The focus on greening operations is evolving and some green teams are beginning to focus their efforts on integrating sustainability into employees’ personal lives, while others are aligning their efforts to support broader corporate sustainability objectives.

The business value of these three levels include: cost savings by integrating energy efficiency into the workplace and products and services; attracting and retaining the best and brightest talent who want to for companies and hotels with an authentic green commitment; and increasing market share and revenues resulting from a stronger brand and new, innovative green products and services.

This GREEN TEAM series provides a summary of the emerging trends and outlines the best practices for green teams:

• Start with the visible and tangible: focus on internal operations
• Get senior management involved, butdon’t lose the grassroots energy
• Engage employees to capture ideas
• Communicate and share best practices
• Engage employees with their bellies: The low carbon diet campaign
• Engage employees in their personal lives
• Engage guests to be part of the solution
• Use art to raise awareness
• Create a toolkit to support and guide green teams
• Align green teams with corporate and hotel sustainability goals

This is a resource for companies, organizations and individual hotels just getting started and for those who want to take their existing green program to its next level. It is based on interviews with green team leaders, as well as a review of the latest literature and reports on employee engagement and green hotel teams.

GREEN TEAMS: Introduction
Keeping employees engaged, happy and productive has always been a priority for leading companies, organizations and individual hotels.
Today, as green becomes more mainstream, a growing number of employees want to work for a company committed to sustainability and seek a work setting where the green practices they value at home are being implemented at their workplace.

In a survey commissioned by National Geographic magazine, more than 80 percent of U.S. workers polled said they believe it is important to work for a company or organization that makes the environment a top priority. In 2009, many graduating Harvard MBAs signed an “MBA oath” showing their interest for companies that “strive to create sustainable economic, social and environmental prosperity worldwide.”

Green teams – self-organized, grassroots and cross-functional groups of employees who voluntarily come together to educate and build awareness about sustainability issues and to implement programs that encourage employees and hotel guests to take action – are increasing in popularity as a tool for both keeping employees engaged and showing your commitment to sustainability.

This GREEN TEAMS series provides an overview of some of the best green practices companies and hotels are using to support and guide green teams, without squashing their grassroots passion and energy. It is divided into four key sections:

• Making the business case for green teams;
• Getting started;
• Four emerging trends; and
• Green hotel team best practices.

Look out for EcoGreenHotel’s May Eco Newsletter as we bring you: Making the business case for green teams.

For more information please visit: http://www.ecogreenhotel.com

A new report by the non-profit research organization Center for Responsible Travel (formerly Travel Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development) found that responsible tourism has withstood the global recession better than the tourism industry as a whole. Perhaps that’s one reason many hotels are eagerly embracing Earth Day (though we’d like to think that a growing commitment to sustainable practices plays a role).

Celebrate April 22^nd – and help raise awareness about environmental concerns with your green hotel guests and community – by hosting one of the following top ten ideas.

Start a Community Garden

With just a little bit of space, raw material, and effort, a community garden within your green hotel’s landscape serves many purposes. It can get guests and the community actively involved in an eco-related activity; produce fresh fruits and vegetables for your restaurant/kitchen or beautiful flowers for scenery. It also helps bring the community closer together at your hotel! It will definitely leave an impression.

Serve Sustainable Food

If you have a restaurant at your green hotel, allow your Chefs to serve sustainable entrees. When the bill comes, diners can donate $1 to a non-profit charitable eco-friendly organization like the National Geographic Society.

“Go Green, Save Green” Package

Offer guests a custom green stay package, which can include room discount, favorable hybrid parking spot, and percent off on organic products and services at your gift shop, spa, restaurant, or bar.

Change the Lights

Being a “green” hotel starts with the basics. Make sure all the lights in the hotel are eco-friendly to help conserve energy. Compact fluorescent light bulbs, halogen light bulbs and LEDs are all good choices.

Earth Day Green Project

Enlist your guests and employees to take part in a community restoration, clean-up or any other environmentally friendly project (even if it’s simply planting trees). Afterwards, they can take advantage of discounts at your bar, restaurant, or on eco-minded spa services.

Replace Disposables

May of the items hotel guests and employees use every day can be improved to be reusable and reduce waste. Replace your drinking cups with these compostable World Art hot & cold cups, or how about a refillable water bottle, for starters.

Join a Resource Pledge

Make a pact (or policy) with your employees, guests and others, locally or on a national scale, to help conserve resources. Involve your guests by inviting them to participate in a “Take a short shower” program (give out branded shower timers that guest can take home and use) or “Turn all lights off during daylight hours” or simply purchase recycled paper only from now on; etc.

Attend a Rally

Sheer force of numbers helps to raise awareness about environmental issues. Show your community and guests your commitment to being a green hotel. Be a face in the crowd at a local rally to help tip the scale in favor of eco-friendliness. You can enlist employees and guests to attend. Gather for pre-rally fun and shuttle everyone to the event! Your hotel’s good stewardship will definitely recognized.

Hybrid Parking & Bike Rentals

Offer complimentary, special spot, parking for hybrid vehicles and offer free or discounted bike rentals to guests to explore your city. Don’t forget the bike rack!

Hold a “Green” Wine & Food Event

Celebrate the day with local wineries, restaurants, farms and locally sourced products. You can offer a special Sustainable Wine & Food lunch or dinner to your guests and community or go all out and have a festival right at your green hotel. Either way, you’ll definitely make the local newspaper (make sure you let them know in advance).

About EcoGreenHotel

EcoGreenHotel is dedicated to helping lodging facilities address environmental issues and achieve the Triple Bottom Line. EcoGreenHotel.com is also a great resource for tools, checklists, current news and trends, as well as a marketplace for green products and services at EcoGreenHotelStore.com. EcoGreenHotel also offers green marketing services for existing green hotels.

For more information visit at : http://www.ecogreenhotel.com

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Media Contact:
Scott Parisi
EcoGreenHotel.com
[email protected]
(888)229-0213 Ext.801

ROBBINSVILLE, N.J. – EcoGreenHotel, Inc announced today the official launch of it’s new online store www.EcoGreenHotelStore.com. EcoGreenHotel Store is a one-stop marketplace of over 1000 products and services for the green hospitality industry.

For the first time, the hospitality industry now has a reliable marketplace for their green supply needs. Through EcoGreenHotel Store, properties can purchase everything from environmentally sensitive amenities, earth-friendly cleaning supplies and sustainable furniture to biodegradable key cards and marketing services designed specifically for the green hotel industry.

Scott Parisi, President of EcoGreenHotel, states, “Over and over again, environmentally conscious hotel professionals have told us they wished they could simplify things and purchase their green supplies from one location…and so we set out to create the most comprehensive online source for environmentally friendly hospitality goods and services in the industry.”

EcoGreenHotel Store is a green marketplace that:

    Provides one-stop shopping
    Enables easy access to quality green products and services from numerous vendors
    Offers comparable and competitive pricing
    Offers environmentally preferable products that are not “greenwashing”
    Allows hotels to minimize costs associated with labor and time-intensive effort required for researching, identifying, testing and acquiring
    Allows hotels to reach guests who are concerned about their environmental impact
    Offers additional product search support for hotels seeking “hard-to-find” green alternatives and product reviews
    Contributes to the goal of “People, Planet, and Profits”

For the past year, Parisi has collaborated with veteran specialty suppliers including Pineapple Hospitality, DeBlauw Purchasing, T2 Site Amenities, and Ecotek to assemble cost-effective eco hotel products available on the web.  His vision for the store is simple:

“We want the EcoGreenHotel Store to be the go-to source for quality, affordable eco hotel products and services.”

A few benefits of Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP):

    Reduce waste and utility costs
    Attract environmentally conscious customers
    Possible new revenue streams
    Improve image: brand and goodwill
    Responsive to employee and guests health and wellness needs
    Economically responsible hospitality supply buying
    Increase stakeholder value
    Minimize environmental footprint

The EcoGreenHotel Store’s virtual shelves are stocked with products and services from dozens of companies, including:

    Azul Conservation Products, home of cool tools designed to preserve precious water resources.
    Hanger Network, creator of the EcoHanger, the ultimate sustainable multi-tasker.
    Swisssol-USA Creative Body Care, maker of incredible natural body care products and dispenser systems.
    Hospitality v-Marketing, the place to go for multi-media content, photography, videography and graphic design for eco hotels.
    Luxur-Eco, wholesaler of lavish environmentally-conscious items for the hotel bed and bath.

EcoGreenHotel has partnered with Ray Burgur, President of Pineapple Hospitality, which is a superior distribution and marketing company dedicated to providing innovative products and services to the lodging industry. Pineapple is currently the largest supplier of eco amenities, cleaning products, and other merchandise being offered on the site.
“Pineapple has played a major role in identifying relationships with additional suppliers that will be offering products on the site,” Parisi said.  “And for advance planning and sourcing of FF&E (furniture, fixtures, and equipment) for renovations, PIP’s (product improvement plans) mandated by brands, and supplies for new-build hotels, services provided by DeBlauw will assist hotels of any size .So the EcoGreenHotel Store’s offerings cover the entire scope of the industry.”
EcoGreenHotelStore.com brings all of those products together in one place, making it easy for hotel owners and managers to make the right choices as we move toward a more sustainable AND more profitable future for the hospitality industry.
Parisi continues to seek sustainable products to add to the merchandise lineup at the EcoGreenHotel Store.  Potential vendors are asked to contact him immediately at [email protected]
About EcoGreenHotel
A valuable resource for hoteliers, EcoGreenHotel is dedicated to helping lodging facilities address environmental issues and implement environmentally sound initiatives.  The company’s online presence at www.EcoGreenHotel.com and www.EcoGreenHotelStore.com offers a marketplace for green products and services and provides a one-stop venue for green hospitality industry news, basic environmental overviews and other tools like green hotel checklists, project ideas, book lists, and valuable links designed to promote a more sustainable hospitality industry.

EcoGreenHotel’s consulting services guide owners, operators and developers through the journey of developing and/or maintaining a sustainable operation or project.

For more information about EcoGreenHotel, please visit www.EcoGreenHotel.com or send an email to [email protected]