SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, MEXICO—AMATTE Wellnest Community is the newest lodging proposal in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. With a design that incorporates the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, or acceptance of imperfections, each of the spaces in this “nest” was created with how guests will experience it in mind, from the timeless beauty of its architecture to daring corners that fill common areas with sensuality and the comfortable guestrooms. The purpose of the property is to transmit a state of well-being to guests from the moment of their arrival. The facilities have an intrinsic sense of sustainability, being built under the...

SINGAPORE—Trip.com Group, a leading global travel service provider, has announced its long-term goal to build green tourism, covering three key areas, including: working with partners to launch over 10,000 low-carbon travel products; promoting sustainable travel concepts and engaging 100 million travelers in low-carbon practices; and aiming to further reduce carbon emissions across its own operations. Trip.com Group aims to launch over 10,000 eco-friendly travel products, with several initiatives already underway in the Group’s long-term plan. Trip.com and Skyscanner, sub-brands of Trip.com Group, have partnered with CHOOOSE, a company dedicated to offsetting the CO2 emissions for flights by supporting impactful climate solutions worldwide...

SINGAPORE—Hotel companies and owners are invited to participate in the 2023 Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking (CHSB) Index. The 2021 Index contained data from over 20,000 hotels from more than 25 international hotel companies. It is the largest global dataset of hotel sustainability performance and has been developed by the hotel industry. Participants can benchmark their properties’ performance against peers for energy consumption, water consumption and carbon emissions. For the first time, in 2023, waste data will be collected as well. While the public data set is free to use and forms the basis for emission factors and carbon calculations...

MCLEAN, VA.—As the world returns to travel, doing so sustainably and responsibly has never been more important. With growing impacts from climate change and rising demand for more sustainable hospitality options, Hilton is evolving its environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments to help preserve the destinations where it operates and create inclusive growth in communities around the world. Hilton launched its 2030 goals four years ago as part of its ambitious ESG strategy, “Travel with Purpose,” making it the first global hospitality company to set science-based climate targets. Now, after a strategic review of those goals, evolving climate science and best practices,...

ALEXANDRIA, VA.—Helping the global business travel industry create a positive impact and a better future for people and the planet is the mission behind the Global Business Travel Association’s relaunch of its charitable arm, the GBTA Foundation. The GBTA Foundation will focus on the strategy and execution of GBTA’s global sustainability programs, supporting initiatives related to climate action, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and other talent-related topics via education, research, and advocacy. “We are excited to re-establish the GBTA Foundation within a fine-tuned scope of ‘people and planet,’” said Suzanne Neufang, CEO, GBTA. “It’s an important moment in GBTA’s...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Travel Assn. announced the launch of its new Sustainable Travel Coalition, which aims to align the travel, transportation and technology sectors in developing and advancing strategies to enable a more sustainable future for the U.S. travel industry. With nearly 60 member organizations at launch, the Sustainable Travel Coalition will serve as an advisory body to inform U.S. Travel on sustainability issues, opportunities and concerns within member organizations and destinations. A dedicated Policy Committee will help drive the broader coalition’s efforts to enable regular progress and collaboration. U.S. Travel has several long-term goals, which will inform the coalition’s near-term policy priorities....

NEW YORK—The Javits Center announced the creation of Jacob’s Harvest, a new line of pickled produce from the convention center’s new one-acre rooftop farm. The bottled produce is harvested directly from the rooftop farm—which was completed last year as part of a 1.2 million square-foot expansion—and will be distributed to customers and visitors to raise awareness about the venue’s roof-to-table culinary program. Managed by urban farming company Brooklyn Grange, the rooftop farm is in its first full season and is expected to generate up to 40,000 pounds of annual produce. From arugula to zucchini, the various crops being grown...

HONOLULU—To go beyond World Oceans Month, which started in early June, Outrigger Resorts committed to 11 weeks of environmental actions, informally called “Ocean’s Eleven”, which will run to August 31 across its nine flagship properties. Outrigger’s Asia Pacific resorts, including Fiji, Thailand, Mauritius, Maldives, and Hawaii, are hosting multiple events from coral planting to fish-house making to beach and marine cleanups and mangrove tree planting. For guests less willing to take the plunge, there will be in-room videos, kids’ club activities and presentations on manta rays, whale sharks, turtles and coral reef conservation. Ocean's Eleven is an extension of Outrigger’s ZONE (OZONE), the...

As the pace of commissioning commercial PV systems increases while in parallel current systems mature, the market is looking at PV systems as more than just a source of clean energy. Instead, PV systems are now being viewed as long-term investments that need to be closely managed to improve their ROI and bottom line. As with any investment, the two main ways to improve the ROI of a commercial PV system is to increase energy production (and therefore annual revenue) and decrease lifetime costs. Let’s take a deeper look at how this can be done in commercial PV installations. A...

HONG KONG—Despite the urgent need to reduce global carbon emissions, the hotel industry faces numerous barriers to implementing carbon reduction programs. Why is it so difficult for hotels to reduce their carbon footprint, and why do so many hotel managers remain bystanders in the fight against global warming? To help answer these questions, Dr Eric Chan of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University conducted in-depth interviews with senior hotel executives in Hong Kong. The findings provide novel insights into barriers to carbon reduction by hotels and—perhaps most importantly—strategies to overcome them. Every...