SAN FRANCISCO—Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants has introduced Wines That Care during its hosted nightly wine hour at nearly 50 hotels nationwide. For guests in the mood to mix and mingle in the living room-style lobby with a glass of red or white, every savored sip will come from a featured winery of the month chosen for its dedication to the earth and local communities. Hand-picked by Kimpton’s wine director and master sommelier, Emily Wines, Wines That Care will offer pours from a different winery each month that has a unique story and genuine commitment to environmental preservation and sustainability. “Partnering with like-minded companies through Wines that Care allows us to provide guests with more than complimentary wine each night, but a way to support the environment and their communities when they stay at Kimpton,” said Emily Wines, director of wines and master sommelier, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants.

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Hasek Communications, the Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of Green Lodging News, welcomes FoodBizSupply.com as a Green Product & Service Directory partner. FoodBizSupply.com is a source for more than 400 sustainable tableware, paper products, catering supply products, to-go packaging, bags, green cleanup supplies, and much more.

SAINT CHARLES, MO.—Pineapple Hospitality, a distributor of green hotel products and marketing programs for the hospitality industry, has partnered with CynerGreen to provide a “bottle free” solution for hotels and meeting planners looking to reduce their environmental impact and carbon footprint. CynerGreen offers a complete line of hydration products and services. CynerGreen is one of several companies that have recently partnered with Pineapple Hospitality.

MIAMI—Sustainability practices that minimize the impact of restaurant operations on the environment appear to be gaining momentum as the foodservice industry finds ways to measure the return on its investment in green systems and technologies, according to the results of a new benchmark survey from RSR Research. The study, “The Better-Run Restaurant: Environmental Sustainability in Restaurant Retail 2010,” finds restaurant organizations of all sizes hungry for greater efficiency in their operations, particularly those solutions which cut energy costs, reduce wasteful packaging, and can be leveraged to “tell a green story” to diners. While the industry is still struggling to correlate top line revenue with green investments, it does recognize the bottom line benefits of cost savings from energy and waste management. Notably, 58 percent of respondents said sustainability is a strategic initiative in multiple departments of their companies.

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Hasek Communications, the Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of Green Lodging News, welcomes Kenyon International as a Green Product & Service Directory Partner. Kenyon International manufactures Kenyon Custom “suite green” compact ceramic cook tops with one or two burners and in 120-, 208- and 240-volt models. The cook tops include “HOT” and “ON” indicator lights.

TROY, OHIO—Hobart’s new patent-pending Energy Star qualified AM Select Ventless warewasher not only cleans and sanitizes dishware and heavily soiled pots and pans, but it also can save more than $5,000 in energy recovery, reduced HVAC use and the elimination of a vent hood and fan installation.

NATIONAL REPORT—With advancements in controls technology and equipment design, washer-extractors (washers) are becoming increasingly more sophisticated and flexible. This is good news for hoteliers looking to save money in a recovering economy. In the race to gain new business, vendors are manufacturing higher G-force machines that spin off more water faster, allowing linens to dry in less time. In some cases, advancements have allowed rinse cycles and dryers to be eliminated entirely. While innovation has allowed vendors to squeeze just about as much water as they can out of the washing process, other advances, especially in software programming, are reducing demand for chemicals. Thanks to these efficiencies and others, payback time on today’s washers can be very reasonable, experts say—as short as one year to 18 months depending on model size. What size and type of machine to buy depends on a number of factors: number of rooms, types of items that will be washed, etc.

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Green Lodging News has just added a new case study to its website. The case study focuses on the LEED-certified Hilton Garden Inn Gatlinburg’s new laundry operations that include two Continental Girbau 55-pound capacity soft-mount washer-extractors, each with an ozone system, and three Continental Girbau 75-pound capacity high-efficiency drying tumblers.

BETHESDA, MD.—Now that’s a lot of cooking oil. According to Brad Nelson, corporate chef and vice president of culinary for Marriott International, the company’s hotels in North America generate about 5.5 million pounds of used cooking oil each year. Add in the properties outside North America and that number just about doubles. With so much spent cooking oil to deal with, what’s a company the size of Marriott to do? This past summer the company started a test program at just a few properties in the Washington, D.C. area that resulted in the cooking oil being converted to biodiesel. The company picking up the oil: Greenlight Biofuels, a subsidiary of Charlottesville, Va.-based Greenlight Energy Resources. The program at the test properties has since been expanded to include a total of thirteen Marriott, Renaissance, JW Marriott, and Courtyard hotels in the D.C. area and Marriott’s corporate headquarters in Bethesda, Md.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Restaurant Association’s annual survey of more than 1,800 professional chefs—members of the American Culinary Federation (ACF)—reveals that local sourcing of ingredients, sustainability and nutrition will be the hottest trends on restaurant menus in 2010. Locally grown produce, locally sourced meats and seafood, sustainability, mini-desserts and locally produced wine and beer top the list of nearly 215 culinary items in the “What’s Hot in 2010” survey. Rounding out the top 10 trends are nutritious kids’ meals, half-portions, farm-branded ingredients, gluten-free/food-allergy conscious meals and sustainable seafood. “No one has a better view of restaurant menu trends than the chefs of the nation’s nearly one million restaurants, and that is why we survey these culinary professionals on what hot, new trends we’ll see in the coming year,” said Dawn Sweeney, president and CEO of the Association.