Category: FF&E
Green Key
Giving your guest a key to their room used to be the best way for them to have security and safety for their stay, but now most door keys found at hotels look like credit cards and are electronic. Access for guests is important and can now be done without hurting the environment. Consider a green key of either recyclable paperboard, corn plastic or recycled plastic.
Plastic door keys (polyvinyl chloride keycards) have become ubiquitous in the lodging industry. Some become part of the marketing program for a hotel while others are nondescript. Some are reused, some become part of a keycard collection of travelers, most are thrown away, while a few are recycled.
Bamboo Sheets
If you are looking for organic, natural fiber bed sheets, consider bamboo. It's durable, soft, silky, and breathes. You can buy bamboo bed sheets and sheet sets in a variety of sizes, ranging from king-size to twin, and a few muted colors. And more stores are carrying them, both online and in their stores. Bamboo sheets wash well. They feel great. And because they breathe, sleep is restful and comfortable. Treat your guests and yourself like royalty by buying 100 p.rcent bamboo fiber sheets.
While attending a bed and breakfast conference recently, I visited Inn Style in the vendor section to investigate what they had in the way of organic cotton sheets. Instead, I found organic bamboo sheets. The sheets I found are 100 percent bamboo fiber sheets, not a bamboo/cotton blend.
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Sustainable Flooring
Bamboo and cork floors are a great option for any hospitality venue. They are sustainable, durable, and beautiful.
So you're going to replace your flooring with something new. You are taking an environmental approach, but don't know which sustainable product, that which doesn't deplete natural resources when it's harvested, to select. You think your final choices are between bamboo and cork, but you aren't sure. Before we analyze the differences between the products, let's review their backgrounds.
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Cool!
Two recent high school graduates have won the first-ever Ricoh Sustainable Development Award for the work they, and a friend, did for a science fair project. They developed an energy efficient, non-Freon air conditioner for automobiles. The technology uses a Peltier chip, which up to now, has been confined to cooling small devices like computers. There are even some coolers, like for your picnics, that use this device.
Investing in the Stalkmarket
There's a new, environmentally sound, kind of "paper" plate available on the market today -- bagasse, a sugar cane based product. Not only is bagasse used to make plates, but also bowls, cups, and to-go containers. I have used Stalkmarket plates and liked them a lot.
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Starwood Hotels and Resorts Fuel Cell Project
Starwood has joined forces with Alliance Star Energy to provide a framework for a series of fuel cell projects, focusing initially on California hotels. The first project will provide one megawatt of fuel cell power to the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina via four 250 KW direct fuel cell (DFC) power plants. The fuel cells will supply the hotel's 1,044 guestrooms and suites with their base load electricity and the heat byproduct will warm the water in their Lagoon Pool. Installation is expected to be completed and online at the end of 2005.
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Technology Recycling
What do you do with your old computers? Donate them to local schools or charities? Give them to a kid in need? Or are the computers so old that nobody wants them and it's time to recycle them? If you want to get rid of them consider one newer solution provided by the Rethink Initiative.
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Natural Bedding
I love cotton sheets and blankets on my bed. I judge the quality of the hotel or cruise ship by the quality of the bedding I'm sleeping in. Down comforters are delightfully light weight and warm, though some times too warm. I feel that if cotton is chosen for my sleeping experience that I'll have a better night's sleep. I also feel that if the extra step of making my bedding organic is made my sleep will also be a healthy sleep. It pleases me to see more properties taking care of their guests' sleep comfort by offering quality beds and bedding. (I covered an example of that in my article on wool mattress pads. There is also Sheraton's Sweet Sleep and the Crowne Plaza's Sleep Advantage for your comfort.
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Product Review: Ultra-low Flush Toilets
In the beginning of modern toilets there was the seven-gallon flushing porcelain lavatory. Then there was the low-flush toilet. And by the time you'd flushed several times the bowl was "clear" and you had flushed more water than you did with the faithful lavatory.
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Cooling Your Property Naturally
Years ago a budding hotelier decided to develop a green boutique hotel from an old building he wanted to renovate. He used hardwood floors and low VOC paints and varnishes throughout, cotton linens, and water conserving fixtures in the bathrooms and kitchen. He opted to use ceiling fans for cooling so that allergens and molds often associated with air conditioners and swamp coolers would be eliminated. Given his location in a dry climate, his idea was feasible. His boutique hotel was beautiful and beautifully appointed. But his two-story boutique hotel was unbearably hot in the summer, a situation that could have been averted � without installing air conditioning � if he'd used a few easy techniques for his cooling, and if he'd consulted Green Builder. He had two lines of defense to help him.
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Primer on Energy Management Systems
What I love about energy management systems is the way they force electric savings. Tourists and housekeepers alike too easily forget to conserve so leave rooms with lights and TVs on, wasting energy. That wasted energy contributes to air pollution and global warming — not to mention the cost to your bottom line. You can train staff to be more conscious of electric and gas conservation but you have little chance of training guests. From the management's perspective, there is more to the value of an EMS or building automation system than that.
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Wool Mattress Pads
There was a time I could sleep well anywhere, any time. As I "matured", my sleeping needs matured as well. I have migrated from thinking that one bed is like any other bed to understanding that bed quality, construction, and materials matter greatly in providing a good night’s sleep. Upscale property owners and managers have known that for a long time. Paying guests understand it too and vote with their dollar. Your challenge is finding the balance that will satisfy the biggest majority of your guests. The bed pad is the first step in making a great sleeping surface for you guests.
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Air Purifiers
You have a clean property. Housekeeping dusts, vacuums, and sanitizes every day. Why would you need to be concerned with air purifiers? I don't want to scare you, but there are lots of reasons you should be more than concerned about the air in your property. It's time to think about adding an air purifier to your ventilation system.
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