Do the Right Thing

What You Don't (Want to) Know About Your Garbage

2010-06-22T17:30:00Z

Photo: Flickr/dbking

So of all the strange reporting assignments I’ve had in my life, this has to be way up there near the top. I am sloshing around a food composting plant in the industrial heart of New Jersey, inspecting a small mountain of Terra Chips that has been dumped on the "in-take" floor, alongside Herve Houdre, the general manager of InterContinental The Barclay. The putrid smell of massive-scale food composting is seeping into my clothes. I am cutting quite an attractive image: my baggy brown pants are tucked into enormous yellow rubber boots, and I am scuffling along, trying not to fall down.

Do you ever wonder where your garbage goes? I do. And so does Houdre, which is why he is visiting the Converted Organics composting plant. He is reviewing the garbage procedures at his hotel (excuse me, "waste management," as they say in the biz). Houdre has become obsessed with garbage. Last week, he visited his current contractor's processing center and watched garbage pickers along a conveyor belt sort the refuse into plastics, glass, cardboard, leaving the unsorted trash to be sent along to landfill. It was the first time the plant had seen a general manager; the job is usually the purview of engineers. "Look, there are two issues in the hotel industry: We consume a lot of energy, and we produce a lot of garbage," Houdre said to me on the train out to the garbage plant. "We are addressing both issues."

At his former hotel, the Willard InterContinental in Washington, Houdre says, the amount of trash recycled jumped in two years from 28 tons a year to 135 tons, and the amount of food waste composted went from none in 2006 to 19 tons in 2008. Houdre plans to make the same kind of improvements at the Barclay, which he took over about six months ago.

Today, Houdre is looking at a relatively new process, the industrial-scale composting of food. It's the cutting edge of where garbage recycling is heading, because it means virtually nothing, in theory, goes to landfill. This plant only accepts food (plastic bags really gum up the system), and after about 10 days of "digesting" and processing, what comes out the other end is organic fertilizer that is sold at Whole Foods and Home Depot.

Before donning my fashion-forward yellow booties, we got a briefing from Jack Walsdorf, of the Converted Organics plant, and Christopher Balfe, from IESI-BFC Ltd. and Waste Services, which is the fourth largest waste management company in the U.S. I learned three very important takeaways.

Takeaway 1: To my amazement, I learned that it’s probably better to buy plastic bottled goods than glass bottled goods. I’ve been avoiding plastic soda bottles for the past year, thinking that plastics generally are bad. But it turns out, the value of recycled plastic—plastic today is worth about $400 a ton—is higher than the value of recycled glass. And so it’s more likely that a plastic bottle will get recycled than a glass one. "More than 50 percent of glass picked up off the street goes to landfill," says Balfe, a Cornell School of Hotel Management graduate and recycling consultant, who is helping IESI develop its composting business. "But as the market shifts and prices goes up or down, that will change again."

Takeaway 2: The garbage I carefully separate into plastic, glass, and paper actually does get recycled. I saw the recycling plant—it's Sims Metal Management, which you can read about in this WNYC report from 2008, when the contract was awarded—with my very own eyes, just across the fence from another paper recycling plant. I hope to visit it sometime soon to learn what actually happens to my trash. (Stay tuned for that post.)

Takeaway 3: If a garbage (excuse me, "waste management") company says it is sorting and recycling a hotel company’s garbage, the chances are, only about 15-20 percent actually gets recycled. This is a big deal: an average hotel room in New York City produces 2.2 tons of garbage a year. If only a small percent of that gets recycled, then a heck of a lot is going out to landfill.

Previously in Operation Green Hotel, Do the Right Thing examined the greening of the staff, the hard work of the paper police, and the vagaries of bamboo bedding.

Travelocity Flags Green Travel

2010-06-22T14:47:45Z

If you're looking for evidence that travelers care about the environment and social responsibility when they take trips, check out Travelocity's hotel bookings in the first quarter: green hotel bookings are up a remarkable 65 percent. And the growing interest in social responsibility seems to be here to stay.

Travelocity now flags "green" hotels that are certified by credible sustainable tourism certification outfits—led by EC3 Global, one of the world's leading certification programs.

Here's the press release:

TRAVELOCITY EXPANDS ITS GREEN HOTEL OFFERINGS IN ASIA-PACIFIC

Through new relationship with EC3 Global, Travelocity now shows additional green hotels in the Asia Pacific region and beyond.

Southlake, Texas- Is green going mainstream? Travelocity reports green hotel bookings in the first quarter were 65% higher than their non-green counterparts. And now the company has formed a relationship with EC3 Global--the world’s largest certifier of sustainable travel and tourism organizations--to show consumers sustainable hotels throughout Asia-Pacific .
In this era of eco-confusion, Travelocity works hard to highlight earth-friendly hotels across its site and guards against green-washing with its rigorous program. Unlike some travel sites, Travelocity does not accept “self-certified” hotels for the Green Hotel Directory. “It’s important that our eco-friendly leaf icon in the hotel shopping path is a symbol consumers can trust,” says Alison Presley, manager of Travelocity’s Travel for Good program. “There is no way to verify that a self-certified hotel is truly sustainable. And we know our consumers depend on us to hold the line against green-washing.”

To date, Travelocity has flagged more than 1,900 hotels site-wide with the eco-friendly leaf and the company works with an elite group of certification programs. To have its hotels included in the Green Hotel Directory, a certification program must have a checklist that closely aligns with the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. The criteria was developed by the Tourism Sustainability Council, a global coalition of U.N. bodies, research and academic institutions, social and environmental NGOs, certification programs, and it offers a comprehensive picture of what it means to be sustainable.

Through EC3 Global Travelocity is able to flag hotels in destinations like Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, China, and more. Each of these properties has been audited by a qualified third-party professional who checks the effectiveness of sustainable practices applied. EC3 Global manages the EarthCheck Certification and Benchmarking Program, which is used by more than 1,000 organizations in over 60 countries. It was designed specifically for sustainable travel and uses the latest science and technology.

Travelocity doesn’t just promote eco-friendly products--the company is also working hard to reduce its own footprint and to promote sustainability within the travel industry. The company’s sustainability efforts start at home with its LEED-certified Silver headquarters. And to date, Travelocity and its customers have helped The Conservation Fund plant more than 21,000 trees across three national wildlife refuges that will trap an estimated 23,000 metric tons of CO2 over the life of those forests. The company is also a founding member of the Tourism Sustainability Council, which is working toward a more sustainable future for the industry.

About Travelocity Global
Travelocity® is committed to being the traveler's champion -- before, during and after the trip - and provides the most comprehensive and proactive guarantee in the industry (www.travelocity.com/guarantee). This customer-driven focus, backed by 24/7 live phone support, competitive prices and powerful shopping technology has made Travelocity one of the largest travel companies in the world. Travelocity owns and operates: Travelocity Business® for corporate travel; igougo.com, a leading online travel community; lastminute.com, a leader in European online travel; and ZUJI, a leader in Asia-Pacific online travel. Travelocity is owned by Sabre Holdings Corporation, a world leader in travel marketing and distribution.

About EC3 Global

EC3 Global is the world's largest certifier of sustainable travel and tourism operators. With more than 1000 clients in over 60 countries, the company’s EarthCheck Program responds directly to the major environmental problems facing the planet, including climate change, waste reduction and non-renewable resource management. It provides benchmarking, certification and performance improvement systems that result in average savings of 30 per cent for energy and waste stream, and 20 per cent savings for water consumption. Go to www.earthcheck.org or www.ec3global.com

Travel Goes MASSIVEGOOD

2010-06-08T19:35:49Z

Mary J. Blige is pushing it. Spike Lee is pushing it. President Bill Clinton is pushing it. And the travel industry is pushing it. The initiative, promoted in a star-studded video (see above), is called MASSIVEGOOD, and it was launched on March 4 at the United Nations. (Check out this star-studded report.) Now the Global Business Coalition on HIV/Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis, which just held its annual summit in Washington this week, is driving it even further, with a new corporate initiative.

The idea is that if the travel industry reaches out to its huge audience—we travelers book some 2 billion airline trips a year—and asks for just $2 each to fight disease each time we travel, then we can change the world. “This is an opportunity for very small actions that can make a huge difference,” said Bernard Salome, Managing Director of the Millennium Fund, which is managing this initiative.

The major companies involved in travel management—booking engines, such as American Express, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and BCD—have signed on to support MASSIVEGOOD, which means that down the road, if you book travel through them, they will ask if you are willing to contribute $2. Travelocity is about to launch the initiative, too. If you go onto the MASSIVEGOOD website, you can contribute now.

At the GBC summit today, David Alport, director of GBC’s travel programs, launched the corporate program, which is where the greatest promise lies. The goal is for companies to sign up and agree to let their employees make a $2 contribution every time they make a business trip. Says Salome: “Travel accounts for some 10 percent of the world’s GDP, and employs 220 million people. If we can motivate these people to participate, then we have a whole new game. This is a game changer.” So keep an eye out for MASSIVEGOOD, because it is just that: massively good.

Six Ways to Save the Planet While on Vacation

2010-05-25T17:53:55Z

I try to offset my carbon emissions when I go on vacation, but I find it confusing to learn that some offsets are better than others. Gary Gero, a carbon offsets expert and president of the Climate Action Reserve, a nonprofit that registers and issues carbon offsets, has written up some smart advice on how to decipher which programs are legitimate and which are not. I thought I'd share them with you:

1. Trains, planes or automobiles: No matter what mode of transportation you might be heading out in, calculating your carbon footprint is the first step in managing your travel. Find an online carbon footprint calculator by a simple Google search and input your travel details to find out how much carbon your trip will emit and how many offsets you need to buy.

2. Read the fine print: Because offsets are intangible purchases, it is important that offset retailers make detailed information readily available to show that the offsets they are selling are real and aren’t being sold more than once. Each credit should have a unique serial number and information such as the date, location and source of the greenhouse gas reduction.

3. Seek a second opinion: Only buy offsets that have been reviewed by an independent party to verify they are legitimate. Verifiers physically inspect the offset project and review records, data, equipment and activities to ensure that greenhouse gas reduction claims have actually occurred and have been counted accurately. This information should be available to the public.

4. Look for a seal of approval: The carbon market has matured considerably since the days when it was dubbed The Wild West. There are now a number of organizations that give offsets the equivalent of the USDA organic seal of approval. Look for offset credits that have been issued by the Climate Action Reserve, the Gold Standard or Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS).

5. Find a project that sparks your interest: There are a wide range of activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate offsets, including planting trees, converting food waste into energy, trapping methane from farms and destroying ozone depleting substances. Many of these projects also have numerous benefits to their communities. Find a project that sparks your interest so that your offset purchase is more meaningful to you.

6. When in doubt: If you are not sure the offsets you are purchasing are top quality, you can find a list of reputable offset retailers at http://www.climateactionreserve.org/how/retailers/

The Greening of the Staff

2010-05-21T14:56:28Z

It turns out that saving the planet can have some unexpected and wonderful side-benefits.

When the Barclay Hotel's Paper to Go committee started trying to reduce paper use at the New York hotel, a young administrative assistant called Tamika Greaves grew increasingly annoyed by the paper cups she saw people using at the water cooler. She approached her bosses with a suggestion: why not charge people 25 cents per cup? "I keep a tab—a few people owe me," says Greaves. "I sit in a good spot so they can't pull one over on me. I can see if anybody is sneaking up." So far, she has collected about $20, which the hotel plans to put toward... planting a tree.

Beyond that, going green sparks new conversations. The Barclay's kitchen staff is so excited about the composting equipment they have installed that they invite everyone who comes along to take a look. That got Michael Parisse, the IT guy (and paper cop), talking with an engineer called Chris Green about...composting. Green, it so happens, is way into nature, and he is growing a vegetable and herb garden on The Barclay's roof. Parisse started composting in his Connecticut garden a few years ago, and he brought Green a magazine about the how tos. Before they knew it, they were sharing ideas for what kinds of flowers they are planting this year. "Who would have thought that I might be talking to Chris about gardening!" says Parisse. "The whole staff has really been empowered."

Isn't that what every corporate executive aspires to?

Previously in Operation Green Hotel
The paper crackdown, bewildered by bamboo, Shower heads were sexy, shrimp went sustainable, and the hotel had a bright idea about light bulbs.

Image: Stringberd / Flickr.com

The Paper Police Are Watching

2010-05-20T19:39:35Z

I don’t know about you, but I never really thought much about how much paper a hotel uses. A lot, as it turns out. Before the InterContinental Barclay Hotel’s “Paper to Go” committee cracked down, the place went through as much as three reams of paper—some 1500 sheets—a day.

The biggest offenders: the Finance and Food & Beverage Departments, both of which relied on an antiquated system of nightly paper printouts that reported the day’s business.

“Ninety percent of the people in this hotel have no desire to save paper whatsoever,” Michael Parisse, told me the other day, as he walked me through his plans to take the hotel paper-free. “This is all about education.” (Easy for HIM to give up paper, I thought: he’s the I.T. guy!)

As a leading member of the Paper to Go committee, Parisse is the Barclay’s top paper cop, and from what I can tell, his crackdown has been ruthless. He banned the nightly print outs. He removed copy machines. He monitors how many copies each employee makes. “We’re not trying to get people in trouble or anything,” he told me. But if someone is making twice as many copies as everybody else, he comes calling. The measures have met some resistance. “It took some arm twisting,” Parisse says with a grin. “People were saying ‘I can’t do my job.’ For 20 years, they had been doing it one way, and now they had to change.”

Exhibit A: Carlos Vega, a soft-spoken finance department veteran who runs the hotel’s payroll system. Viega recalls “not liking the medicine.” “I said, Michael, I need this!” he remembers. But Parisse has his ways; eventually, he persuaded Vega that electronic versions are just as good as paper. “I have a different stance now,” Vega, says. “I have adapted, and now I can help others go forward.” Vega now thinks twice about printing documents, adding that if he prints one unnecessarily, “I think oh, man, I messed up!”

Listening to Parisse and Vega, I have to admit that I am starting to feel a little guilty, too. As a magazine editor, I print documents all day long. When I misplace a story I printed out a few days ago, I print it again. I’m no better than…the Barclay’s Finance and Food & Beverage Departments! I’m going to call Vega next week—and maybe Chef Carmine, too—to get some counseling on how to start my own paper detox program.

Vega is calculating exactly how much paper the hotel is saving—and what that translates into in saved trees. (I will let you know when the report is ready.) “I saw how much waste there was,” he told me. “I’m a tree lover myself. This has really changed the way I think and behave.”

Previously in Operation Green Hotel
Bewildered by bamboo, Shower heads were sexy, shrimp went sustainable, and the hotel had a bright idea about light bulbs.

High-Achieving Roman (and Parisian) Holiday

2010-05-13T21:26:30Z

Photo: Flickr/pedrosimoes7

Here's a really cool announcement from a great travel company that recognizes that power of travel to transform people. Context Travel’s Foundation for Sustainable Travel and the St. Hope Public Schools, in Sacramento, California, just announced the winners of their annual travel scholarship: senior Kaneisha King and junior Kathleen Snook. The girls will get the chance to experience Context's carefully curated, educational walking tours during their trip to Europe.

The company said:

The two students, selected from a larger group of applicants, will be traveling to Rome, Florence and Paris with a chaperone. During their time in Europe they will be on a busy schedule of two walking seminars per day, learning about history, art, architecture, and society. Each student will be expected to keep a blog journal during the trip and prepare a final project, relevant to the trip, that will be presented to the school in August 2010.
This travel scholarship is underwritten by the Context Foundation for Sustainable Travel, a 501c3 charitable organization that promotes cultural preservation and equitable travel opportunities in such cultural capitals as Florence, Rome, London, New York, and Paris. In 2009, Context Travel and the Foundation for Sustainable Travel were recognized by National Geographic’s Geotourism Challenge as an outstanding leader in sustainable travel, the only urban-based travel company to receive recognition. The purpose of the scholarship is to give high-achieving high school students from economically challenged inner city neighborhoods the opportunity to travel abroad and work with professors from universities.

Kaneisha and Kathleen were selected by a panel of judges comprised of teachers and advisors from Sac High and Context Travel. In preparation for the trip they have been following workshops, taking extra classes on art, history and mythology, and honing their writing skills.

"We were given an incredible opportunity, and we are going to make the best of it," said Kathleen Snook, winner of the 2010 Scholarship." I have never been out of the country, and the idea of traveling to Europe and learning about a different culture, history and society was unthinkable until a few months ago."

As part of the project, students will participate in a one-day writing workshop with travel writer Susan Van Allen. They will also be enrolled in a 12 week Matador U Travel Writing Program.

Congratulations, Kaneisha and Kathleen!

Bewildered by Bamboo

2010-05-05T21:31:55Z

You may have read on this blog not long ago that New York’s The Barclay hotel, a grand old dame that until recently knew nothing from sustainability, is striving to make all its purchases—from fish and dairy products to sheets and towels—environmentally responsible. The housekeeping department recently told me that a textiles company had presented its cotton- and eucalyptus-blend and bamboo rayon sheets, only to be sent away to work on the quality by the hotel’s demanding green GM, Herve Houdre. “The sheets weren’t crisp, they were just too soft,” Houdre told me.

Baffled by the organics on offer in my very own Garnet Hill catalogue, I was intrigued by the pros and cons of cotton vs. organic cotton, eucalyptus and bamboo—and by the fact that the sheets were being made in India. So I decided to track down the sheet company to get a better understanding of what is entailed in making those crisp linens.

I got Sid Rabin, a passionate environmentalist with a broad Chicago accent, on the line. It turns out that the company he works for, Welspun, is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of textiles; the company, which is based in India, has a serious commitment to social responsibility and has spent years developing "sustainable fabrics." According to Rabin, the hospitality industry’s interest in eco-friendly fabrics has sprung up only in the last couple of years. “I’m spending a huge amount of time on it these days,” Rabin told me.

Making an environmentally responsible sheet, it turns out, is a tricky business, with no easy answers. Cotton production, unfortunately, uses a huge amount of water, not to mention pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Organic cotton may pollute less, but it is much more expensive. (It grows much more slowly without the pesticides and fertilizers.) A few years ago, the green movement jumped on bamboo, which grows like a weed (sometimes as much as four feet a day), as the sustainable solution. Eucalyptus, which also grows wild, has been viewed as an alternative to cotton, too.

But according to the Daily Green, to make rayon fabric from bamboo and eucalyptus, it turns out the natural fibers have to go through a toxic chemical process that is dangerous to workers and bad for the environment.

What to do? “My mantra is baby steps,” says Rabin. “You keep moving forward. If you don’t make a step forward, then nothing gets done.” Now he really gets going. “I’ve seen too many people who have used “small increments of success” as an excuse to not move at all. Look, it’s going to get better. Competition will drive a better, cleaner way of doing this.” In other words, partly sustainable is a lot better than not sustainable at all.

I’ll buy that. Rabin’s hope is that he can help create a market for bamboo and eucalyptus fabrics—more sustainable than cotton—by persuading hotels like The Barclay to buy his sheets and towels, and then their parent companies like the hotel chain InterContinental, to buy them, then the real power player, Avendra, will be converted, too.

That’s when the game would really change. Avendra is a huge procurement cooperative set up less than a decade ago by Marriott, Hyatt, Fairmont, InterContinental, and other hotel chains, with the idea that by grouping together, they could negotiate better prices. “We will watch this market for sustainability grow,” says Rabin. “The customers will ask for it, and then my company will start making more and more.”

The lesson I take away is that this process of going green is a messy business. There will be mistakes along the way. But if companies are transparent and earnest in what they are trying to achieve, I believe that consumers will forgive mistakes. And inch by inch, the world will be a greener place.

Previously in Operation Green Hotel
Shower heads were sexy, shrimp went sustainable, and the hotel had a bright idea about light bulbs.

Hilton's Measured Approach to Sustainability

2010-04-29T16:01:57Z

Paul Brown, the dashing president of Hilton Worldwide's Global Brands and Commercial Services, came by the other day to show us his company's new measurement tool, called LightStay, which will be used across the brand to monitor and reduce consumption. Sitting around our conference table, we got into an interesting conversation about leadership and doing the right thing.

First, the new Hilton system: Many, even most, of the big hotel chains now use software programs to monitor energy, water, and waste, but as far as we know, Hilton is the first big chain to demand that all its 3,600 properties, including franchisees, report into the system. The company has committed to a 20 percent reduction of carbon emissions by 2014, using 2008 as a base, and to a 10 percent reduction of water consumption. That's impressive stuff: it saves money for the company, and it's also really good for the planet.

"Just as companies are asking their vendors about sustainability, it's only a matter of time until the travel companies are held up to the same standards," Brown said. "So the mandate is to measure."

That's terrific, because the experts all say that you can't effectively reduce consumption unless you know what you are actually consuming. Hilton's system examines consumption on a more "granular" level than measurement tools used by other companies, according to Christopher Corpuel, who heads up the company's sustainability efforts. That means even looking at every aspect of a hotel's operations, including such things as cars kept idling outside the hotel's doors.

So is Hilton ready to really lead on sustainability issues? How far ahead of the pack is the company—of any other big travel company—willing to go?

]]> I ask because we still constantly hear travel executives say that, though guests care about the environment and want hotels to do the right thing, they aren't yet prepared to give up anything in the bargain. So we asked Brown if there's a point at which companies should just take the lead on environmentally responsible initiatives, such as forcing guests to save electricity, because it's the right thing to do, whether the customer likes it or not.

"That's something that we are talking about a lot these days," he told us. "We are using some hotels as guinea pigs for certain initiatives. But moving up to the luxury brands becomes more difficult. We have to be very careful with consumer-facing initiatives. Consumers can be very cynical, so we have to make sure that our initiatives are actually environmentally positive."

"Guests care about sustainability," Brown added. "But we haven't crossed the line where a significant segment of customers who will make a different selection because of it."

We asked Brown whether Hilton will be replacing all those plastic shampoo bottles that clog up our landfills with eco-friendly refillable shampoo dispensers in the showers? "Certain customers in certain cultures aren't ready to accept that," he said. "We have to make sure we are not forcing our customers to do something they are not ready to do."

This is difficult stuff: hotel companies need to fill their rooms, and it's understandable that they are skittish about annoying their guests. Key cards that control electricity in rooms are often another no-go zone, though they so clearly would save tons of electricity. They have been in use for years in Europe and Asia. But Americans, according to hotel executives, think they are cheesy. Educating customers about environmental and community issues is another tricky one: I have again and again heard hotel executives say they don't want to push their guests. A few years ago, I asked the president of a major luxury hotel chain about helping his guests to engage in understanding the poverty surrounding his properties, and he replied that he didn't think it was his role to push his guests out of their comfort zone.

Here's my question: what is the moral imperative? We understand that hotels need to fill beds, especially these days. But in the meantime, the world is heating up, and poverty is rampant. Who's going to lead the way out of this crisis? The global travel industry is a $7 trillion annual business, and because it comes face to face with so many issues, from the environment to the rich-poor divide, is in a unique position to make a difference.

What's more, there are good business arguments for taking a bold stand on sustainability. People care more and more about the environment and giving back; there's plenty of market research to back that up, even if people won't pay more for good practices.

At this moment in history, as we clamber out of the recession with a greater understanding of the fragility of this world, there is a huge business opportunity in sustainability. As consumers, we are all looking for a point of passion. I believe we are ready to be led, to have someone help us do the right thing, and even to be asked to join some greater cause.

The trend is clear: sustainable hotels will win the day. I would suggest that there is no time to lose. "Sustainability might become the price of entry" for business, Brown told us. "This is where the world is going. It's fortunate that there's a high correlation between where the market is going and what is needed" to make the world a better place.

He's right again. So, to travel companies, I say "Go ahead, push us"—at least a little bit—out of our comfort zone. In the end, we'll thank you for it.

Related Stories
Do the Right Thing recently looked at RockResorts' efforts to reduce plastic bottle use, while Marriott struggled to spark guest interest in its sustainability program.

Chicken of the Seas at the World Savers Breakfast

2010-04-22T19:32:39Z

Spending this morning in Manhattan's hallowed 21 Club seems about as un-Earth Day as you get, but given the company, I can't think of anywhere else I would rather have been. I had the honor to moderate a special Conde Nast Traveler World Savers breakfast with the rather weighty title "Doing the Right Thing Now, Social Responsibility in the Post-Recession Period." Whew! Since we are all friends on this blog, let me just simplify this "panel-speak" to "how can one be a good corporate citizen when your bottom line is going to hell."

Answering that question was a collection of panelists with whom I would love to share a fox hole in these crazy times. Take a look at the photo above. Just right of me--I am the cute one in glasses BTW--sat Abby Joseph Cohen, President, Goldman Sachs Global Markets Institute. And next to Abby, David Barber, President and Co-Owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a leader in sustainable (and yummy!) food. And just to the right of David Barber, fans of this blog may recognize Herve Houdre, general manager of InterContinental The Barclay and star of our series, Operation Green Hotel.

Now what possibly can a banker, a restaurateur and a hotel manager have to say about social responsibility? A lot!

A few snippets of the conversation: I asked the panel something along the lines of, what do you do when the "sustainable" policies you have launched--like promoting a certain type of fish farming--turn out to not be so sustainable after all?

Blue Hill's David Barber answered that he and his brother discovered recently that the fish they thought were so sustainable are being fed with "sustainable proteins"-- which turn out to be...chicken bits Here's what he had to say:

The other notable quote came from Abby Joseph Cohen, whom I ribbed a few times for this week's collateralized debt obligation scandal.

In his inimitable straight-talking style, Herve Houdre laid down the gauntlet about the need for better ethics in business.

To Some People, A Shower Head is a Sexy Thing

2010-04-15T16:24:05Z

Ray Burger, President of Pineapple Hospitality
Middle: the investigative reporter, hot on a story
Right: Sean Olmstead, Executive Assistant Manager The Barclay

Herve Houdre is unpacking boxes, and we are up to our eyeballs in eucalyptus comforters and pillows, efficient toilet flushing devices (no kidding), environmentally friendly soaps and shampoos, and large shampoo dispensers. Ray Burger, the president of Pineapple Hospitality, which specializes in helping hotels go green, has come in for a meeting with Houdre, the general manager of the InterContinental's Barclay Hotel, and he has brought with him samples for 15 green rooms that will be a pilot test for a hotel-wide green renovation planned for next year.

Burger has just told Houdre that the Barclay's existing shower heads already meet Pineapple's criteria for sustainability. "That's fine, but I want to know, will they meet LEED standards?" Houdre asks. (InterContinental Hotels is trying to nudge all its U.S. hotels toward meeting the criteria required for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, and Houdre wants to lead the way.)

At which point I get a little lecture on the shower head market, which is more interesting than I thought—if you're into this kind of thing. It turns out The Barclay's shower heads put out 1.75 gallons per minute, at a water pressure of 89 pounds per inch. Houdre, who is the kind of guy who finds this green information really sexy, wants to know more about new shower heads that aerate their water stream. The one produced by Oxygenics is called "The Storm." I think I will have to call Oxygenics down the road. "The Storm" sounds pretty cool, for a shower head.

It turns out there has been a revolution in shower heads in recent years. "Fifteen years ago, shower heads were low-flow, which means they restricted quality of the shower," Burger tells us. "Now they are high performance shower heads—you can have a great shower with lower water use." His bigger point: there has been a revolution in the market for green products in the past five years—quality has soared, while prices dropped.

We move on to sink aerators—you don't need to know much about them, except that you can get a really good one for $4. That leads us to a lengthy conversation about toilets (Burger calls them "commodes.") I learn for the first time about dual flush toilets—the kind that flush one way for liquid and another for "poo-poo," Houdre explains to me. "My father in France had one for 15 years," Houdre says. "They have been in hotels in Europe since the late 1990s."

There is much, much more to talk about, which I will save for a later post. Two questions I want to grapple with later:

1) Why do we need to worry about water consumption in New York City, where there seems to be plenty?

2) Why is it that the U.S. seems to be so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to sustainability?

Previous Posts on Operation Green Hotel

Should You Accept This Mission...Make a Grand Dame Green (Jan. 6, 2010)
Change the Lightbulbs! (Jan. 8, 2010)
Rallying the Troops—Chefs, Maids, and All (Jan.14, 2010)
That Shrimp Can Rock Your World (Feb. 2, 2010)
Is That Bamboo in Your Sheets or Are You Just Happy to See Me? (March 25, 2010)

Is That Bamboo in Your Sheets or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

2010-03-25T23:19:27Z

I was in the housekeeping department of InterContinental's Barclay Hotel on one recent afternoon, surrounded by brochures from suppliers like Proctor & Gamble touting their green products, and Micheal Enokizono, the head of housekeeping, was getting revved up about sheets. "There's more to cotton than just cotton," he said. "There's Fair Trade Cotton, which has to do with how it was grown. There are lots of questions to ask!" I'm agreeing, because I have just been looking through my Garnet Hill catalogue at home, trying to figure out what exactly organic cotton means and whether I should spend the extra money and get organic sheets and towels.

The Barclay, as part of its mission to go green, is examining every single one of its purchasing contracts through a new prism: is it sustainable—meaning, as the hotel's obsessed manager Herve Houdre will remind you, that it is good for "people, profit, and planet," all part of the "triple bottom line."

The hotel has been in discussion with a sheet supplier who has developed a sheet made from a Eucaluptus and bamboo blend. Houdre is very excited about this new product, which may be more "sustainable" than cotton sheets. (More on why, and whether that's true, in another blog post.) So the supplier put the sheets through the wash test—to see how they hold up after dozens and dozens of wash cycles, then brought his samples back to the hotel.

"The quality wasn't quite there," Enokizono told me. The feel and look just weren't quite right. "It was too thin and limp."

But that's where it starts getting really interesting. The supplier, called Welspun Hospitality Solutions, it turns out, has the sheets manufactured in India. "They're going to try again," Enokizono said. That's because The Barclay's order is big enough to make a difference to the sheet manufacturer's fortunes: At 3 sheets a bed for 686 rooms, the Barclay will be buying 2058 sheets. At about $15 a sheet, the whole order would sum to more than $100,000.

I caught up with Sean Olmstead, The Barclay's Executive Assistant Manager, this week to get an update on the sheet situation. (Sorry I've been gone for a while: I went to Australia to do a story on the environmental crisis Down Under.) Since my last conversation, Enokizono has left The Barclay. But Welspun Hospitality Solutions is getting samples back from India today, Olmstead told me, in hope that this time The Barclay will be pleased. Says Olmstead: "We're changing the culture within this building, and we are realizing that we can also make other companies change their products to get our business."

There's a very big idea there: That means that with every housekeeping purchase, The Barclay has the power to change the world. And just think what that adds up to for those Indian workers hoping to get a fat order for Eucalyptus and bamboo sheets.

Previous Posts on Operation Green Hotel

Should You Accept This Mission...Make a Grand Dame Green (Jan. 6, 2010)
Change the Lightbulbs! (Jan. 8, 2010)
Rallying the Troops—Chefs, Maids, and All (Jan.14, 2010)

That Shrimp Can Rock Your World (Feb. 2, 2010)

Five & Alive on the Ground in Haiti

2010-03-25T15:14:21Z

A water purification demonstration at a school in Ganthier, Haiti.
Photo courtesy of Population Services International

For more than two years, Condé Nast Traveler has partnered with Population Services International, the world's largest social marketing health organization, to form the Condé Nast Traveler Five & Alive fund.

PSI and the fund provide clean water solutions, pneumonia medications, malaria bednets, and nutritional supplements at heavily subsidized rates to children around the world. According to many aid experts, PSI's commercial networks—though subsidized—provide a business incentive for distribution of such essential products, allowing them to reach even the smallest villages.

PSI has been working round the clock since the devastating earthquake hit Haiti; in addition to distributing mosquito nets and driving the country's health-related communications, the organization has teamed with Proctor & Gamble to distribute 1.1 million packets of PUR water purifier—enough for 61,000 people for three months.

Here is an on-scene report from Karl Hofmann, PSI President and CEO, who visited late last month.

Approaching Haiti, we fly over the USNS Comfort hospital ship, anchored in the bay and a Navy helicopter follows us in to land. Arriving in Port-au-Prince, the azure blue water and green hills are deceptive. But any repeat visitor to Haiti knows that. The airport tarmac has calmed from the chaotic post-earthquake days, but our American Airlines jet still competes with a Brazilian C-130 and a USAir Force jet. On the ramp are many U.S. servicemen, smiling and waving. They are happy in this mission, I think.

The arrivals hall is temporary, clean and orderly. Outside on the street it's less so—soldiers from various nationalities, crazy traffic, Haitian street peddlers who remind me that, no matter what disaster strikes, the market breathes, commerce continues.

Even after countless news reports and images, it’s still a shock to see downtown Port-au-Prince in ruins. We drive by the presidential palace, pancaked. The cathedral I recall visiting in 1984 is destroyed. Rubble litters the streets but traffic moves. There are tent cities in all the big public parks. The inhabitants are waiting; what are they to do?
It's not clear that anyone is telling them.

Meeting with the PSI/Haiti staff, I ask each one to say how long they've been with us, and then to talk about their experiences. An hour later, I am stunned. Tales of despair, drama, fear and courage. Frantic hunts for family members, children. Thankfully our staff is mainly intact, save Immacula Wagnac, who perished. Another staff member lost 17 members of her family. Another broke down in pain just before our meeting; she was having stomach trouble, but also she came from Leogane, the quake's epicenter. Leogane is no more. She is dealing with that disheartening reality.

Across from the PSI Haiti office, Place Boyer in Petionville is a tent city. We are doing communication work to promote safe drinking water. I'm told there may be an informal brothel in operation; the team plans for how they can organize some HIV prevention activities and distribute condoms.

The marketing infrastructure of the country has been badly mauled; our distribution network is in tatters. Traditional social marketing programming is largely on hold. But our funders don't want us to engage in free distribution - not clear we have the legs right now anyway. Yet the international relief organizations seem absent. It’s frustrating.

Staff tell stories of individual acts of grace, personal heroism of average Haitians who climbed into rubble to help save complete strangers. There have been thousands of such acts. I sense a morbid feeling of pride: Haitians helped Haitians deal with death, before the international community could even try. Our staff speaks glowingly of Jim Malster, PSI’s ‘first responder’, who arrived in Haiti within days to account for staff and assess the unimaginable damage. He soon began rallying Haitian staff to think about returning to work. They really needed that nudge, they say. They needed to have a task.

It will be a while before PSI/Haiti is operating at capacity again. But I am pleased to report that PSI/Haiti is very much still standing.

To learn more about PSI's work or make a contribution, visit www.psi.org. Tune in here for more on what Population Services International is achieving in Haiti.

Complete Haiti Coverage on Truth.Travel

Kicking the Bottled Water Habit at RockResorts

2010-03-09T21:59:47Z

The Pines Lodge Beaver Creek Resort. A plastic bottle
landfill would wreck the picture, don't you think?

You know the way hotels stock their mini-bars with plastic water bottles? Well next time you take a swig, think about these alarming facts:

Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour, and most of them are thrown away.
Fewer than 20 percent of the plastic bottles used in the U.S. get recycled.
Some 38 million plastic bottles go to the dump per year from bottled water (and that’s not including soda)
Plastic bottles take 700 years to begin composting.
Not to mention the fact that, according to online environmental website Green Upgrader, 24 million gallons of oil are needed to produce a billion plastic bottles.

For years, hotel companies have avoided the plastic bottle issue for fear of alienating their demanding guests. True, some hotels have started offering carafes of filtered water in restaurants—certainly progress. But most still offer plastic bottles—a hefty source of revenue—in the rooms. (For tips on how to get those bottles out of your office, check out this website.)

So how nice it is to report that RockResorts, a division of Vail Resorts Hospitality, has decided to do its part to put an end to all that waste by eliminating almost all plastic water bottles—as many as 640,000 bottles a year—at its eight resorts. Instead, each room will be supplied with two complimentary carafes of filtered water, which will be refilled twice a day. For $4, guests can buy a reusable stainless steel bottle, which they can refill at water stations all around the properties. The company's Pines Lodge has pioneered the program, which will be rolled out at its other hotels this spring, and then at the rest of Vail Resorts' properties.

The water initiative is part of a broader environmental program at RockResorts. The company “greened” all its hotel rooms this past year, with an opt-out linen reuse program, corn-plastic key cards, in-room recycling, energy-efficient lighting, and low-flow water fixtures. “The water bottles were inconsistent with telling people we are committed to the environment,” says Julie Klein, director of environmental affairs with Rock Resorts/Vail Resorts Hospitality. “So the question is, how can you balance the guest experience with trying to do a good job on expectations that you are environmentally sensitive?”

Many hotels run into resistance to getting rid of bottled water from their food and beverage departments, because of the loss of revenue. Pines Lodge, which is in Beaver Creek, Colorado, got around that problem by offering refillable, bottomless carafes of filtered still or carbonated water in its restaurants, at half the price of bottled water. (Free tap water is available too.) Conferences presented another challenge. “Our people got creative,” Klein says. The hotel now offers carafes of water flavored with grapefruit and cucumber. “The loss of revenue was an issue,” Klein adds, “but we just said, ‘we’ll figure it out.’”

And how have guests responded to the dearth of plastic water bottles? "We get comments two or three times a week from guests saying how great it is," says Ron Neville, Pines Lodge's general manager, who is trying to encourage other nearby hotels to follow suit. "I would love it if all hotels got rid of plastic bottles. I hope that in two to three years, it's not only the right thing to do, but just the thing that everybody does."

FEED Bags for Haiti

2010-02-03T15:23:18Z

FEED Projects co-founders Lauren Bush and Ellen Gustafson in Rwanda, 2008
Photo: FEED Projects LLC

Have you seen those gorgeous FEED bags, made out of organic cotton and burlap, around town? We think they’re incredibly chic. The company, launched three years ago by George W niece Lauren Bush and partner Ellen Gustafson, sells bags with a higher calling: based on the same one-for-one idea as TOMS Shoes, which gives away a pair of shoes for every pair purchased, FEED gives money to feed one child in school (through the UN World Food Program school feeding program) for a year for every bag sold.

Now, FEED is responding to the crisis in Haiti, with a brilliant initiative that will help combat the donor fatigue that so often sets in a few months after a humanitarian crisis. For every $60 FEED 1 (which feeds one kid in school for a year) and $100 FEED 2 bag (which feeds two kids in school for a year) sold on the company's website, donations will go to the FEED Haiti Campaign to ensure school feeding for Haitian children. The program will launch in June, just around when the world may start forgetting the tragedy in Haiti.

]]> UN World Food Program found her at Princeton, where she was studying anthropology, and asked if she would consider being an ambassador for its programs. Lauren traveled to Guatemala with the WFP in 2003 and saw how people were living in rural villages. "We visited a bunch of schools, and I saw how excited the kids were for lunch," she tells me. "Those lunches get them to go to school—this is a way of reinforcing education."

From there, Bush went on to volunteer at the World Food Program, where she met Gustafson, a former Council on Foreign Relations terrorism wonk who was heading the WFP's public relations efforts. (Gustafson's a-hah moment came when she realized that all the places haunted by terrorist groups were also poor. "I thought, why not try to deal with the root causes, instead of just the after-effects," Gustafsen says.) The two of them originally cooked up the idea of designing and selling bags as a part of the WFP—but their bosses nixed the idea.

So they set out on their own. That was 500,000 bags—and 52 million meals—ago. "If your business model is based on selling bags for $45 wholesale, and you give away $20 of that, then you'll never get rich," says Gustafsen. But that was never the plan in the first place.