EcoGreenHotel

Organic cotton to bamboo, these are the threads you should know about.

When it comes to purchasing your linens, you have the power to make a difference. It’s up to us,consumers including green hotel purchasers, to buy from companies that will create a shift in the market for our environment and long-term health.

You should know that not only are chemicals in the foods that we eat, but they are also found in our upholsteries, blankets, bed sheets and clothes. More and more, people are experiencing health problems such as rashes, allergies, respiratory and concentration problems due to chemical sensitivities. This adds to the growing demand of “green” hotel guest rooms.

So what makes fabric “eco-friendly”? Wikipedia defines eco-friendly (as well as environmentally friendly, nature friendly and green) to be used to refer to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies considered to inflict minimal to no harm to the environment.

“Green” fabrics, for the most part, include any fabric made from sustainable or organic natural materials using fewer chemicals, sustainable operations and environmentally supportive manufacturing methods. Green fabric is also used to describe recycled fabric.

Lets focus on the following four eco-friendly fabrics. Keep in mind, these aren’t the only eco-friendly fabrics available – we’ve chosen these to start with.

1–Organic cotton: is weaved from non-genetically modified plants. It is certified as grown without the use of any synthetic agricultural chemicals, such as fertilizers or pesticides. It doesn’t damage the quality of the cotton or the land and surrounding ecology.

2– Organic linen with flax fibers: True organic linen is created with flax fibers. It comes in the color of a natural cream or light tan since pure white is only achieved through bleaching. Although it wrinkles easily, it is a great hot-weather fabric because it absorbs moisture without getting damp, thus drying quickly and cooling the skin. If you accept the wrinkle look charm, keep in mind flax fiber is stronger than cotton fiber and is less elastic.

3–Hemp: Ok, so it’s still illegal to grow hemp in the Unities States due to its association with marijuana. However, legislation is in the works to change. Right now it’s grown elsewhere in the world and, unfortunately, this increases it’s carbon footprint. Nonetheless, hemp products are manufactured in the U.S.

As for the hemp itself, it’s grown easily and is environmentally friendly. The fibers are mildew-resistant, antimicrobial, UV protecting and even fire proof. This makes it an ideal candidate for fabrics that get a lot of use, but it isn’t the softest option around.

4–Soy: It’s softer than cotton, much more durable, warm, absorbent, and lightweight. Made out of discarded tofu, it’s considered the ultimate sustainable fiber and sometimes referred to as “vegetarian cashmere” – “cashmere” due to its softness and luxurious appeal.

So how do you make fiber out of tofu, you ask? Well, leftovers from tofu manufacturing are gathered, liquefied, and extruded through spinnerets to create filaments that are spun into fine yarns. (Fun fact: Henry Ford first investigated the use of soy in textiles for his automobile in the 1940’s, but the arrival of synthetics on the scene stole the show – however it’s now being rediscovered).

Side note: There is much controversy around the use of bamboo for fabrics and products. Therefore, keep an eye out for EcoGreenHotel’sbamboo pros and cons article to help hotel operators make a well-informed decision.

Is that possible? Hotel Andaluz in Albuquerque, New Mexico, claims they’ve done just that. Reopening after a $30 million remodel, the Andaluz reduced their water use by 78% with their water savings program.

The Andaluz, which previously existed as the La Posada hotel, was extensively remodeled according to LEED standards. In order to cut water use, the Andaluz developers implemented numerous water and energy saving conservation measures, including:

1. “Oxygen-assisted” low-flow shower heads
2. Rainwater collection system for irrigation (in process)
3. Efficient low-flow toilets
4. Solar panels to heat about 60% of the hotel’s hot water (which will cut energy use by 20%)
5. Guestroom controls
6. Fluorescent and LED lighting

The result, in May 2004 the La Posada used 1.2 million gallons of water. In May 2005, the last year of operation before remodel, La Posada used 730,000 gallons in a month. After remodel, in May 2010, the Andaluz significantly reduced usage to 300,000 gallons of water. Although this is one month, it doesn’t dictate what the new hotel will average through the months to come, especially considering it’s a new hotel. Looking at eight different months of usage over the years, the new hotel averaged 770,000 gallons less than its predecessor La Posada.

Lets put that into perspective. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection estimates a hotel to average around 200 gallons per room per day. Assuming these numbers, Andaluz, in its best month, used 300,000 gallons in a month, which is 10,000 gallons each day – and with 107 rooms and suites, it averages around 93 gallons each day per room. That is better than the low average.

Andaluz took on aggressive green measures, including energy efficiency, in its remodel and operations that the hotel is applying for LEED gold status (it had previously aimed for silver). Once certified, it will be one of the first historically renovated gold LEED hotels in the U.S. -

Visit Green Hotel Directory for more green hotels.

By Susan Patel

I was watching clips of the Today Show a few days ago and found a segment titled “Green Your Routine,”which brought attention to green cleaning products. It got me thinking: why isn’t there a law or regulation requiring manufacturers to list ingredients? Not knowing what chemicals are in products can be dangerous. You don’t know what you’re using and how it could destroy our immune system, cause cancer, lung disease, and death – a health and safety nightmare!

Companies are shockingly allowed to use general terms for chemicals such as “fragrance”or “preservatives.” This wouldn’t make the cut with the Food & Drug Administration, but apparently products we touch and breatharen’t that important on the list. What we need is national regulation so that companies must disclose every ingredient in a product.

So, what are we to do? Warning labels are useful, first line of defense. But we need to start gradually creating a system that works for our well-being and us.We have to start somewhere, right? Why not with all of us – you!

At the frontline of the EcoGreenHotel Store, I’m on a mission to know exactly what we’re selling. One form of verification I’ve become familiar with is the Green Seal, a third-party certifier. Of course there is also EcoLogo, Environmental Choice and EPA’s Design for the Environment Program that test products for effectiveness, besides health and environmental considerations. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other since each is slightly different, however a certified product is better than none at all.

When hotels purchase products certified by Green Seal or any of the other eco-labels, they know that the products meet good standards and consumers aren’t completely on their own. Still, some green cleaning products are not certified. There are several reasons for this: the product might be new on the market, the company that produces it has chosen not to pay the fee the certifying agencies charge to evaluate it, or that they didn’t meet the criteria of that certifying organization.

When it comes to what we sell on EcoGreenHotel Store, we’ve made sure our green cleaning products are Green Seal certified. For example, the Proxi hydrogen peroxide multi-purpose cleaner, a versatile, environmentally friendly cleaning product formulated with an active ingredient that is safer than aggressive acids and bleaches. Added bonus, due to its high concentration (dilute 1oz per quart water to make 128 quarts), it’s actually saving you money too!

Aside for looking for a third-party certification, Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) is another tool that helps hoteliers to make a well-informed decision. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) also has information about many toxic substances at www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/index.asp.

Next time you’re purchasing your green cleaning products, make sure you know what chemicals are in the products you’ll be using at your green hotel.

Hospitality Industry’s role in Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure

Electric vehicles are no longer a dream on the drawing board. The Volt and the Leaf will be in showrooms later this year from automakers GM and Nissan. Luxury EV manufacturer, Tesla Motors offered an IPO this June; which makes it the first American Automaker to go public since 1956. Toyota, Ford and Volkswagen all have EV models on the board. It looks as if the EV has captured the imagination of the people. Now comes the hard part….building the charging infrastructure.

Creating a robust regional or statewide EV infrastructure will take commitment and buy-in from numerous parties. In North Texas, government, non-profit, and Fortune 500 corporations are making that commitment together. This year’s Texas State Fair will feature an Electric Vehicle Showcase, sponsored by General Motors, US Green Building Council –North Texas, North Central Texas Council Of Governments and North Texas Clean Air Coalition, where attendees will get a chance to drive a Chevrolet Volt on the Road Test Track, and to see how electric vehicles, smart phones, smart charging, green buildings, the Smart Grid and renewable energy work together to become something greater than the sum of parts.

Furthermore the hospitality and travel industries will play a key role to make the electric vehicle an everyday reality. Years ago one could only dream of a day where business travelers would rent an EV at the airport and stay in a green hotel with an EV charging station. Beginning next year that dream will become a reality. Hertz will begin offering the all-electric Nissan leaf early 2011 and Starwood’s LEED Certified Element Hotels offer public charging stations in Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas and Boston.

Hotels that recognize the opportunity for increased bookings will be among the first businesses to offer public charging stations. What’s more, early adopters are likely to benefit from the buzz, press, heightened brand recognition and strengthened brand loyalty as people recognize the “cool factor” and the importance of the electric vehicle. Green Hotels could see outsized marketing returns for installed charging stations, especially since tax incentives halve the cost of charging infrastructure that’s installed this year.

Hotels have an opportunity to help our communities work on big challenges. There’s growing recognition that electric vehicles offer solutions to many of the challenges we face today: dependence on foreign oil, clean air, climate change, energy security, national prosperity, a missing collective sense of purpose. (To learn more, see the Electrification Coalition Roadmap). An important first step is to create a geographically diverse network of charging stations in a region. Hotels will play a vital part.Please contact us if you would like additional information.

Smart Landscape Watering Systems Reduce Hotel Water Costs while Maintaining a Beautiful and Healthy Landscape

Summer is here and most green hotels have geared up to make sure their lawn and landscape stays green and beautiful for the enjoyment of guests and improved occupancy rates. As you start switching on those irrigation systems, now is a good time to think about controlling utility costs and being environmentally friendly.

Over watering of lawns and landscapes is the most common cause of water waste. It not only runs up the utility bills, but also can cause other problems including:

• Plant diseases such as root rot
• Run-off from your lawn and landscape, which may contribute to the pollution of streams and lakes (because lawn care chemicals go along with it)
• More frequent mowing and pruning from rapid plant growth
• Excessive “green waste,” which has become a costly waste disposal problem for cities and counties

How can a hotel use water efficiently with an irrigation system?

Recent innovative technologies can now help green hotel operators reduce wasted water and decrease utility expenses. A weather based watering technology, SmartLine, has proven to be an economical choice for green hotels of any size.

How Does it Work?

Stated simply, it’s like a thermostat for the landscape.  The Weathermatic SmartLine System replaces the existing sprinkler timers that operate like the old egg timer.  The SmartLine System uses weather readings from a small, on-property weather station to automatically calculate precise run times for the plants in each zone. It uses the sprinkler precipitation rates, soil type, and slope to apply water in run and soak cycles at a rate the soil can accept.  This technology also eliminates the need to have lawn maintenance crews manually adjusting controllers to match the ever-changing weather conditions.

Real Dollar and Water Savings

With over 200,000 installations in 80 countries, SmartLine water savings range from 20 to over 60% and wasteful irrigation runoff is virtually eliminated.  This high efficiency system results in a return on investment of typically 12 months or less.

You Only Know What You Measure

Another helpful feature is the SmartLine Water Management Service that includes access to monthly reporting detailing site-specific water savings and performance compared to water usage goals considering the actual weather conditions. This could come in very handy not only as a monitoring device, but to verify the entire irrigation system is working properly.

For more information, visit EcoGreenHotel Store or email us at info@EcoGreenHotel.com.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sponsored the first national energy efficiency contest – a “Biggest Loser” competition to see which commercial building can shed the most energy waste and be declared the most efficient in the country.

The EPA is keeping tabs on 14 final contestants until August 31st, among which are two hotels. They include the Courtyard Marriott San Diego Downtown and the Sheraton Austin Hotel. The 14 buildings also include schools, college dorms, hotels, department stores, a mall, a healthcare center and office buildings. They were selected as finalists from a pool of 200 participants.

EPA’s National Building Competition’s 14 finalists will be judged on their energy performance from September 1, 2009 to August 31, 2010. The energy use of each building is being monitored with EPA’s Energy Star online energy measurement and tracking tool, ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Television personality Bob Harper will provide energy fitness tips for the contestants through a series of videos that will be available on the contest website. The winner will be declared at EPA’s final weigh-in on October 26, 2010.

The Courtyard by Marriott San Diego Downtown is managed by Denver-based Sage Hospitality Resources. Located in the Gaslamp Quarter, the Courtyard by Marriott San Diego Downtown is housed in one of the city’s most prominent landmark buildings, the historic San Diego Trust & Savings Bank. The hotel, which currently has an Energy Star rating of 63, plans to win the competition by making key operational changes, including the installation of water restricting devices, motion sensing lighting controls in stairwells and the replacement of all incandescent bulbs with CFL bulbs.

Energy Star Challenge

“We are thrilled and honored to be a part of the EPA National Building Competition,” said Jody Blackinton, general manager of the hotel. “There are definitely unique challenges to improving the energy efficiency of a historic property like this and we look forward to seeing how we measure up against other buildings across the nation.”

“Sustainability is good business, plain and simple,” said Chris Alto, the Sheraton’s general manager. “Not only does it help global efforts to make the planet a cleaner place to live, but it also creates meaningful cost reductions for our bottom line. HEI Hotels & Resorts has been a leading proponent of ‘green initiatives’ for some time now, as evidenced by being named a 2010 Energy Star Partner of the Year. Our goal is to continue this mission.”

“Buildings of all shapes and sizes are saving money and energy with help from EPA and Energy Star,” said Jean Lupinacci, director of EPA’s Energy Star Commercial Buildings Program. “We applaud the contestants of EPA’s National Building Competition for taking action to protect the environment and fight climate change.”

In addition to showcasing contestants’ efforts toward energy efficiency, the competition is intended to put the Energy Star program in the spotlight. More than 17,000 companies, schools, colleges, hospitals, municipalities, utilities and other organizations participate in the program.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, buildings in the United States account for 72 percent of electricity consumption, 39 percent of energy use and 38 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions.

Commercial buildings are responsible for 17 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at a cost of more than $100 billion per year, says the EPA, which estimates that on average 30 percent of the energy used in commercial buildings is wasted.

“It’s time for buildings to tighten their belts and we’re happy to help them go on an energy diet,” said Gina McCarthy, the EPA’s assistant administrator for air and radiation.

We, at EcoGreenHotel, know the challenges involved to become both an energy efficient and green hotel. Therefore, we’re rooting for both the Courtyard Marriott San Diego Downtown and the Sheraton Austin Hotel and wish them good luck!

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).

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).

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.

EcoGreenHotel recognizes the importance of using products made from renewable resources in the effort to lessen the impact disposable products have on our environment.  By using products made from renewable resources such as corn, sugarcane, PLA, Plant Starch and post consumer fibers, carbon footprints can be significantly reduced.

Sugarcane

Eco-Products offers a 100 percent compostable alternative to conventional tree-based paper products. Known as Bagasse, these paper items are made from sugarcane fiber after the sugar ‘juice’ has been extracted. This renewable resource is grown and harvested every year and a half. Typically, sugarcane fiber is a discarded by-product from cane sugar manufacturing, but Eco-Products uses the material, creating an end-user product and completing the circle.

What is PLA?

PLA stands for polylactic acid, or Polylactide, a versatile polymer produced by NatureWorks LLC. PLA is made from lactic acid.  Ingeo™ biopolymer is the world’s first and only performance plastic made from 100% annually renewable resources. It offers the cost and performance necessary to compete with traditional petroleum-based materials in the packaging and serviceware markets. It’s clear and strong like petroleum-based plastic, but with the crucial benefit of being commercially compostable.

Plant Starch

Plant Starch is the material we use to make our high heat tolerance cutlery. This material is made from a variety of plant starches including corn, potatoes, and other vegetables. It has a heat tolerance of 220 degrees, which makes it optimal for hot foods.

What is PCF (Post Consumer Fiber)?
Post consumer recycled fiber (PCF) is one of the materials we use to make our new Evolution World hot cups. Post consumer waste is material discarded after someone uses it. Post consumer waste has served its intended purpose, passed through the hands of a final consumer, and has been discarded for disposal or recycling.

Our Evolution World hot cups are made with 24% post consumer recycled fiber. That means that 24% of the fiber used to make these cups has already served a purpose as something else (office paper most commonly), was sent through the recycling stream, and was repurposed into foodservice grade paperboard. The FDA for foodservice use certifies this paperboard.

Offering products with post consumer recycled fiber has the added benefit of helping stimulate demand for recycled paper, thus helping support the recycling markets here in the United States.

I received an email last week with the question, “Do you recommend any particular carbon offset company?” Great question and an even better topic to share since March 27 is all about climate change.

If you follow the news, chances are you’ve come across some sort of reference to carbon offsets. Its become all the rage as events like the winter Olympics and New York Fashion Week to people like Al Gore, Dixie Chicks and actors including George Clooney buy offsets in an effort to become “carbon neutral.” Not to mention, businesses around the world are taking a closer at their contributions to climate change, with an increasing number voluntarily reducing their “carbon footprint” too. What about you and your business?

Before you understand what’s involved, you need to know what it “is.”

Offsetting, in simple terms, is paying someone else to absorb or avoid the release of a ton of CO2 elsewhere so that the purchaser of a carbon offset (or credit) can aim to compensate for or, in concept, “offset” their own emissions.

Carbon offsets are a form of trade. When you buy an offset, you fund projects that reduce GHG emissions. Since GHG emissions circulate freely in the atmosphere and spread around the planet, the projects can be located anywhere in the world and still make an impact.

There are two types of carbon markets: compliance schemes and voluntary programs. Compliance markets are created and regulated by mandatory national, regional and international carbon reduction regimes like Kyoto Protocol (the largest). The voluntary carbon market functions outside of the compliance market. It enables businesses, NGOs and individuals to offset their emissions by purchasing offset independent of the Kyoto Protocol and local regulatory systems.

Why do businesses buy carbon offsets?

• Strengthen environmental image
• Position to meet upcoming government legislation on emission reductions
• Market differentiation by growing sales and brand awareness
• Communicate action on climate change to guests, employees, investors and other stakeholders
• Starting point of real emission reduction strategy

Hotel businesses buy carbon offsets to reduce their carbon footprint or build up their green image on a voluntary basis. Here’s what you need to know:

The voluntary market does not have a specific, well-defined regulatory apparatus, and is actually a mix of many different types of activities, providers and standards.

• There are numerous standards within the market from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Gold Standard, ISO 14064, VERplus to certification programs as the Green-e Climate Program.

• Each provider is different. The company’s operations and project vary tremendously from renewable energy, methane capture, energy efficiency to industrial gases and forest & agriculture.

Since there are endless options and the market certainly isn’t short of players, it can definitely get confusing. This is why you’ll need to keep a scorecard. There are many factors that need to be considered, as:

• Offsets should come from a real project that has actually been implemented or will be in the near future (guaranteed)
• It’s vital that the offset comes from a project that wouldn’t have happened otherwise (in “addition” to business-as-usual)
• Emission reduction from the offset project needs to be accurately quantified (establish baseline and monitoring plan)
• Offsets should be independently verified
• Provider should be registered with the government or be established as a contractor to avoid double counting (which has been a major issue)
• Offsets should be a permanent project making a permanent impact
• Offsets should not cause or contribute to adverse effects on human health or environment
• Offsets should provide development benefits (sustainability) to host country

These are areas I consider to be very important when evaluating a provider.

Going Carbon Neutral Game Plan

I recommend a three-step process to neutralize your hotel’s carbon emissions.

STEP 1: Conserve Resources

There are many strategies to conserve resources from reducing energy usage, water conservation to waste management. Your hotel can easily reduce energy use and save money by installing energy efficient lighting, water conserving fixtures and purchasing efficient electronics and appliances – to name a few. The team at EcoGreenHotel can help you implement an energy efficient strategy.

STEP 2: Buy Green

From clean, renewable energy to green, environmentally friendly products like cleaning supplies, you can find everything you need these days to operate your hotel sustainably. Many local utilities are beginning to generate their own sources of power through small-scale alternative energy projects. Products and services that have earned third-party certifications, contain recycled content, are recyclable and/or biodegradable and contain fewer or no toxins are now easy to find at www.EcoGreenHotelStore.com.

STEP 3: Offset Carbon Emissions

Take a look at the following helpful sites:

Carbon Offset Project List (www.carbonoffsetlist.org)

Carbon Catalog Project List (www.carboncatalog.org)

Clean Development Mechanism Approved Project List (http://cdm.unfccc.int)

EcoGreenHotel offers carbon market services to accurately quantify your hotel’s carbon footprint, help you offset your emissions by identify worldwide projects and monetize the credits to generate added income.

From a different angle, offsets do present a paradox. On one hand, they offer a cost-effective tool to reduce net emissions. However, as their popularity grows so does the criticism. Critics have likened corporate offsets to “bargaining with the devil” and putting “lipstick on a pig.” Despite the controversy, carbon offsets should not be ignored. Around the world, increasingly diverse companies of all sizes are finding offsetting to be an important component to their business model – from relationships with partners and customers to it being an option to address the pressures associated with climate change.

On Saturday, March 27th at 8:30 p.m. local time, the largest public demonstration for action on climate change will take place as lights are symbolically turned off for one hour. One billion citizens of the world joined in 2009 and this year won’t be any less than massive.

Since it’s inception three years ago, the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Earth Hour encourages everyone from homes, office buildings, iconic landmarks to universities, cities and municipalities to turn off their lights for an hour – saving some electric energy in the short term while encouraging all to ponder and act on environmental issues in the long term.

Some of the world’s recognized symbols of hope, peace, human endeavor and natural wonder will plunge into darkness including CN Tower in Toronto, Table Mountain in Cape Town, Grand Palace in Bangkok to the Golden Gate Bridge, Mount Rushmore and the world’s second tallest building Taipei 101.

The Earth Hour 2010 video, provides a powerful message by the world’s most recognized landmarks contributing to the greatest display of civil action the world has ever witnessed.

Show your guests you care and play an active role in your community, the world, by inviting them to participate. Although you can’t turn off all the hotel lights since you operate 24/7, but you can ask your guests to turn the room lights off and join you in the lobby or restaurant to mingle over drinks – maybe even hand out tree or plant seeds at the end or educate them on what your hotel is doing to reduce it’s green house gases and become sustainable. I can just imagine all the creative ways you can get your guests to join in the fun!

With 25 days left, here at EcoGreenHotel, we’ll be planning our own electricity-free activities – and yes, we have signed up! You can find out if your state, city, town, business or organization has signed up to join Earth Hour by visiting www.earthhour.org and clicking on your state.