VISTA, CALIF.—Waterless Co. LLC is reporting a surge in both sales orders and requests for sales information after the company introduced a new line of soybean urinals approximately four weeks ago. According to Niki Bradley, marketing manager for the company, she did expect some excitement with the introduction, “but nothing like what has happened in the past few weeks.” She attributes much of the interest to the fact that more and more manufacturers—even the manufacturers of urinals—are looking for more sustainable ways to produce products. Waterless Co. is one of the largest manufacturers of no-water urinal systems in the...

HOUSTON—How do you get a laundry facility that covers 27,000 square feet into the basement of a downtown Houston, Texas hotel? It’s easy; you build the hotel on top of the laundry. Most hotel laundries are put in as an afterthought to the construction of the hotel and as such have limited space for equipment. The laundry facility located in the basement of the Hilton Americas-Houston was included in the initial building of the structure and exists as the largest laundry facility in the United States Hilton family of hotels. The massive equipment, including two tunnel washers, was put into...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Green Lodging News has added its tenth case study to its Vendor Case Studies section. The case study focuses on the 480-room Hilton Palacio del Rio hotel and how it was able to reduce its water consumption by 6 million gallons in the first eight months after Caroma’s Sydney dual flush high efficiency toilets were installed. The hotel worked with the San Antonio Water System as part of a trial program. Caroma’s efficient dual flush toilets, which use 1.6 gallons of water for solid waste and 0.8 gallons for liquid and paper, replaced models that were using 5 gallons...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Seven lodging properties and several Fortune 100 companies, including Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, and Xerox, are among the 96 facilities that have renewed their membership in EPA’s National Environmental Performance Track program. The lodging properties include: Pinewood Cove Resort, Trinity Center, Calif.; Trinity Lake Resort & Marina, Trinity Center, Calif.; Callville Bay Resort & Marina, Las Vegas; Big Bend Resorts/Chisos Mountain Lodge, Big Bend, Texas; Lake Amistad Resort and Marina, Del Rio, Texas; Mammoth Cave Hotel, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky; Hurricane Ridge Lodge, Port Angeles, Wash.; Lake Crescent Lodge, Port Angeles, Wash.; and Xanterra Parks & Resorts at Yellowstone...

PORTLAND, ORE.— Placing it among exclusive company on an international scale, Portland’s Avalon Hotel & Spa has achieved the Northwest’s first LEED certification of an existing hotel building. The Avalon, a luxury boutique hotel and spa, joins the ranks of only nine other hotels in the world to have achieved LEED certification and is the second existing hotel building in the world to receive the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) coveted Silver rating. The Avalon is located in Portland, Ore., a location that is consistently ranked as the greenest city in America, with 43 buildings certified to the USGBC’s LEED...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Hasek Communications, the Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of Green Lodging News, welcomes HD Supply Hospitality Solutions as a Founding Sponsor. HD Supply is committed to doing business in a manner that is responsible to its associates, customers and the environment. With HD Supply’s new ideallygreen icon, the company has made it easy for its customers to identify environmentally preferable products throughout its catalogs and at www.hdsupplysolutions.com. Products marked with the ideallygreen icon can increase energy efficiency, help reduce water consumption, create a healthier indoor environment, facilitate waste reduction, and prevent hazardous materials from entering the environment. HD Supply is one of...

LAPU-LAPU, PHILIPPINES—An invention that reuses the water used to cool ice machine compressors has allowed Hilton Cebu Resort & Spa in the Philippines to recycle hundreds of thousands of liters of water each year and save on its water bill. The invention, a simple piping system, is attached to three ice machines in the hotel, capturing the water used to cool the compressors and then sending this “grey water” to be reused in the hotel’s flushing tanks, rather than simply washing down the drain. The system was created as part of a water saving project led by Hilton Cebu’s chief...

HILLSBORO, ORE.—Caroma, a leader in dual flush toilets and bathroom sinks, has introduced its newest high efficiency dual flush toilet (HET): Sydney Low Profile. The Low Profile is ideal for installations that want to conserve water and require a shorter toilet due to space restrictions, such as under a counter or a grab bar in ADA installations. Two configurations of the new Sydney Low Profile are WaterSense approved, certifying exceptional performance and reduced water use. The toilet is only 26 ½” tall. This unique feature allows it into many commercial installations where standard height dual flush toilets don’t fit, such...

INDIANAPOLIS—Continuing its dedication to water conservation and energy efficiency, Delta Faucet Co. announced that it has added a water-efficient showerhead to its product line. Designed with the hospitality industry in mind, The Water-Efficient Showerhead with H2Okinetic Technology uses only 1.6 gallons of water per minute (gpm) as opposed to the standard 2.5 gpm, while still delivering a superior shower experience. H2Okinetic Technology provides greater control over the showering experience by managing the water droplet size and velocity, spray coverage and thermal dynamics. Its water-conserving properties deliver the feeling of a standard showerhead at a lower flow. Standard showers deliver 2.5...

SHEFFIELD, MASS.—Cypress Hotel & Spa, a leading designer and manufacturer of luxurious bathrobes, towels, slippers, and sheets for the hospitality and spa industry for more than 25 years, announced that their exclusive MicroCotton Green Earth towel has been re-engineered to be more absorbent, durable and eco-friendly. “In today’s eco-economy, it is critical for hotels to reduce energy usage and expenditures,” stated Gene Faul, Cypress founder and CEO. “However, most hoteliers have been reluctant to implement the use of ‘green’ or organic linens because they are typically not as soft, durable or luxurious as traditional ones. Our new Green Earth...