Every so often I experience what I call “green fatigue”. As you may know we have been extolling the virtues of green hotelkeeping since the early 1990′s and exhorting our colleagues in the lodging industry to “green” their hotels as much as humanly possible. This effort can wear a green guru out.
Asilomar
Recently, I made a trip that would test the commitment of even the most ardent ecovangelist. On Sunday I left STL for Monterey, Ca (MRY). I enjoyed participating in the Aramark Parks & Destinations Environmental Stewards meeting held at one of the most beautiful places on Earth -Asilomar Conference Grounds - Sunday night through Dinner on Monday evening. That evening I took the red-eye (I know I swore them off years ago) from MRY via SFO to EWR(Newark). I arrived not quite as fresh as an organically grown daisy and headed for my hotel.
Check-in was a breeze at approximately 8 AM ( that was a bit of a gamble on my part), took a shower and headed off for the AH & LA Environmental and Engineering Committee meeting at the LEED Silver certified headquarters office of Wyndham Hotels in Parsippany, NJ. Faith Taylor, our host does a great job of chairing this committee and we had a full agenda. Long time stalwarts and members of the committee Tedd Saunders, Dave Stipanuk and Pat Maher(he atttended via conference call) were among those in attendance. I am always amazed and impressed with the new initiatives that these gentlemen and their fellow committee members bring forth for consideration.
The meeting continued(did anyone see me knod off a couple times?) and culminated in Dinner that evening. Back at it on Wednesday morning and then into NYC carpooling with Tedd and Nancy Scanlon ( I played the taller than thou card and rode shotgun) in a borrowed Honda driven by Eric Ricaurte of Envirelation (www.Envirelation.com) – another young and inspiring ecopreneur unlike myself.
The Willard
Had another great meeting with the out-of-the-box Triple Bottom Line driven Hervé Houdré, he led the Sustainability charge at The Willard InterContinental (see our list of top 40 Green Hotels at www.GreenerHotels.com) He is the Regional Director of Operations & General Manager for The InterContinental Barclay (www.icbarclay.com) and as a special guest he invited Dinda Elliott from Condé Nast Traveler® (www.condenastraveler.com) to our meeting. You may enjoy following her blog regarding the “greening” of The Barclay -http://dotherightthing.truth.travel
After this meeting we headed to LGA for the trip home to STL feeling inspired again by all these ardent advocates even if we were a little fatigued.
