TORONTO—The Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) announced that it has contributed over 90,000kg of food to organizations in Toronto that support individuals struggling with hunger in its 2017/18 fiscal year. The MTCC’s successful food donation program partners with events and conferences to reduce food waste and ensure that extra food items are donated to organizations in Toronto that help fight hunger in the community. These organizations include Daily Bread Food Bank, Second Harvest, TDSB’s Student Nutrition Program and Margaret’s Housing and Community Support Services. The most substantial single-event food donation of the year resulted from the Loblaw Companies Limited conference in...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—New research on behalf of Champions 12.3 finds there is a compelling business case for hotels to reduce the amount of food they throw away. For every $1 hotels invested in programs to reduce kitchen food waste, on average they saved $7 in operating costs. In a first-of-its kind analysis for the industry, The Business Case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste: Hotels evaluated financial cost and benefit data for 42 sites—including Sofitel, MGM and more—across 15 countries, finding that nearly every site realized a positive return on its investment to reduce food waste. Within just one year, the...

BETHESDA, MD.—Marriott International will today unveil its new shower-toiletry program for the five brands that make up the bulk of its properties—Courtyard, Fairfield, Residence Inn, Springhill Suites and TownePlace Suites. The shower dispenser program, which includes Paul Mitchell shampoo, conditioner and body wash, will be announced at the Managed by Marriott GMs conference. For a 140-room property, moving to a three-bottle shower dispenser system is expected to result in the elimination of more than 23,000 tiny toiletry bottles annually—the equivalent of 250 pounds of plastic per year. “We expect to see savings of $1,000 to $2,000 per hotel annually,” says...

From global hotel operators like Hilton, Marriott and InterContinental Hotels Group to independent hoteliers like the Broadmoor, more hospitality professionals are using modular construction to open properties faster and meet green building goals. “We believe the modular process will be a game changer for our valued development partners, especially during a time when labor shortages can be a challenge to timely openings,” said Karim Khalifa, Marriott International’s former Senior Vice President of Global Design Strategies. The company’s commitment to this building process is highlighted in its Modular Construction Initiative, which called for 50 hotel deals in 2017 to incorporate pre-fabricated bathrooms...

Humanscale has joined the growing list of companies utilizing commercial fishing nets in their products. The company just introduced its Smart Ocean chair that incorporates almost two pounds of recycled fishing net material. Sourced from Bureo, an emerging venture developing innovative solutions to prevent ocean plastic pollution, this is the first tangible product of its new partnership and marks the first product available to purchase from the consortium of companies under the NextWave initiative. “Fishing nets comprise approximately 10 percent of the plastic pollution in the ocean today,” says Humanscale Founder and CEO Robert King. “Our partnership with Bureo helps...

NEW YORK—Humanscale introduces the Smart Ocean chair, an inventive adaption of the Diffrient Smart chair that incorporates almost 2 lbs. of recycled fishing net material (NetPlus). Sourced from Bureo, an emerging venture developing innovative solutions to prevent ocean plastic pollution, this is the first tangible product of its new partnership and marks the first product available to purchase from the consortium of companies under the NextWave initiative. “Fishing nets comprise approximately 10 percent of the plastic pollution in the ocean today,” says Humanscale Founder and CEO Robert King. “Our partnership with Bureo helps further our goal to achieve a net...

It was almost five years ago that I first wrote about straw elimination and its importance. Then, awareness of the problems of plastic straws were brought to light by an 11-year-old named Milo Cress. He had the support of Xanterra Parks & Resorts at the time and inspired Xanterra to remove straws at many of its properties. I revisited the issue in an article this past week. Plastic straws have been in the news a lot lately and it was time again to encourage their elimination. Each day in the United States, an average of 500 million plastic straws are...

NATIONAL REPORT—Efforts to eliminate plastic straws are gaining momentum, not only at the individual property level but to some degree at the government level as well. Hilton Waikoloa Village recently announced that they have become the first resort on Hawaii Island to no longer offer plastic straws. In 2017, the resort used more than 800,000 straws while serving more than 1 million guests. As of January 31, 2018, the resort made the switch to FDA-approved, GMO and BPA-free, compostable paper straws across the 62-acre, 1,241-room property. “We had been aware of the effects of plastic straws and collectively working on...

SAN FRANCISCO—The San Francisco Marriott Marquis got a head start on its resolution to create a cleaner community when the downtown hotel launched its “Own Our Block” program on December 4, 2017. Since then, San Francisco Marriott Marquis volunteers have clocked in 156 hours of cleaning sidewalks and streets and removed approximately 780 pounds of trash from the surrounding neighborhood. “Our grassroots effort has improved the look of our community,” says General Manager Chuck Pacioni. “Hotel colleagues are proud to support this ongoing, seven-day-a-week program. We’re part of San Francisco’s thriving hospitality industry and are doing our part to make...

BETHESDA, MD.—Delta Hotels by Marriott announced a new amenity partnership with Soapbox, providing premium bath products to guests worldwide while donating soap to communities in need worldwide. The naturally-derived Soapbox products featured in the guestroom amenity kits including shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, liquid hand soap and bar soap will begin rolling out to all 50 properties within the brand’s global portfolio this month. “We are very excited and proud to enter into this relationship with Soapbox,” said Gregory Durrer, Global Brand Leader of Delta Hotels by Marriott. “Not only are we giving guests a great bath experience with quality...