SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS—The Hilton Palacio del Rio hotel is located on the famous River Walk in beautiful downtown San Antonio, Texas, and is surrounded by cultural and historic attractions. With more than 480 guestrooms, the hotel provides an enjoyable experience, whether traveling for business or pleasure. As with most businesses in the hospitality industry, water provides a vital resource for maintaining a company’s existence. Many cities and states have water restrictions, and finding ways to conserve water has become critical. The City of San Antonio and the surrounding areas are no different. They have an ongoing housing boom and year-round water restrictions. Combining these with the continuing low rainfall creates a burden on the water resources.
08/13/2008
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ORANGE, CONN.—A large seafood restaurant had been troubled by backups and odors for several years. The restaurant serves 400 to 500 meals per day and upwards of 1,000 meals on the weekends. Located on the shore, it also has a brisk takeout business in the summer.
The menu includes fresh seafood, steaks, chicken and fried foods such as hot dogs, burgers and french fries made on site. During the summer, potatoes, with high sugar content, added considerable sugars and foaming to the wastewater system during the peeling and cutting process.
Despite frequent and expensive manual cleaning of the grease trap and drain lines, backups occurred about twice per month. Additionally, odors released from the trap were very strong and pungent, making unpleasant working conditions.
07/24/2008
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LAS VEGAS—At Harrah’s Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, one of the most recognizable resort names in the world, a massive $1 billion addition to the property is underway and scheduled for completion next year. As part of the expansion, the Octavius tower, with 594 guestrooms and 71 luxury suites, will add to the existing 3,300 rooms on the sprawling 85-acre destination resort. Coming not long after another large-scale expansion, this latest project will reinforce the position of Caesars Palace as the crown jewel of Las Vegas resort casinos.
07/18/2008
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NEBRASKA CITY, NEB.—Lied Lodge & Conference Center is built on the 260-acre Arbor Day Farm, the original estate of conservationist and founder of Arbor Day, J. Sterling Morton. The property in Nebraska City, Neb. exemplifies Morton’s lasting message of environmental stewardship: “We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and orchards as we have exhausted and consumed.”
05/11/2008
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THE BROADMOOR, with its initial roots formed in 1918 at the base of the magnificent Rockies in Colorado Springs, Colo., has an aggressive green policy designed to help preserve the environment. One of the many expansive green programs initiated to minimize the effects of its 700-room hotel focuses on pillow renovation. Guest pillow renovation is an ongoing green service of THE BROADMOOR. It renovates its pillows with the help of the Pillow-Vac® from Harris Pillow Supply.
02/14/2008
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NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C.—Though winning numerous awards for service excellence every year since opening in May 2000, the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites North Vancouver still strives to improve. Yet, one wouldn’t typically think of addressing energy consumption as a way to do this. Indeed, what the hotel did was install Canada’s first in-room energy management system, produced by Vancouver, B.C.-based Energex Inc. In a little more than a year, the system reduced the hotel’s electricity bills, its environmental impact and improved guest comfort by making heating and cooling more “intelligent.”
01/14/2008
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LAS VEGAS—An innovative recycling program—one made possible by Air Cycle Corp.—has made one of this city’s most popular meeting places a green oasis by shipping out the toxic remains of spent light bulbs. This is also all happening thanks to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, which was founded to strengthen the area’s convention business and eliminate a troubling economic problem: the cyclical nature of the tourism industry.
12/06/2007
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BOULDER, COLO.—The Boulder Outlook Hotel & Suites recently switched from traditional PVC plastic hotel keycards to Green-Key™ paperboard keycards. In 2006, the progressive Boulder, Colo.-based hotel implemented a zero waste program, with the goal of reducing the solid waste the hotel sends to the landfill. Following the three principles of reduce, reuse and recycle, the hotel has been able to divert approximately 85 percent of its waste to either composting or recycling facilities.
12/03/2007
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BOSTON—The John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston’s historic Back Bay is one of the busiest midsized event and conference venues in the country. Licensed to house up to 25,000 people at any given time, it boasts 193,000 square feet of meeting space in 38 rooms, as well as a 25,000-square-foot ballroom. Over the years, the hand dryers in the public bathrooms had seen a lot of wear and tear. That is why Convention Center staff turned to Excel Dryer and its XLERATOR hand dryer. Two years later, they are glad they did.
10/26/2007
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SEATTLE—Two area hotels have been saving money and the environment, thanks to a host of environmentally enhanced products from Green Suites® International, a California-based supplier of environmental products and programs to the lodging industry. The Best Western Executive Inn and Best Western Loyal Inn both participate in Green Suites’ EcoRoom® program. “We are saving water and electricity, and keeping thousands of small bottles out of the waste stream," said Howard Cohen, General Manager of the two hotels.
10/25/2007
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