CARMEL, IND.—RCI, a leader in vacation exchange and part of the Wyndham Worldwide family of brands, announced that Gold Coast (Australia) visitors can simultaneously help the environment and support local charities through a new creative green initiative introduced by RCI.The RCI program, branded Green Fingers, encourages visiting guests to deposit unwanted, non-perishable food upon departure for donation to local charities. RCI has teamed up with Gold Coast’s Mariner Shores Resort and Nepean Country Club and Day Spa to pilot this food recycling program.The two-pronged project aims at encouraging guests to have minimal impact on the local environment while directly...

ORLANDO, FLA.—Anyone attending The NAFEM Show from February 7 to 9 with the goal of greening up their kitchen would have found hundreds of ways to do so thanks to the innovations brought to the trade show floor by the more than 500 exhibitors in attendance. The North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers event, held every two years, attracted approximately 20,000 foodservice professionals to the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.Companies touted advancements in cooking, ventilation, water filtration, water recycling, water heating, cooking oil management, ice making, warewashing, food waste management, refrigeration, balers, and even vegetable, herb...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Hasek Communications, the Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of Green Lodging News, welcomes Green Suites Hotel Solutions as a Green Product & Service Directory partner. Green Suites Hotel Solutions offers amenity dispensers in four different designs. Dispensers offer savings from 30 to 70 percent when compared to traditional bottles and bars. Dispensers are available with high quality, name brand products (pre-filled or bulk) such as Sonoma, Paya, Aromaland, Scan, and Natura. Green Suites Hotel Solutions’ EcoSense Dispenser Program is a no-cost capital program that reduces dispenser costs to just pennies per occupied room per day.Call (800) 224-4451, e-mail sales@greensuites.com, or...

IRVING, TEXAS—The Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau (ICVB) announces the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas (ICCLC) project as the fifth convention center in the country to achieve LEED Silver certified by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). LEED is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. “We had a distinct opportunity with the design and construction of the ICCLC to create a new icon for the destination that would set a standard, for sustainability as well as for a new category...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) has joined forces with Clean the World Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization that collects and recycles used soap and bottled amenities from hotels, to offer AH&LA members an exclusive additional 5 percent discount per room.More than 1,700 hotels across North America currently participate in the program. Since 2009, Clean the World has distributed more than 12 million bars of soap to homeless shelters and in countries suffering from high death rates due to acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease, the top killers of children under the age of five.Properties that participate...

TRAVELERS REST, S.C.—T&S Brass and Bronze Works, a worldwide manufacturer and supplier of plumbing and foodservice equipment, has acquired Chicago-based food waste elimination company EnviroPure Systems, Inc., a leading-edge developer of alternative environmentally-friendly technologies for organic food waste disposal. The deal underscores T&S’s commitment to helping foodservice professionals find more sustainable and cost-effective solutions.EnviroPure’s unique processing techniques for dealing with organic food waste can save customers more than 50 percent in traditional operating costs while minimizing negative environmental impact.According to the Environmental Protection Agency, food remnants are, by weight, the single-largest waste stream component of the waste stream in...

CHICAGO—George McKerrow Jr., co-founder and chief executive of casual-dining restaurant chain Ted’s Montana Grill, recently signed a straw-free pledge that would require diners at his restaurants to ask for drinking straws instead of automatically being given one with their beverage orders.McKerrow, a longtime proponent of sustainability and sustainable business practices at his restaurants, signed the Be Straw Free pledge January 29, as a way of educating the public on how the use of plastic straws impacts the environment.The campaign is the brainchild of 11-year-old Milo Cress, a Boulder, Colo., resident who started the campaign in 2011. He is encouraging...

ALPHARETTA, GA.—The Refinishing Touch, a leader in on-site environmentally safe and sustainable furniture refinishing and re-upholstering for private and public organizations, has expanded its Touch Textiles fabric division with a new eco-friendly recycled leather line, Embrace.Embrace recycled leather gives The Refinishing Touch’s customers, which include hospitality, government and education institutions, the benefits and aesthetics of traditional leather at a fraction of the cost. It also maintains The Refinishing Touch’s commitment to environmentally-responsible products and services. It is available immediately as part of The Refinishing Touch’s Touch Textiles fabric offerings.Touch Textiles is The Refinishing Touch’s line of commercial fabrics, adding...

NATIONAL REPORT—Green Lodging News recently sent queries to more than 30 suppliers of green amenities, asking them what “new and hot” products they will be making available to the hospitality market in 2013. Eleven companies responded and sent product descriptions as well as photos of their product lines. Throughout the material there was common language—indicators of what is now accepted as “green” when considering amenities. Several suppliers mentioned adding an additive to their tubes or bottles to accelerate the speed at which the plastic biodegrades in landfills. Others mentioned cardboard packaging made with recycled content. Also common: the use...

SEQUIM, WASH.—Taking the concept of existing-structure “recycling” to heart, Olaf and Charlotte Protze have built a thriving bed and breakfast business out of retired cabooses. The Red Caboose Getaway B&B, located in Sequim, Wash., offers accommodations in six luxuriously renovated train cars that the owners have had transported from various U.S. locations. The couple have three additional cabooses on their three acre property that are currently undergoing renovation.Olaf and Charlotte had long enjoyed visiting B&Bs and eventually fell in love with the idea of staying in renovated railcars. “Most are very rustic,” Olaf says. “I thought we could do...