LONDON—The International Tourism Partnership (ITP) and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), in collaboration with 23 leading global hospitality companies, today launched a methodology to calculate and communicate the carbon footprint of hotel stays and meetings in a consistent and transparent way. The group saw an opportunity to improve how the hotel industry communicates its impacts. Currently, approaches to measuring and reporting on carbon emissions vary widely. This can lead to confusion amongst consumers, particularly corporate clients, looking to understand their own potential carbon footprint and meet their own goals/targets in this area. In addition, the number of methodologies...

LAS VEGAS—Crystals at CityCenter has earned the VIVA “Best-of-the-Best” designation by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), the global trade association of the shopping center industry. Crystals is one of only three 2012 VIVA (Vision, Innovation, Value and Achievement) award winners in the world.“The VIVA ‘Best-of-the-Best’ award honors and recognizes the most outstanding examples of shopping center design and development, sustainability, marketing, and community service worldwide,” ICSC said in a statement.“Crystals is an integral part of CityCenter and was created with a vision to bring a new level of environmental consciousness to the world-famous Las Vegas Strip,” said...

SAINT-GEORGES, QUEBEC—Victor, Designtex, and Steelcase announced a collaborative effort with Unifi to initiate a program to recycle textile industry waste back into fiber and yarn that will be used in first quality fabrics, creating a closed loop process. In an effort to drive sustainable innovation, these companies are establishing a program whereby fabric waste from pre-approved Victor products at Steelcase’s Athens, Alabama panel manufacturing facility will be segregated, collected, and sent to Unifi’s REPREVE Recycling Center in North Carolina to be recycled into fiber and yarn. This yarn will be sent to Victor to be woven into new products...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The early adopters of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s (GSTC) new Criteria for Destinations have been announced. They are Fjord Norway; Teton County, Wyoming; Mt. Huangshan, China; and St. Kitts & Nevis. This group of destinations will be the first to test and provide feedback on the Destination Criteria, which complement the GSTC’s existing Criteria for Hotels and Tour Operators. The GSTC Criteria for Destinations describe the minimum standards that a destination must reach in order to move toward social, cultural, and environmental sustainability—maintaining the cultural and natural attractions that tourists come to see, while benefitting the local...

COLUMBIA, MD.—A high-efficiency, high-visibility solar-powered car-charging system made by a Maryland company is giving electric vehicle owners a means to refuel their vehicles with clean energy—and just as important, a way for businesses to attract and serve this new class of consumer: the EV driver.Advanced Technology & Research Corp., an engineering and manufacturing firm based in Columbia, Md., recently installed its first high-efficiency, small-footprint Sun-Tracking Solar EV Charging Station at an auto-related business, Win Kelly Chevrolet/Buick/GMC of Clarksville, which sells the Chevy Volt. A ribbon-cutting gave business owners from several different fields—including automotive, hospitality and real estate—the opportunity to...

SALT LAKE CITY—Utah’s largest rooftop solar powered electric system is now operational. The 1.65MW system atop the Calvin L. Rampton-Salt Palace Convention Center was turned on late last month by Salt Lake County and its project partners. It is one of the largest roof-top solar panel installations in the United States. The 600,000-square-foot system was assembled at the convention center and will provide 17 percent of its annual power needs. County Mayor Peter Corroon has set a goal of installing up to 10 megawatts of solar power on county-owned facilities. He is encouraging all sectors of the community to...

FRANKFURT, GERMANY—Accor unveiled its Carbon Optimizer for professional customers with an exclusive worldwide preview at the IMEX Frankfurt trade show. This tool will allow meeting and seminar organizers to know and cut their events’ carbon footprint. Accor is a leading player in meetings and seminars, with venues in roughly 2,000 hotels. The Carbon Optimizer is interactive, user-friendly and combines a comprehensive set of variables, including the number of participants, the number of nights they plan to stay, how long the seminar will last, how big the meeting rooms are and the energy mix in the host country (the proportion of...

PORTLAND, ORE.—The world’s first guide to aligning meeting and event planning practices with the scientific principles of sustainable development is now available as a free download, thanks to an innovative collaboration between The Natural Step and the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC).Meeting the Future was launched on the GMIC website after the two organizations pooled their knowledge to explain sustainability in a set of simple terms and clear examples for meeting organizers and suppliers.“The meetings industry has been clamoring for a practical approach to creating better events through sustainability,” said GMIC president Paul Salinger, vice-president of marketing at Oracle...

CHICAGO—The Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) received a warm official welcome from one of North America’s most sustainable destinations when Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel formally announced that his community would host the 2013 Sustainable Meetings Conference next April.“This is a perfect example of the City of Chicago and its tourism and convention industry working together to achieve a key goal: attracting more visitors to Chicago,” said Mayor Emanuel. “This conference is one of many that have committed to the city and will create jobs and economic opportunity for our residents.”“We are honored to host this conference and demonstrate the...

PARIS—Accor has officially launched PLANET 21, a comprehensive program covering all of the Group’s environmental, social and community investment actions and placing sustainability at the core of its business strategy worldwide. With PLANET 21, Accor is making 21 commitments and the same number of quantified goals for the year 2015, including: employees trained in disease prevention in 95 percent of hotels, 80 percent of properties promoting balanced dishes; 85 percent of hotels using eco-labeled products; a 15 percent reduction in water consumption; and 10 percent decrease in energy use at Accor’s owned and leased hotels worldwide. The name PLANET...