Make hotel reservations at green hotels using the new team: EnvironmentallyFriendylHotels.com and RezHub. Find your green hotel on "Environmentally Friendly Hotels" and book your room with RezHub, assuming the hotel is part of RezHub's program.

Green blackmail is becoming one way of getting people's attention about environmental issues. When taken far enough -- or too far -- it becomes environmental terrorism. Will you take environmental steps on your own, or will you wait until either green blackmail or government regulations force you?

Sustainable development is an up-and-coming concept in the hospitality industry. It's been around for awhile now, but is getting more traction all the time. A shopping mall in Boulder, Colorado, is an interesting case study in the environmental issues of renovations. How much can building materials be recycled, reused and donated?

The best way to quit irritating your guests is to remove as many chemicals as possible from your hospitality operations. Get rid of sodium lauryl sulfate, fabric softeners and air fresheners, and finishes with VOCs (volatile organic compounds). There are great alternatives available to you, so use them and have happier guests.

The environment is a hot topic these days. My focus is on green hospitality -- hotels, restaurants, cruise ships, golf courses, and spas being examples. Through innovation, environmental problems can be resolved, money saved and jobs created. Environmental innovation leads to jobs of all kinds, even environmental jobs. Environmentally friendly hotels can lead the way in greening of the hospitality industry.

Recently I had dinner with several NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineers. The conversation bounced among topics like politics, space, sports, the environment, weather, and the internet. It was an invigorating conversation, or set of conversations.

Environmentally friendly hotels have taken a huge step forward recently. When the Fairmont Hotels teamed up with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation to take sustainable measures further into Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Green hotels and eco travelers can further this effort by doing more and asking more of others. Energy and water conservation, climate change and biodiversity are important issues we all need to face and work together on to make the world a better place.

AH&LA is taking yet another step towards finalizing their environmentally friendly hotel certification program. Responding to their member survey not only earns money for the National Arbor Day Foundation but also provides valuable information for AHLA's green hotels program and gives the responding member hotel a marketing opportunity. That's turning green to gold!

Environmentally friendly hotels, restaurants and other hospitality venues have tough choices to make in greening their operations. My hybrid SUV taught me more about that than I had been aware before. It's your turn to learn how to think about the best way to help green the hospitality industry.

Are green hotels making a difference and are they really green? This running discussion ties in nicely with my article on greenwashing in the hospitality industry published here in early April, 2008. Greenwashing can be an effort to obfuscate one's lack of green action, or it can be to promote some hidden agenda. Either way, when your environmental actions aren't above board, they do an injustice to those who are serious about making an environmental difference.

The hospitality industry is behind the Green Wave; it's not doing enough to develop a sustainable or environmentally sound business approach. In Green to Gold, by Daniel W Esty and Andrew S Winston, you can discover what your business can do to develop an environmental culture and green program. Become a WaveRider in the hospitality industry.

Being a green hotel or restaurant isn't just a marketing ploy -- not in the long run. Hospitality venues need to avoid green washing to preserve their reputation. If you say you are green, you better be or the traveling public will avoid doing business with you, the opposite of what you are striving for when you announce your green actions.

If you want to be part of the green wave sweeping the nation, and the world, start a green business. And to learn to do that, or to make your existing business greener, check out this new book coming off the press late summer, 2008.

If you are looking for a hotel that has a sense of place and is green, or at least has eco-awareness, find the April 2008 issue of National Geographic Traveller and browse their list of 150 hotels in which you'll love to stay.

We've all seen it without knowing that's what we are seeing -- dirty drinking glasses in our hotel rooms. An investigative for Fox News Atlanta taped housekeepers washing wine glasses, drinking glasses and coffee mugs in the bathroom sink, not in the kitchen dishwasher.

The Better Business Bureau used to help clean up the marketplace from businesses with questionable ethics. Who do you turn to on the internet? I guess the internet. You should be able to unsubscribe from a newsletter when your needs change and you don't want that newsletter anymore, just like you should be able to unsubscribe from catalogues and magazines. When you can't unsubscribe the newsletter, or ezine, becomes like spam -- something you hate getting in your inbox. HotelChatter has become that kind of annoyance to me.