MINNEAPOLIS—Just prior to the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group’s annual business conference, held earlier this month, Green Lodging News checked in with the Minneapolis-based company’s Brenda Schultz, Director Responsible Business, for an update on the Carlson Rezidor’s green activities in the Americas. Schultz addressed topics ranging from green certification to purchasing to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Together, Carlson Rezidor’s efforts point to an increased emphasis on sustainability.Carlson Rezidor now has 618 hotels in the Americas. The company manages 20 of those properties. Of the 618, 125 have some type of eco-label, whether from a national or state level certification...

FISH CAMP, CALIF.—Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts has earned double Silver LEED certification at Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite, an all-season resort located just outside of Yosemite National Park in Fish Camp, Calif. Both certifications follow a yearlong project that expanded Tenaya’s banquet, event and meeting spaces and office area, plus added a destination spa.Delaware North, which owns and operates Tenaya, followed a process laid out by its environmental program, GreenPath, to ensure environmental stewardship and measurable green practices. The company worked with Layton Construction Company and architect Peter Grove of Collaborative Design Studio.The Silver LEED-certified expansion brings Tenaya...

HONOLULU—In its ongoing efforts to “go green,” Outrigger Hotels and Resorts collected a total of 750,000 recyclables in 2011 at its owned and operated hotels throughout Waikiki, preventing more than 17.5 tons of recyclable bottles and cans from entering Honolulu’s landfill. Additionally, Outrigger then donated more than $18,000 in Hi5 redemption reimbursements to Parents and Children Together (PACT), a nonprofit organization that offers social services to Hawaii families in need.“Giving back to the community and helping to keep our island home unmarked by pollution are tremendously important to Outrigger Hotels and Resorts,” said Barry Wallace, executive vice president of...

DENVER—At an exclusive gathering of national park leaders last month, Xanterra Parks & Resorts executive chefs Peter Pahk and Joe Nobile prepared a special menu featuring sustainable cuisine. Well-suited to the tone of the two-day meeting—a response to the National Park Service’s (NPS) Call to Action report focusing on establishing a mission for the NPS 2016 centennial and beyond—the printed menu included a brief history on the subject of tatanka, the Lakota word for bison. The background on bison was especially fitting because one of the main course choices was Braised Bison Short Ribs. The bison was sourced...

ST. LOUIS—Nix Conference & Meeting Management is leading the charge among meeting planners worldwide to help end child sex trafficking. Nix initiated a first-ever Meeting Planners Code of Conduct this month, Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and is encouraging industry peers and competitors to join them in addressing the issue at every hotel where they do business. “Child sex trafficking is widespread, occurring right now even at luxury hotels in the United States,” said Kimberly Ritter, senior account manager and coordinator of Nix’ initiative to fight child sex trafficking. “Most hotel executives have no idea this exploitation of children exists at...

PARIS—Accor recently decided to assess its environmental impact 15 years after it took a stand and started taking concrete action to embrace sustainable development. The company began working on gauging its environmental footprint at the end of 2010. The study stretches beyond measuring greenhouse-gas emissions to encompass energy and water consumption, water pollution and waste generation throughout lifecycles in the Group. “Four thousand and two hundred hotels in 90 countries, 145,000 employees, 56 million breakfasts a year and almost 545 million liters of water a year all add up to the environmental impact that we are now in a position...

MILWAUKEE, WIS.—Telkonet, Inc., developer of the EcoSmart energy management platform incorporating patented Recovery Time technology, announced that New York City’s Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan has become the latest hospitality leader to select Telkonet’s cloud-based EcoSmart energy management platform. This 770-room, full service hotel located on Broadway in Times Square is one of New York’s leading and most successful hotels.The Crowne Plaza Times Square selected PAC Consultants to deploy Telkonet’s EcoSmart System throughout the property to optimize guest comfort while reducing energy consumption and operating costs.“We installed a number of test rooms and Telkonet performed exceptionally well throughout the...

AUGUSTA, MAINE—Two Maine lodging businesses have been recognized by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for voluntary efforts in reducing their impact on the environment. The Nestlewood Inn Bed & Breakfast in Carrabassett Valley and the Sheepscot Harbour Village & Resort in Edgecomb were both certified recently by the department as an Environmental Leader.  The Environmental Leader program is a self-guided process offered by the department that encourages lodging facilities, restaurants and grocers to implement selected initiatives from those offered in the department developed workbook to achieve points towards certification.  Lodging businesses, of which there are now 117 certified, can...

PALO ALTO, CALIF.—Southwall Technologies Inc. and Pleotint LLC announced the world’s first installation of high-performance insulating glass that combines Southwall’s Heat Mirror suspended-film technology with Pleotint’s Sunlight Responsive Thermochromic (SRT) technology. The complementary technologies combine to deliver increased energy savings by reducing solar heat gain and glare during peak electrical usage hours, providing optimal daylighting during non-peak hours, while delivering maximum thermal insulation 24 hours a day. The product was manufactured by Southwall Insulating Glass and installed at Pleotint’s corporate headquarters in West Olive, Mich. The combined solution provides superior center of glass insulating performance of 0.13 (R8) with Argon...

Several years ago at the Hospitality Design Expo and Conference there was a session at which several people—at least one from MGM Resorts International—discussed what was then the future opening of the mammoth City Center project in Las Vegas. At that session, Stephanie Steinberg, chairwoman of Englewood, Colo.-based Smoke-Free Gaming stood up and asked the person from MGM how their LEED-pursuing CityCenter project could possibly include a casino (the casino portion of Aria Resort & Casino) that would permit smoking. I don’t recall the specific words of the MGM executive but I recall that Stephanie’s question was not sufficiently...