I am dating myself with this reference but the song “Try a Little Kindness” was on my mind (gentle on my mind?) this past week. The song was a hit for Glen Campbell almost 50 years ago. I thought about the song for this reason: our industry’s endless acts of kindness. Maybe I hear more about them this time of the year, I don’t count, but they never grow old. Sometimes the gesture is small, sometimes enormous, sometimes the gesture is even a bit self-serving, but they all help make this world a better place. I will never have the time and place to mention them all in Green Lodging News but here are some that crossed my desk the last couple of weeks.
To celebrate the season of giving, Bob’s Steak & Chop House at the Omni San Francisco Hotel has teamed up with Australia’s premier craft gin producer, Four Pillars, to create a holiday cocktail menu. From December 2019 through January 2020, $2 from the purchase of every Four Pillars cocktail ($17) will be donated to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank as part of Omni Hotels & Resorts’ “Say Goodnight to Hunger” campaign in partnership with Feeding America.
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.
Furniture Donated to Those in Need
The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel, in cooperation with JLL, has put a program in place to repurpose furniture no longer being used by the hotel (which is undergoing a large-scale renovation) and donate it to Compass Family Services, a local organization that helps homeless and at risk families become stably housed. The pieces of furniture—which include beds, desks, chairs and armoires from 150 guestrooms—will be matched by Compass Family Services with San Francisco and East Bay families in need, helping more than 100 local families furnish their new homes and redirecting an estimated 12 tons and 400 cubic yards of useable furniture away from landfill.
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) announced that 160,000 colleagues from its hotels and corporate offices in 88 countries around the world took part in its second annual Giving for Good month, which is dedicated to making a positive difference to communities. For each IHG colleague that took part, IHG contributed funds totaling $400,000 to charitable organizations supporting four causes important to IHG in the areas of water and sanitation; waste reduction; hospitality skills building; and disaster relief. Together, over the course of the month, IHG colleagues achieved:
- 188,113 hours of volunteering;
- 46,571 acts of care for the environment;
- 33,566 donations of food and belongings; and
- 5,741 blood donations.
Hilton announced that it has achieved its Operation: Opportunity target of hiring 30,000 veterans, military spouses and caregivers over the past six years across hotels, corporate offices and work-from-home positions in the United States. To celebrate the milestone and honor National Veterans and Military Families Month, Hilton has pledged to build on its reputation as a military-friendly company and expand its commitment to hire 25,000 additional veterans, military spouses and caregivers by 2025. Additionally, it will provide enhanced training and development opportunities and comprehensive benefits truly tailored for the veteran community. Hilton’s hiring commitment remains the largest in the hospitality industry and one of the largest in the U.S. private sector.
Undoubtedly, our communities would be much worse off without the financial, food, furniture, soap, sheets, towels and other donations and good deeds of our industry. Is community-mindedness baked into the DNA of your lodging establishment?
Never hesitate to share the good things you are doing for your communities, those in need around the world, and our planet. I can be reached at greenlodgingnews@gmail.com.
Who is Your Sustainability Champion?
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Looking for Guest Columnists
Every two weeks Green Lodging News posts a new guest column on its website. (Click here for examples.) The guest column also appears in the weekly e-newsletter. Green Lodging News is currently in need of industry experts to contribute occasional guest columns. Experts may include consultants, architects, designers, suppliers and those who own or operate green lodging establishments. Columns may be articles that take a stance on a particular subject or be strictly educational in nature. Columnists benefit by having their photo included along with a one paragraph description of their company. Interested in writing a column? Contact Glenn Hasek, publisher and editor, at (813) 510-3868, or by e-mail at greenlodgingnews@gmail.com.
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Green Suppliers Spotlight is published weekly on Thursdays to general managers, owners, management companies, directors of sustainability, directors of engineering, facilities managers and many others who are either in purchasing positions or who influence purchasing decisions. Suppliers of green products and services throughout North America and beyond are invited to participate in the e-blast. (Minimum two suppliers per e-blast.) Green Suppliers Spotlight was created to give vendors an opportunity to reach a high number of industry purchasers at a very low cost—as low as $200 per e-mail. (Click here for rate sheet.)
Those advertising in Green Suppliers Spotlight can include up to 100 words, one image, contact information and multiple links to their website in their ad. At the end of each month, a report will be sent to each supplier with information on delivered e-mails, opens and click-throughs.
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