NATIONAL REPORT—To eliminate plastic bottle waste, to reduce costs, and to enhance employee and guest health, hotels are switching to water bottle filling stations in both front and back of house areas. They are now standard for Hilton’s Canopy brand. Several vendors, including FloWater, Haws and Elkay, now offer the stations. Each company offers its own spin on bottle filling and models are available from the most basic, non-filtered version to one that includes a seven-stage purification process. Some stations include counters that tally how many plastic water bottles have been avoided. That number can become an important part...

LONDON, ON.—Dispenser Amenities Inc., a London, Ontario based supplier of shower dispensers and bulk shower liquids to the global hotel industry, was awarded one of eight 2016 Supplier of Excellence Awards from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide at the recent Starwood Americas Leadership Conference which took place in Denver.Tad Wampfler, Senior Vice President and Supply Chain Officer for the Starwood organization presented the Award to Ian Wallace, President of Dispenser Amenities. “We have more than 27,000 suppliers in the Americas, so winning this award is no small accomplishment,” Wampfler stated. “We very much value the commitment Dispenser Amenities has...

NATIONAL REPORT—In an age when locavores rule, trash fish dinners are the new chic, and foodie tourism is trending, it is the perfect time for hotel chefs to enhance their properties’ narrative and take on the issue of food waste. What was hot and trending in 2015? Food waste reduction according to 1,300 chefs surveyed by the National Restaurant Assn. The growing counter culture to food waste is so widespread the Association’s annual What’s Hot List placed food waste reduction right behind hyper local sourcing in their Top Twenty Trends. Food waste is a global problem, but 40 percent of the...

SAN FRANCISCO—The Hilton San Francisco Union Square has quite a win streak going. On February 17, the 1,919-room hotel hosted the Hotel Council of San Francisco’s first Stay Green Forum. The event drew 275 attendees. “Lieutenant Governor Newsom was the keynote speaker,” says Jo Licata, Community Projects Manager at the hotel. It was a great success. We had almost every hotel in San Francisco represented.” Also in February, the hotel garnered a lot of publicity for being the first hotel to participate in the Better Buildings Challege SWAP, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program that saw officials from...

THE MALDIVES—Soneva Fushi, the multi award-winning luxury resort in the Maldives, which has implemented numerous projects to reduce their impact on the environment, recently joined hands with LightBlue Environmental Consulting to implement a food waste audit, to understand and address the problem of food waste that affects the entire hospitality industry and to reinforce its position as global leader in sustainability.The United Nations recently put food waste reduction as one of their most urgent goals to reach and countries all over the world are beginning to realize the true negative impact of food waste with the United States planning...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Underscoring its leadership in responsible electronics recycling, LG Electronics USA has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with the 2015 Gold Tier Award, the top-level recognition in the EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Challenge.The Gold Tier Award recognizes LG’s significant contributions to the EPA’s SMM Electronics Challenge goals by increasing the amount of used electronics collected for reuse and recycle, striving to send 100 percent of used electronics collected to certified third-party recyclers, and publicly sharing detailed information about its electronic management practices. According to the EPA, the award also recognizes “LG’s dedication to increasing consumer...

DOVER, DEL.—When the two-day Sustain 2016 green lodging conference kicks off on March 14, it will be held at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino, a venue with a long list of green initiatives. The 80-acre property, which features a 500-room hotel, casino, horse racing, entertainment, and multiple restaurants, is a Delaware Green Lodging Program participant and dedicated to reducing waste, improving energy and water efficiency, and supporting local farmers.According to Ed Sutor, President of Dover Downs Hotel & Casino, the reasons for pursuing sustainability have been many but one reason has certainly been to keep costs under control. Dover...

LOS ANGELES—The Hilton Los Angeles Airport hotel, a Green Seal certified property, announced that it will recycle 1,768 bed sets. The move is in accordance with criteria in Green Seal’s Environmental Standard for Hotels and Lodging Properties (GS-33), which calls for material recycling. The hotel is also preparing for compliance with California law SB 254, which takes effect this year.The decision by the Hilton Los Angeles Airport Hotel will result in approximately 219,760 pounds of mattresses being diverted from landfills.The Hilton Los Angeles Airport has been Green Seal-certified (Bronze) under GS-33 since 2012. Green Seal is the nation’s first...

I have written or posted articles about food waste frequently over the years—articles focused on everything from food waste prevention to decomposition machines to a food waste disposal ban in Massachusetts. Nine years ago I wrote an article that briefly addressed food waste disposers. A lot can change in nine years and that is why I just posted an updated article on disposers and disposer systems based on my own research as well as conversations with leaders representing our industry’s two leading disposer brands—Salvajor and InSinkErator. Both of these companies, and others, are making it easier to reduce food...

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.—Together with DocuSign Inc., a leader in eSignature and Digital Transaction Management (DTM), HotelPlanner and Meetings.com announce the launch of eContracting, which allows hotels to digitally send, sign, manage and receive signatures for group contracts for fast, easy, and secure review, approval and signature. Handling contract needs for all kinds of hotels and types of groups that used to take days, even weeks to do, is now simply done in a matter of minutes—100 percent digitally.With a number of hotels already on board, eContracting helps sales staff and clients do business anytime, anywhere, on virtually any...