Green Hotels: Hotel Chains Getting Green

April 17, 2007 at 4:10 PM | by juliana | Comments (0)

It's hard to imagine anything in Times Square being environmentally friendly. C'mon those lights and gigantic screens are on 24-7, 365. But we got word that the DoubleTree Guest Suites in Times Square has two floors of eco-friendly rooms.

In these "green suites" are:

wastebaskets marked "recycling," energy-saving light bulbs in all fixtures, water-saving showerheads, and on-the-shower-wall containers filled with shampoo and conditioner, which has reduced the need for plastic bottles and the refuse of same. The individual suites also have their own thermostat controls, and Hilton Family of Hotel brand cards are left for guests who, in order to further preserve water, may check whether or not they want their towels are linen laundered that day.

Also employing such "eco-floors" is Kimpton Hotels, specifically the Hotel Triton which has pretty much the same thing. Kimpton does have a chain-wide EarthCare policy which employs a variety of environmentally-friendly business practice from using organic coffee to soy printer ink to an extensive recycling program.

Another San-Fran based boutique chain, JDV Hospitality has two hotels that are certified green businesses by the city of San Francisco. Additionally, Chip Conley told HotelChatter that they plan on using more and more recycled materials when renovating and constructing new hotels.

Hyatt Hotels have also been recognized for their environmentally friendly efforts. Their recently announced brand Andaz plans on being especially green with organic food and beverage, fully biodegradable products and focusing on energy efficiency.

Meanwhile, the Hyatt Regency Boston has installed amenity dispensers in all their guestrooms and participate in composting leftover food from dining areas, conserving energy and water and using e-mails to distribute hotel information rather than paper. The only thing is the hotel makes no mention of this on their web site (or the Hyatt site), which we think would be good for potential guests to see.

A big chain that seems to be missing on this Green Hotel/eco-friendly trend is Starwood Hotels who so far have no real stand-out green policies. But they do promise that when aloft opens in 2008, it will have a "see green" (yes all lower-cased) program that will have special parking spots for hybrid cars, eco-friendly cleaning materials at the hotel's carwash (yes, a carwash), amenity dispensers in the bathroom, and green cleaning products throughout.

The Ritz-Carlton is also lagging behind on eco-friendly or green practices as is the Four Seasons, although they did start composting food at their Philly location and we hear they do have the linen/towel reuse policy in most of their hotels.

Know of a major hotel chain getting reen? Let us know.

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