Monthly Archives: April 2010

Green Hotelkeeping Can Be Habit Forming February 16, 2010 Hello. My Name is __________ and I am a Green Hotelier. I met Ms. Hema Patel, president of Courtesy Management this past year at the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference in Atlanta. She approached … Continue reading →

Questions About LEED February 3, 2010 The Bardessono is now California’s first and only LEED Platinum hotel and only the second in the world. The other LEED Platinum hotel is The Proximity in Greensboro, North Carolina.This brings to mind some questions: … Continue reading →

Seaport Hotels Wins BOMA EcoRace Recycling Challenge January 4, 2010 Seaport Hotel Boston recently won the 2009 EcoRace Recycling Challenge for mixed-use buildings under 500,000 square feet, as well as the 2009 EcoRace Innovation Award for mixed-use multi-buildings from the … Continue reading →

A Cleansing Experience December 21, 2009 Pet Rocks, Chia Pets, Beanie Babies and The Heavenly Bed. Every once in awhile an idea or product comes along which causes you to slap yourself in the forehead and say, “Why didn’t I think … Continue reading →

Green Your Holiday Lights November 20, 2009 At any given time, I usually have about three or four entries for this blog in the queue. This morning a subject came to me that jumped to the top of the list: … Continue reading →

Green Hospitality Education Opportunities October 16, 2009 This fall several opportunities are available for Green Education. I would encourage you to attend one or more as your time and budget permits. In Chronological order please see below:

C’s Of Green (Continued) September 30, 2009 When you have a consistent commitment to the green continuum it makes it easier to communicate – both internally and externally — when opportunities are presented. Fairmont Hotels, inspired by documentarian Ken Burns’ latest … Continue reading →

The Green Bar Has Just Been Raised September 23, 2009 Yesterday, I went out to buy myself a birthday present and came back with both the gift and a copy of the September 28th edition of Newsweek. It may prove … Continue reading →

Environmental Champion Mrs. Wilma Maples September 3, 2009 During the past couple of decades it has been my privilege to meet some of people that I consider to be Environmental Champions. It has been a pleasure to talk briefly with Ray … Continue reading →

Revisiting The Smoke-Free Option August 7, 2009 I don’t think a lot of consumers have given much thought to whether a hotel that markets and/or positions itself as green should also be 100% non smoking, but they may in the … Continue reading →

Guests Noticing Hotel Sustainability Efforts July 31, 2009 The J.D. Power  2009 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Study has just been released and a couple of notable highlights include: Guest awareness of property-initiated “green” programs has increased significantly in 2009, … Continue reading →

Green Hotels In Unlikely Places July 13, 2009 Greener hotels are popping up in some places you may least expect to find them. We aren’t talking about college towns or left-leaning cities  Some of these hotels are in some of the … Continue reading →

Every Opportunity Is A Green Opportunity June 18, 2009 As it is my habit, I often look at upcoming conferences to see if there is an opportunity to push the green agenda. I came across one that had the curious … Continue reading →

Tweets From HITEC June 15, 2009 It has been a few years since I have been to HITEC. This year seems as good as any to return. ( I am trying my best to single handily stimulate the economy and our … Continue reading →

The C’s of Green – Continued… June 5, 2009 Community, Collecting, Counting, Commitment and The Cardinals. Below is a good example of how The St. Louis Cardinals baseball team is working with a community-based organization and a corporate partner to collect … Continue reading →

Green Restaurants May 29, 2009 How exciting it was to see the green agenda at the National Restaurant Association’s annual show in Chicago recently. This is such a huge industry and it is so encouraging to see how the green movement is … Continue reading →

Liquid Gold April 30, 2009 I recently watched a program on bottled water – a fad that seems to have gotten out of hand and is creating a massive pollution problem. Bottled water now costs more than petrol. More is … Continue reading →

Being Green During A Recession April 23, 2009 I am continually asked the question “do you think the economic crisis will have an effect on green initiatives.” There are many things that can be done by an operation that do … Continue reading →

Now Everybody’s Business April 1, 2009 I am pleased to be back on board with Eco-Speak, and after a considerable absence it is wonderful to see the changes in the world of hotels. Sustainability in the hotel industry has evolved … Continue reading →

Earth Hour – Creative Community Commitment March 23, 2009 Hotels from coast to coast are getting involved to share concern about climate change. View this as a warm up for Earth Day. Saturday night, March 28, 2009, 8:30 p.m. local … Continue reading →

Green Creativity March 9, 2009 In our previous blog entry, we mentioned commitment as one of the C’s of Green. While that is usually the beginning of the Continuum, to maintain and continue the journey, Creativity should follow close behind. One of the opportunities … Continue reading →

Times Challenge Green Commitment March 2, 2009 These are the times that try men’s souls, said Thomas Paine. If not your souls at the least your commitment to socially and sustainably responsible hospitality. Lately, I have been reading several articles about … Continue reading →

What Makes A Good Certification Program? January 22, 2009 Even though I was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma, I have never staked a claim as a true “Sooner.” Over half of my life I have resided in the “Show-Me” state (Missouri) … Continue reading →

A Model That Works January 22, 2009 My uncle, Larry Daniel, is an avid nature photographer and he sent this to me on January 20th. (Inauguration Day) As you may know the Bald Eagle was almost extinct until legislation was … Continue reading →

Looking For A New Source Of Business? December 30, 2008 In this economy that may be a silly question, but the answers are not. One source that others are tapping is the green meetings market. As an example, 30,000 attended the … Continue reading →

Green Hotels & Smoking December 5, 2008 Question: Should Green Hotels be 100% Non Smoking? Answer: I don’t know, but we may be headed in that direction. What do you think? Keep in mind: 1) Non-smoking hotels have tripled in the last three … Continue reading →

Do We Need To Leave The Light On? December 1, 2008 With apologies to Motel 6 and Tom Bodett I couldn’t resist their “catchy” trademark promise for the title of this blog post. For the past few years, I have … Continue reading →

Bucket List November 20, 2008 These past few months have been a blur of activity, some of which is due to an effort to cross some items off my Bucket List. A few of these are listed below: * Drive Cross … Continue reading →

I Wonder… October 9, 2008 I wonder if Smith Travel Research has any numbers about how greener hotels are performing against their competitive set? I wonder why the majority of hotel owners seem to think about the cost of green and … Continue reading →

Get Educated On Green Hospitality October 8, 2008 As we noted in our last blog entry, the number of green hospitality educational opportunities are multiplying like pasture-raised rabbits. I would suggest you select at least one to attend so you … Continue reading →

Green Reading, Events October 3, 2008 Every so often I find myself completely inundated and bombarded by messages from a wide variety of sources. In this case we will just use numbers to put them into a manageable format. 1) … Continue reading →

What Goes Around Comes Around September 18, 2008 While wandering recently in New England I was pleased to visit what could have been the predecessor to LEED certified hotels on the campus at the University of New Hampshire.  UNH was … Continue reading →

Leading The “Ecolution” August 27, 2008 On a recent trip to Boston and points beyond I had the privilege of attending a monthly meeting of the Boston Green Tourismorganization. As a visitor to Boston I always spend some time thinking about … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Hotel Green, Part II August 6, 2008 In my last blog post, I mentioned that each day we would take a look at another of three of the top five environmental actions that business travelers expect lodging facilities … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Hotel Green August 4, 2008 Guest awareness of property-initiated green programs declined significantly in 2008, with 57% of guests stating they were aware that their hotel offered environmentally friendly conservation programs, compared with 63% in 2007, according to … Continue reading →

The New Green Paradigm July 28, 2008 For years, the foundations of environmentalism have been summed up in a tidy triumvirate: reduce, reuse, recycle. The three words were memorable, just right for posters and easy enough to apply. A few … Continue reading →