GREENSBORO, N.C.—Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels announced that The Proximity Hotel and Print Works Bistro have been awarded LEED Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED is the USGBC’s rating system for designing and constructing the world’s greenest, most energy efficient, and high performing buildings. Opened in late 2007, the Proximity is the first hotel and Print Works is the first restaurant to obtain the USGBC’s top level of certification. “When we started the design process four years ago, I would have never believed that we could use 41 percent less energy and 33 percent less water without...

TORONTO—EnviroTower, a clean technology leader providing proven clean cooling tower water treatment solutions, has won the prestigious Deloitte Technology Green 15 Award. The award was created last year to showcase 15 North American companies that are leading the way to create major breakthroughs in the field of green technology. This marks the second consecutive year EnviroTower has been named to the Technology Green 15, solidifying the company as a leader in sustainable technology innovation. In addition to Green 15 honors, John Coburn, a water technology industry veteran and EnviroTower’s CEO, participated in an exclusive CEO panel discussion at...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Hasek Communications, the Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of Green Lodging News, welcomes the Waterless Company as a Green Product & Service Directory partner. The Waterless Company manufactures Waterless No-Flush™ urinal systems and has been in operation since 1991. Headquartered in Vista, Calif., the company manufactures plumbing products for the institutional, commercial and industrial markets worldwide. Waterless recently introduced a line of soybean urinals. They are made from approximately 30 percent soybean resin, which is a naturally sustainable resource. There is no difference in appearance, function, or maintenance with the soybean systems compared to other waterless urinals. The difference is purely...

KANSAS CITY, MO.—Doug Gamble, managing partner of the Q Hotel + Spa, is on a mission to make his 123-room hotel as sustainable as possible—even to the point of turning off lights in the lobby during the day and hanging clotheslines to help dry washed linens. Gamble’s company has owned the hotel since April 2007. It was originally built in 1986. Renovations began in July 2007 and were completed in March of this year. It formally opened as the Q Hotel + Spa on April 1. “It was a cool little boutique hotel,” says Gamble of the Kansas City, Mo.-based...

PISCATAWAY, N.J.—Expanding its efforts to help plumbers provide value to their customers, American Standard has launched two online tools that promote water conservation. The new Water Savings Calculator and Rebate Locator, found at www.americanstandard-us.com/waterefficiency, also help educate people about the benefits of water and energy conservation. The Water Savings Calculator is an interactive online tool that allows users to estimate how many gallons of water and how many dollars they can save by converting to various water-efficient fixtures and faucets. Designed with several categories of pre-estimated usage, this calculator is adaptable to users ranging from hospitality to healthcare, retail to...

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, COLO.—FoodServiceWarehouse.com launched its Going Green Program, an industry-vetted program aimed at helping commercial kitchens cope with the costs and complexities of going green. Through educational resources, rewards and the industry’s only free certification process, FoodServiceWarehouse.com is dedicated to helping commercial kitchens slash energy costs, conserve water and reduce their environmental impact. To kick-start the program, FoodServiceWarehouse.com will give away a green commercial kitchen worth up to $40,000 to one qualifying kitchen. “Restaurants that invest strategically in energy efficiency can cut utility costs between 10 to 30 percent without sacrificing service, quality, style or comfort—while making significant contributions...

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...