INTERNATIONAL REPORT—On the United Nations’ World Environment Day, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group announced a significant stride in environmental stewardship with the goal of having Winnow’s food waste technology installed across all its hotels by the end of 2025. This initiative is a testament to Mandarin Oriental’s commitment to setting a new standard for sustainability in the luxury hospitality sector. In a resounding endorsement of the effectiveness of Winnow’s AI technology, Mandarin Oriental has already observed a remarkable 36 percent reduction in food waste in four pilot hotels: Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong; Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London; Mandarin Oriental, Miami; and Mandarin...

WAILEA, HAWAII—Hawaii’s five-star, five-diamond Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea announces the launch of the Blue Aina guest experience, an addition to the Resort’s Malama Hawaii program. Launching in tandem with National Oceans Month, this new initiative aims to cultivate a sense of ocean conservation and environmental stewardship among guests, providing a unique and educational adventure that underscores the Resort’s unwavering dedication to regenerative travel, tourism, and sustainability. The term “Blue Aina,” translating to “Blue Land,” symbolizes the interconnectedness of land and sea, echoing the shared responsibility to protect and preserve the environment. This ethos embodies the essence of Four Seasons Resort Maui and is reflected in...

NATIONAL REPORT—Earlier this year, Blue Ridge Hotel Textiles announced CiCLO® biodegradable polyester as its core down alternative fiber. Blue Ridge Hotel Textiles joins companies such as McDonald’s and Hanesbrands in utilizing the patented CiCLO® technology, which is owned, manufactured and distributed by Intrinsic Advanced Materials. Target is also selling numerous items—bathmats and sheet sets for example—that utilize fibers treated with CiCLO®. According to Andrea Ferris, CEO of Intrinsic Advanced Materials, hospitality will quickly follow retail in the adoption of CiCLO®. When added to synthetic fibers including polyester and nylon, CiCLO® technology allows microbes to treat synthetic fibers like natural fibers. When...

LAS VEGAS—Climate change is now at the forefront of people’s minds, while travel is continually cited as a major (and significantly, a discretionary) contributor to total carbon emissions. As such, every hotel brand needs a clear plan and must also be increasingly transparent about what’s been done to date to win hearts and minds. But every plan relies upon leadership, and with customer sentiment slowly shifting more and more towards ESG values (especially amongst the younger generations), this presents a clear case for carving out a sustainability role for every hotel. Of all the places to learn about how to...

Food waste reduction and donation were top of mind this past week for several reasons. First, MGM Resorts International announced that it has donated five million meals into the community since 2016, marking the achievement of a 2025 social impact and sustainability goal well ahead of schedule. In 2023 alone, the company donated more than 1.2 million meals to feed food insecure people in local communities. The five million meals were donated through the MGM Resorts Feeding Forward program. Many were the result of grants to organizations that focus on hunger relief and funded meals donated to local nonprofit organizations. Other...

NATIONAL REPORT—Green Lodging News recently interviewed Hans P. Vriens, Managing Director and President North America, ADA Cosmetics, to understand the pressures leading to the phasing out of single-use amenity bottles. I understand that California and New York are eliminating single-use mini toiletries from hotels. Help me understand the legislation in each state. Any new shampoo, conditioner, etc. purchased must now be offered as part of an on-the-wall dispenser system? Or can a hotel use large-format bottles not on the wall elsewhere in the bathroom? Does the legislation offer a time window to transition? Or, has that time window now passed?...

ITHACA, N.Y.—Join leading experts from the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration and beyond on May 29 as they unveil the latest results from the 10th annual Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index, which tracks energy, water, and carbon emissions of more than 27,000 hotels from over 40 companies. The results explore differences in performance across and within hotel segments and markets as well as the industrywide pathways of decarbonization. While these KPIs have solidified over the past decade, other sustainability indicators are arising and gaining importance. The breadth of climate change and biodiversity impacts continue to be better understood, mapped, and...

DENKENDORF, GERMANY—Following the successful debut of OBJECT CARPET’s first DUO carpet as the red carpet at the Berlinale in February, the journey of this circular sensation continues. By 2026, the entire range of over 1,000 products will be gradually converted to the recyclable DUO technology. This means full design flexibility using only two basic materials: polyamide and polyester. Traditional carpets consist of over 30 different materials on average, which means they pose an ecological challenge after their use—it is not possible to efficiently separate and fully recycle them back into their original components. However, it is essential to recycle these...

Our guest news blogger this week is Jon Strassner. He is the founder of Jon Strassner Consulting LLC. I recently had the good fortune to present at HD Expo in Las Vegas. Along with my good friend and podcast partner, Verda Alexander, we wanted to dive into the idea of reusing furniture in hospitality. Verda and I produce a podcast together called Break Some Dishes, just now embarking on its fifth season. We find people out there doing extraordinary work, quietly, to impact the effects of climate change. The hospitality design industry has notoriously dragged its collective feet when it...

MCLEAN, VA.—Hilton, a leading hospitality company, and the Hilton Global Foundation, Hilton’s philanthropic arm, announced the latest progress towards their shared goal of creating a better world for travel with the release of the 2023 Hilton Global Foundation Impact Report and the 2023 Hilton Travel with Purpose Report. Hilton’s Travel with Purpose Report outlines the hospitality leader’s progress towards its Travel with Purpose environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy to drive responsible travel globally. Travel with Purpose outlines Hilton’s 2030 energy, water, and waste reduction targets as well as community engagement and governance goals. Through carbon reduction targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative and...