luxury hotel brand to develop comprehensive on-site bee programming, Fairmont is an industry leader in the support...

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN—As the climate issue heats up, consumers are becoming more conscious of their impact on the environment. “Flygskam”, or “flight shame” is a word that has received extensive media coverage recently, reflecting the increasing awareness of flying’s environmental consequences. Now, researchers from Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology present a tool that allows consumers to evaluate the outcome of their different travel options. The new websiteTravel & Climate—gives an instant and simple calculation of the emissions from different modes of travel for a given journey. For example, for two people traveling from London to Barcelona, the tool gives a calculation of...

PHOENIX—Classic Hotels & Resorts recently announced its partnership with 1% for the Planet, a globally-recognized alliance of businesses that understand the necessity of protecting the natural environment, as the network’s first ever hotel management company to join. Pledging 1% of its annual hotel management revenues to sustainability-focused nonprofit organizations, Classic also co-sponsored a portion of the network’s Global Summit which took place last month. “Our member companies have donated more than $175 million to our environmental nonprofit partners to date,” says Kate Williams, CEO of 1% for the Planet. “Currently, only 3 percent of total philanthropy goes to the environment...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—According to an analysis by the SUN DAY Campaign of data just released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), U.S. electrical generating capacity by renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) has now—for the first time—surpassed that of coal. FERC’s latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report (with data through April 30, 2019) notes that 18 “units” of new wind capacity (1,545 MW) and 102 units of new solar capacity (1,473 MW) were added during the first four months of this year. Coupled with four units of new hydropower (29 MW), that was enough to push renewable...

ADA International, in support of bees, launched a SaveTheBees! Initiative for Earth Day. Since that time the company, a maker of hotel cosmetics for hotels and resorts around the world, has done the following: sprinkled a 12,000 square meter meadow behind the headquarter building with seeds for a bee-food-paradise; distributed packages with bee-friendly flower seeds to associates, so that they can convert their gardens and balconies into a bee-friendly home; and built a hotel for the bees which the company hopes will become a home for the bees frequenting the meadow. The SaveTheBees! Initiative is just part of what ADA...

ATLANTA—UPS announced an agreement with Clean Energy Fuels Corp. to purchase 170 million gallon equivalents of renewable natural gas (RNG) through 2026. This is the largest commitment for use of RNG to date by any company in the United States, with a range of 22.5 to 25 million gallon equivalents per year. RNG is a key part of UPS’s strategy to increase alternative fuel consumption to be 40 percent of total ground fuel purchases by 2025, supporting the logistics leader’s efforts to reduce the absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of its ground fleet 12 percent by 2025. “The world has a trash...

DALLAS—Informa and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the release of the 2018 Greenbuild Sustainability Report, highlighting valuable metrics and key benchmarks regarding the impact on sustainable sourcing, community involvement, and carbon footprint reduction at the 2018 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, held last November at McCormick Place in Chicago. The event achieved an overall 86 percent waste diversion rate. “We’re thrilled to have made such great strides for event sustainability,” said Sherida Sessa, Greenbuild Brand Director, Informa. “We had a lot of ‘firsts’ in 2018 and tried new approaches that worked well. Our hope is that these achievements...

LAS VEGAS—Diamond Resorts, a global leader in the hospitality and vacation ownership industries, has partnered with the We Are Water Foundation to launch an initiative that encourages travelers to make a rational and sustainable use of water. As part of the initiative, Diamond Resorts will be educating members, owners, guests and team members to make a reasonable and sustainable use of water within all of the company’s European properties. With help from We Are Water, Diamond Resorts will hold programs aimed at informing people of their water usage and encouraging them to make simple changes, such as reusing bath towels...

SINGAPORE—Come 2023, a new resort experience will open to guests at Mandai, bringing them closer to nature through a biophilic design that integrates the buildings with their natural surroundings. The design of the new Mandai resort will be helmed by local architectural firm, WOW Architects. Speaking on the appointment of WOW Architects, Mike Barclay, Group CEO of Mandai Park Holdings (MPH) said, “WOW Architects’ concept demonstrated the best design response to our brief, one that will bring our guests closer to nature. We have brought together the strengths of two homegrown brands, WOW Architects and Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts....

SAN FRANCISCO—Yelp has launched a Green Practices Initiative to begin surveying consumers and understanding how to better assess the sustainability of a restaurant’s practices. Given the complexity of sustainable food systems and restaurant operations, Yelp is focusing first on the reduction of single-use plastics in restaurants and leveraging what makes Yelp most useful: consumer feedback. Yelp will begin surveying consumers and collecting data on the use of single-use plastics in restaurants across the United States. Consumers who visit a restaurant’s Yelp page can answer whether or not the business uses compostable takeout containers, plastic bags, plastic straws, plastic utensils or...