BANGKOK—Mark Sands has been promoted to Vice President of Wellness at Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas. Joining the group in 2011 as Area Spa Director, Sands played a significant role in creating and launching many of the brand’s wellness initiatives, while successfully leading spa operations. He’s been working closely with the technical services team on many aspects of spa development and most recently supported the launch of Mission Wellness, the group-wide host well-being initiative. Prior to joining Six Senses, Sands worked at the world-renowned Ananda in the Himalayas for six years. A fan of traditional medicine, in particular Ayurveda, Sand’s...

As ingrained as sustainability has become in our industry’s leading hotel companies, few individual brands have emerged as truly green brands. 1 Hotels comes to mind, of course, but there are few others. As reported on Green Lodging News last month, Lucky Shepherd recently launched its Shepherd Eco sustainable hospitality brand. The first hotel will open in 2022 in Miami. I spoke with Christine Menedis, Lucky Shepherd Co-Founder and CEO last week about her company’s new brand. Menedis told me the Miami property is one of several Shepherd Eco properties in development. The others will be in other cities. Ground will be...

CHICAGO—Hyatt Hotels Corp. and Headspace, a leader in mindfulness and meditation with nearly 60 million users in 190 countries, announced a new global wellbeing collaboration between Hyatt and Headspace that will bring mindfulness exercises, guided meditations and sleep content to millions of employees, corporate customers and guests. This exclusive collaboration is set to launch at Hyatt-branded hotels around the world in the coming months. The alliance with Headspace builds on Hyatt’s holistic wellbeing strategy, which focuses on positively impacting how employees, corporate customers and guests feel, fuel and function—Hyatt’s three landmarks of wellbeing—at work and in life. This collaboration uniquely...

NEW YORK CITY—The WELL Conference, a rich, experiential event for those committed to improving the health and well-being of people through better buildings, communities and organizations, announces that registration is now open for this inaugural event taking place March 29 to April 1, 2020 at the Fairmont Princess in Scottsdale, Ariz. Attendees can register online at thewellconference.com. A first-of-its-kind wellness gathering, The WELL Conference is a curation of information and inspiration from thought leaders, experts and innovators representing multiple sectors of the wellness movement. Registrants may choose from several options to meet various interests, budgets and time considerations. Those wishing to attend are...

The National Restaurant Association just released the results of its annual What’s Hot Culinary Forecast. The What’s Hot survey was conducted in November-December 2019. More than 600 American Culinary Federation chefs rated 133 individual trends in 12 categories, identified in partnership with Technomic, Inc. What is clear from the survey is that sustainability, health and wellness are top of mind among chefs. The top 10 overall trends include: eco-friendly packaging, plant-based proteins, delivery-friendly menu items, healthy bowls, scratch made, creativity with catering, revamped classic cocktails, stress relievers, specialty burger blends, and unique beef and pork cuts. According to NRA, eco-friendly packaging...

BANGKOK—Yee Pin Tan has joined Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas as head of design. In this capacity, Pin will support and lead all creative teams responsible for project design, branding, marketing, sustainability, spa and wellness and information technology. Pin’s new role covers all design-related areas that support the global expansion of Six Senses. She will also ensure overall consistency in implementing the brand’s vision and alignment to corporate goals, quality of messaging and design concepts. Bringing more than 26 years of experience in hospitality design, Pin has worked alongside industry greats such as Ed Tuttle in Paris, where her talents were...

VIRGIN GORDA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS—Following a four-year closure and comprehensive renovation, the 80-room Rosewood Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands has opened. Originally founded by conservationist Laurance Rockefeller over half a century ago in 1964 and long regarded as one of the world’s greatest getaways, the iconic resort has been completely revived and redesigned while staying true to its identity as a leading example of ecotourism. Set across 500 acres of pristine private beachfront and breathtaking flora and fauna, the reimagined resort provides an unparalleled island escape with expertly appointed accommodations, inspired amenities, dynamic...

DENVER—Silicon Valley-incubated FloWater is one step closer to making it easier than ever before for the growing numbers of consumers looking to ditch the plastic water bottle. Attendees at CES this year (Las Vegas, January 7 to 10) will get the first glimpse at a “smarter,” IoT-connected drinking water platform. FloWater, makers of new-tech water refill stations, will unveil a development project for a cloud-connected, smart water Refill Station and mobile app, powered by Microsoft’s Azure Sphere, at Sichuan Changhong Electric’s booth (# 11439). FloWater’s development of an IoT mobile app works hand in hand with its smart water Refill...

As a supplement to your green cleaning arsenal, I strongly recommend the use of steam cleaners for cleaning and disinfecting. I spoke with executives at two steam cleaner companies recently and they filled me in on the many applications and benefits of steam cleaning. Watch for my article on Green Lodging News in the next few days. Steam cleaning is a rare event in hotels these days. One of the executives I spoke with estimates that only about 2 percent of hotels use steam cleaners. It is a missed opportunity to clean very effectively with very little water and no...

The year 2019 was an interesting one in the green lodging world, with many of the stories having to do with the elimination of plastic (straws, single use amenity bottles, water bottles, etc.) or other types of waste reduction. The year started off with Sandals Resorts International eliminating Styrofoam across its Caribbean resorts and finished with the launch of Shepherd Eco, a new sustainable hospitality brand with waste reduction as a focus. What Green Lodging News articles posted in 2019 were read the most? Here is a top 10 list with a brief description of each article. 1.  Creative Alternatives to...