JACKSONVILLE, FLA.—When the ground gets dry at The Jenks House Bed & Breakfast in Jacksonville, Fla., owners Tom and Ila Rae Merten don’t tap into the city’s water supply. Thanks to a rainwater capture system, they have all the water they need. Installed earlier this summer at the two-guestroom B&B, the system guides water from the garage apartment roof into four 275-gallon storage tanks (1,100 total gallons). The tanks sit on racks in the garage. The roof is 675 square feet in size. One inch of rainfall results in 193 gallons of captured water. With Jacksonville getting an average...

HILLSBORO, ORE.—Caroma, a leader in dual flush toilets, urinals, and stylish bathroom sinks, announces its newest high efficiency toilet (HET): the Sydney Smart back outlet. The Sydney Smart back outlet HET is one of the first back outlet dual flush toilets to be WaterSense labeled, delivering high performance and water savings in the bathroom. The Sydney Smart back outlet features Caroma Smart technology, developed and mastered over the last decade. It delivers a combination of design, water savings, and performance. The Sydney Smart back outlet is dual flush, using 1.28 gallons (4.8 liters) of water per flush (gpf/lpf) for solid...

LAS VEGAS—Dan Bena, who spearheads international sustainability efforts for food and beverage giant PepsiCo, will be the opening keynote speaker for the WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition, October 7 to 9, 2009, in Las Vegas. Bena, PepsiCo’s director of sustainability, health, safety, and environment, will address the conference’s opening session on October 7. PepsiCo’s “Performance with Purpose” operating model has environmental sustainability as a cornerstone and includes minimizing environmental impacts of operations, and extending across supply chains and communities. In 2007, PepsiCo adopted rigorous enterprise-wide global metrics to track its environmental footprint, and was one of the first...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Hasek Communications, the Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of Green Lodging News, welcomes Great Eco Solutions as an advertising partner. The company is the maker of Save A Flush, a new dual action flush valve that allows one to convert a standard toilet to a dual flush system. Save A Flush is designed as a universal retrofit for most two piece toilets. It can be installed in 30 minutes or less. The Save A Flush kit contains all new parts for a toilet. All of the moving parts in a toilet will be replaced with new Save A Flush parts....

RIVER FALLS, WIS.—With an eye on not just saving money, but with helping the environment, the operators of the newest hotel in River Falls, Wis., will be using a device called UZLOW on all showers in the 86-room hotel which opened on July 3. “The theme of the town is green and we are certainly working to go along with that,” said Andrew Dyb, general manager of the Best Western Hotel and Suites. Dyb noted that drought has been a problem in the area in recent years and that one of the city’s wells dropped to what municipal officials called...

HILLSBORO, ORE.—Caroma, a leader in high efficiency toilets (HETs), urinals, and bathroom sinks, has increased its number of WaterSense Labeled toilets to 47, more than any manufacturer, according to the company. WaterSense is a partnership program sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to make it easy for Americans to save water while protecting the environment. The WaterSense program is designed to identify high performance water efficient toilets that can preserve precious water resources by reducing water use in the home. Being WaterSense labeled means a toilet saves at least 20 percent more water than the current federal standard...

ROLLING MEADOWS, ILL.—A coalition led by the Plumbing Manufacturers Institute recently helped Texas join California as the second state nationwide to require high-efficiency toilets (HETs) in all new residential and commercial construction. An HET is defined as a water closet that uses no more than 1.28 gallons of water per flush (GPF), or 20 percent less than the 1.6-GPF models mandated by the National Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct). Texas House Bill 2667, which was signed into law by Governor Rick Perry on June 19, also sets maximum showerhead flow rates at 2.5 gallons per minute and urinal flush...

SHEFFIELD, MASS.—Cypress Bath, Bed & Spa, a leading designer and manufacturer of luxury bathrobes, towels, slippers, and sheets for the global hospitality and spa industries, announced that Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa has chosen their environmentally-friendly Green Earth towel for property-wide use. A recently completed six-month pilot program by Gaia demonstrated credible and successful results to prove Cypress’ claim that the Green Earth towel provided energy savings, detergent use reductions and lowered water usage. “Loosely translated as Greek for ‘Mother Earth,’ Gaia is truly a special property, and a property founded on a vision of sustainability,” said Gene Faul,...

DALLAS—LQ Management LLC, one of the largest operators of limited-service hotels in the United States, has long had an interest in running properties that are energy efficient. It has been an Energy Star partner since 1995, first established a compact fluorescent lighting program for its La Quinta Inns and La Quinta Inns & Suites brands in 1999, has a towel and linen reuse program at its more than 700 hotels, has deployed guestroom energy management systems in more than 160 properties, and is currently working with the American Hotel & Lodging Assn. to follow its 11 Minimum Guidelines for...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) recently launched several initiatives to engage members and the traveling public in greening the hospitality industry, including a Green Partner Program, GreenQuest tracking system, and Green Tips for Travelers. The Green Partner program allows AH&LA members the opportunity to donate funds to plant trees via the Nature Conservancy’s Plant A Billion drive. Green Partners, which to date include HD Supply; Hotel Felix; Pineapple Hospitality, Inc.; and Project Planet, sponsor AH&LA events by donating $1 per attendee, which in turn plants that total number of trees. There is an additional $500 program...