LOS CABOS, MEXICO—The Sheraton Hacienda Del Mar Golf & Spa Resort and The Westin Resort & Spa, Los Cabos are participating in Los Cabos’ sea turtle conservation program and allowing guests to experience the nesting of endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles on the resorts’ sandy shores.  Last year, the Sheraton Hacienda del Mar and The Westin Resort & Spa, Los Cabos oversaw the release of more than 4,000 sea turtles. Guests were able to participate in the releases, as well as learn about the nesting process and protection of the Olive Ridley turtle throughout the incubation and hatching season. Named for...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Kimberly-Clark and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced the expansion of Kimberly-Clark’s membership in the Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN), a WWF initiative to eliminate illegal logging and conserve the world’s most valuable and threatened forests. Kimberly-Clark will now include its worldwide operations in the initiative, building on its existing GFTN membership in select countries. The participation scope now includes all wood fibers sourced for all of the company’s products sold globally in the Personal Care, Consumer Tissue and Kimberly-Clark Professional businesses. The announcement was made at the GFTN’s 20th Anniversary Reception at the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) General...

BOSTON—The Westin Copley Place general manager Michael Jorgensen announced that The Westin Copley Place is the first Starwood Hotel in the United States and the first hotel in Boston to join Green Hotels Global, an environmental program that requires hotels to disclose their carbon footprint, energy consumption, water usage and waste generation associated with room-night usage and event bookings. “We are proud to carry the torch for the Green Hotels Global program for Starwood in the United States,” said Jorgensen. “We have made great strides in reducing the hotel’s overall carbon footprint over the past four years. We are committed,...

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN—Scandic Hotels was rewarded by the Nordic Council for its efforts to promote sustainable tourism in the Nordic Region and beyond. A conscious environmental strategy and a series of apparently minor and simple initiatives have proven highly successful. The theme of the Nordic Council Nature and Environment Prize 2011 is sustainable tourism. Businesses, organizations and individuals with a proven track record of lessening the environmental impact of tourism in the region were all eligible to be nominated for the $68,000 prize. The winner is the Norwegian part of Scandic Hotels, a pioneer and trendsetter in sustainable tourism for the...

ANN ARBOR, MICH.—In response to a growing demand for independently-verified sustainable furnishing fabrics, NSF International, an independent developer of American National Standards that protect public health and the environment, has developed an official American national standard for sustainable commercial furnishing fabrics—NSF/ANSI 336: Sustainability Assessment for Commercial Furnishings Fabric. Developing national standards by which to measure a product’s sustainability attributes brings transparency and credibility to the sustainability marketplace and helps eliminate greenwashing. Independent, third-party organizations can now certify commercial furnishing fabrics against the new Sustainable Commercial Furnishings standard to verify the furnishing fabrics are sustainable. This satisfies a growing demand from...

MORROW, GA.—TOTO announced that it has expanded its sustainability initiatives at its manufacturing facility in Morrow, Ga. The company has formed a cross-industrial strategic partnership with Crossville, Inc., manufacturers of premium Porcelain Stone tile, which has developed proprietary systems for processing pre-consumer sanitary ware, fired tile, and filtrate waste back to powder that is used in the manufacture of new tile. Crossville will introduce its new EcoCycle Recycling Processes at NEOCON, where both companies will display in Chicago, June 13 to 15, 2011. “There’s no ‘silver bullet’ when it comes to reducing a facility’s carbon footprint,” said Bill Strang, senior...

DALTON, GA.—Shaw Industries Group, Inc. has increased the recycled content in Eco Solution Q, the company’s premium branded Cradle to Cradle Silver certified carpet fiber, to 45 percent. Eco Solution Q now contains 20 percent pre-consumer recycled content and 25 percent post-consumer recycled content sourced from caprolactam (the monomer or ‘building block’ of Nylon 6) recovered through Shaw’s Evergreen Nylon 6 Recycling facility in Augusta, Ga. The recycled content is based on allocated nylon fiber from Shaw’s total nylon fiber production and determined as a percent of total Eco Solution Q nylon output; based on this method, recycled content...

MIAMI—OBM International (OBMI), a leading international architectural and planning firm with nine global offices, has named K. Denaye Hinds as Director of Sustainability, announced Doug Kulig, CEO of OBMI. In her new role, Hinds will lead and expand OBMI’s international design and planning sustainability practice. She will focus on building relationships and engaging the development community, as well as federal and local governments, to promote sustainability objectives for OBMI’s clients and the places where their projects reside. Hinds will also implement company-wide education programs, which include conducting and managing OBMI’s Green Globe Certified Projects. In early 2011, OBMI developed a...

SANTA MONICA, CALIF.—A group of leaders in the hotel industry representing brands, hotel suppliers, architecture firms, purchasing companies, and sustainability experts has launched the Hospitality Sustainable Purchasing Consortium. The Consortium, led by MindClick SGM, will work collaboratively to facilitate greening the furniture, fixture and equipment (FF&E) supply chain for hotels by: leading the industry in development of an industrywide Hospitality Sustainable Purchasing Index (HSPI) to comprehensively measure the sustainability of FF&E suppliers and the products they sell; collaborating to establish consistent measures of sustainable purchasing performance for brands, owners and FF&E manufacturers; and establishing key performance indicators that enhance...

PHUKET, THAILAND—Guests at the exclusive Aleenta Phuket–Phang Nga resort were given the chance of a lifetime recently to help save indigenous turtles when they released 20 endangered baby leatherback turtles into the Andaman Sea. The event was part of the Aleenta Resorts & Spas Mai Khao Marine Turtle Initiative, managed by corporate social responsibility group, Pure Blue Foundation, which also pioneered the groundbreaking reef restoration project off the coast of the resort. The Pure Blue Foundation was created by Aleenta Resorts founder Anchalika Kijkanakorn. The resort has raised these particular baby turtles over the last few years and has...