Sometime this past weekend, along a main road close to where I live, someone pulled over with their truck and unloaded what must have been a ton of old furniture, clothes and other junk. Not content to leave it all on one side of the road, they left a portion on the other side as well. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence in our world—illegal dumping and littering along roadways, beaches, in the water, and in just about every location you can imagine. This morning I drove by the same road close to my home and the junk had been...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized the accomplishments of 13 organizations and businesses participating in EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge. In 2015, more than 800 governments, businesses and organizations participated in EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge. Participants include organizations such as grocers, restaurants, educational institutions and sports and entertainment venues, who together kept more than 690,000 tons of food from being wasted. These efforts reduced carbon emissions equivalent to taking approximately 86,000 cars off the road for a year and saved businesses up to $35 million in avoided waste disposal fees. “The waste reduction efforts of this year’s award winners,...

December 8 was an important day for MGM Resorts International. It was then that it officially opened the LEED Gold MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. The 308-room property is located minutes from Washington, D.C. The MGM National Harbor is MGM Resorts International’s ninth LEED certification. Cindy Ortega, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer for MGM Resorts International, said in a press release that the hotel exemplifies MGM’s long-standing effort to implement sustainable and responsible practices across its resorts. I spoke with Todd Megrath, Executive Director of Sustainable Development, MGM Resorts International, about the new property and he...

BETHESDA, MD.—Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. announced new 2020 greenhouse gas emissions, energy, water and waste targets after meeting its 2017 goals ahead of schedule. Based on the success of its programs to date, the company elected to increase and expand its efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of its portfolio. The company is one of the first Fortune 500 companies and the first hospitality company to have their emissions target approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, which aims to have companies commit to bolder emissions targets in line with science to keep global warming below the 2 degree...

HOUSTON—Waste Management released its 2016 Sustainability Report. Titled “Leading Change”, the report highlights progress toward making recycling sustainable, reducing the company’s greenhouse gas footprint, keeping employees and communities safe and giving back to the communities it serves. “It’s time for recycling to evolve. We’ve started to see progress on this front, and steady progress is what we need—for the good times and the bad” The addition of the company’s first-ever interactive report invites visitors to go on a digital journey to see the many ways Waste Management collects, processes and safely manages waste. In the report, the company’s president and CEO, Jim...

NATIONAL REPORT—Several years ago, Lilia Karimi attended a conference in Las Vegas. It was there that she had too many conference giveaways and pieces of clothing to fit in her carry-on suitcase. “We wanted to just leave the items in the room and hope that an employee would keep them, but being a student from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration (SHA), we knew that if we just left the unwanted items in the room, they would end up in the lost and found for three to six months even though there was no intention of claiming them,” Karimi says. She thought it did...

LAS VEGAS—MGM Resorts International announced that the U.S. Green Building Council has awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification to MGM National Harbor, the company’s newest resort. Located minutes from Washington, D.C., in Prince George’s County, Md., the resort is scheduled to open December 8. The LEED Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. Meeting the rigorous environmental standards of this designation is a testament to the complete integration of sustainable principles throughout the design and construction of MGM National Harbor. “Environmental responsibility is a...

LOS ANGELES—Pan Pacific Seattle has earned Green Globe certification for the fifth consecutive year. “We are beyond honored to receive this prestigious certification for the fifth year in a row,” said Webster Polk, Community Relations Manager of the Pan Pacific Seattle. “At Pan Pacific, global responsibility and sustainability are essential parts of our property’s DNA and we are committed to continually uphold and improve our practices. As a luxury boutique hotel, our guests can always expect genuine care, unique innovation and customized services along with a dedicated desire to minimize our overall impact on the environment.” Pan Pacific Seattle’s sustainable practices...

Several years ago I wrote about the efforts of an 11-year-old boy to eliminate the use of plastic straws in restaurants. One of his goals was to make the giving of straws an “upon request” deal rather than an automatic reflex. We all know the majority of straws end up in the landfill—somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 million a day. According to Sarah Kollar, Project and Outreach Specialist for Ocean Conservancy in Washington, D.C., “Straws are one of the top ten items collected during cleanups thanks to the volunteers who collect data during the annual International Coastal Cleanup.”...

CINCINNATI—With America Recycles Day having taken place on November 15, Cintas Corp. has signed the Green Umbrella’s recycling pledge in an effort to help Cincinnati achieve a top 10 ranking on the list of the most sustainable cities in the United States. The Green Umbrella, an alliance of organizations across 10 counties in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, hopes to reduce landfill waste by 33 percent by 2020 through rotating recycling initiatives. “We hope to add 50 new corporate pledges each year in order to make the biggest impact.” “Paper is one of the simplest things to recycle, yet the landfill in...