LG Electronics USA,  a leading provider of flat-panel HDTVs to the lodging industry, said it will partner with Waste Management Inc. on the first recycling program for hotel operators to responsibly dispose of outdated television sets and computer monitors.

In 2010 alone, hundreds of hotels are expected to upgrade thousands of rooms with energy-efficient flat-panel digital TVs, which will displace older analog picture tube TVs. To support this growing trend, LG Electronics said it will offer environmentally conscious hotel, motel and resort operators a convenient, cost-effective opportunity for recycling the obsolete hotel TVs.

Under this new program planned for launch in 2010, LG Electronics would facilitate the recycling process through Waste Management’s subsidiary WM Recycle America LLC. In addition to offering the TV and monitor-recycling program, LG would assist hoteliers in working with WM to recycle the packaging from any new LG flat-panel HDTVs and computer monitors being installed in their properties.

The executive director of the National Center for Electronics Recycling, Jason Linnell, called the program “a significant new development” in the e-waste arena. “Most voluntary and state-mandated efforts across the country have been focused on consumer recycling efforts,” he said in a statement. “So, when you think of the millions of analog TVs being replaced in hotels across the country, this approach is particularly noteworthy. We urge hotel operators to take advantage of these kinds of opportunities.”

The program will leverage Waste Management’s national network of over 200 recycling centers throughout the United States. The hotel TVs and computer monitors collected under this program will be processed in an environmentally responsible manner at one of four regionally designated Waste Management recycling facilities that are ISO 14001 and 9001 certified to protect the local environment in those communities along with the people handling this waste.

If you’ve been taking your home green, you know how ideas can feed off each other. Someone gets picky about paper recycling; someone else becomes the food waste arbiter; pretty soon everyone has their eco-role and the household’s carbon footprint is shrinking.

Hotel Triton Lobby (Photo: Markham Johnson)

Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants realized early on that green grows like that.  The hospitality chain, with roots in San Francisco, has a history of putting eco-friendly ideas in place. Even before green hotel or green restaurant designations were developed, Kimpton was experimenting with eco-friendly practices at its San Francisco properties, such as the Hotel Triton, where motion sensors turn off lights and 60 percent of the waste gets recycled.

Non-toxic products, green cleaners, low VOC paints, low-flow faucets – all these turned up in Kimpton Hotels while other hotels were still on the highway of high-consumption. In addition, Kimpton has restored several historic buildings, supporting pedestrian-friendly urban areas. Stay at a Kimpton and you may find yourself ensconced on an eco-friendly mattress, drinking organic coffee and munching on a Clif bar.

Still, as the Kimpton chain grew greener, it had to figure out how to roll out the plan to all of its properties, including those outside of the Bay Area where environmental practices were not as well understood.

By 2005, the luxury hotel group had decided to standardize its green practices, requiring all Kimptons to adhere to an “Earth Care” program. But it didn’t want to impose a rigid top-down program. The solution: Kimpton named “eco-champions” at each of its hotels and encouraged them to form green teams and let ideas bubble up.

“You’ve got to get people on the front lines, who are doing the work, whose job you’re changing, a voice…and they’re right there, they see where the waste is,” said Niki Leondakis , chief operation officer for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants.

The Kimpton leadership, which currently oversees 48 hotels in cities from New England to California, learned the importance of buy-in earlier. In 2003, when Kimpton decided guests could opt out of having their sheets and towels washed every day, management was surprised that many housekeepers were reluctant to make the change. “The housekeepers couldn’t grasp the idea that they were doing a good job by not changing the towels. They needed training that if the towels were on towel bar, the guest wanted to save water and soap…and it was OK,” Leondakis said.

Today, the staff is more likely to get it, though the hospitality group still treads carefully in determining what clients will tolerate – and remain satisfied customers. That has left several green issues still on the table, such as whether a hotel can reduce plastic water bottles when guests on-the-go seem to expect that perk, or whether guests will accept room amenities in bulk dispensers (foregoing that little souvenir of the trip).

“We were initially, like, ‘We’re going to get rid of bottled water entirely.’ And we’d offer filtered tap water in reusable containers both in the restaurants, and our vision was to create a reusable container almost like a flask that people paid a nominal fee for and then they’d refill it at a water cooler. But the consumer does not seem to be ready for that,” Leondakis said.

Look for the green teams and “eco-champions” to find a solution. So far, the local crews are forging viable new ways on various fronts.

In DC, Chef Robert Weland at the Post Modern Barasserie in D.C. was the driving force behind an herb garden. He not only uses it in his dishes, but gives tours.

In Portland, at the Hotel Monaco, someone decided the facility could get along without those paper-wasting phone books. Now all Kimptons get by without guest room phone books.

Hotel Monaco Chicago (Photo: David Phelps)

In Chicago, the cities’ three Kimpton Hotels, the Monaco, Burnham and Allegro became leaders in the Green Seal green cleaner certification program, prompted by a mayor’s green initiative. Now the three are among just 50 Green Seal certified hotels nationwide.

The 20-year-old program requires the use of green cleaners, energy efficiency and recycling. (For details, see this listing.)

Using green cleaners prevents water pollution, provides for healthier interior air and curbs carbon emissions. The typical silver-ranked Green Seal hotel saves 400 tons of CO2 emissions every year, said Charlotte Teyraud, a spokeswoman for the non-profit Green Seal.

The Chicago hotels also  advocated for a commercial recycling program, that was eventually put into place with the help of city hall, says Nabil Moubayed, manager of the 192-room Hotel Monaco Chicago along the city’s Magnificent Mile:

Now in the “5^th phase” of instituting the Kimpton “Earth Care” program, Moubayed says the Hotel Monaco has found that going green is working on many levels:

• About 60-70 percent of the hotel’s customers use the opt-out linen/towel program, saving money and water.

• The Green Seal-approved cleaners, which the hotel buys in bulk, concentrated form, are saving the hotel about $25,000 a year. The non-toxic cleaners are healthier for staff and guests and biodegradable. (As for that outdated worry about green cleaners not working – Moubayad says surveys burst that myth. “When we look at guest comments. We have the highest score in the company for clean bathrooms and guest rooms.”)

• The hotel recycles about half of its trash, which also saves money because sending out the garbage costs more in trash fees than sending out recyclables, even in this down-market for recyclable material.

Hotel Monaco room overlooking Chicago River

Green ways are catching on among staff, he says. When Monaco’s valet crew discovered that the dry cleaners they were using was discarding hangers after one use, they were aghast. They went to work to find a solution. Now the hangers are reused.

Guests, too, are contracting the green bug. While they remain a diverse group that’s not easily gauged, Moubayed says surveys show that the majority of people stay at Kimpton because of the hotels’ greener rep.

“We’ve seen a pretty high percentage of guests choosing use because we have a strong Green Care program.” he  said. “We don’t want them to feel like everything we doing is in their face. The (guest room) recycling bin for instance is bronze not bright blue. And the low flow shower heads, we don’t’ necessarily want them to notice that, but it  is helping the environment.”

Moubayad had no special sustainability training before coming to the Hotel Monaco, but he has built on what he has learned through Kimpton.

“I found I had a passion for it,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do., not just from the consumer point of view, but as a human, for the future generations. It’s the right thing to do.”

(Another key way that hotels across the US are greening their profile is by building, retrofitting or tailoring operations to meet standards set by the US Green Building Council. For more on these green hotels, see our recent story: A green wave coming, hundreds of hotels finalizing their LEED certification.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in conjunction with the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and The Hospitality Industry Network (NEWH) asked interior designers to submit their plans for an eco-friendly guest room in their first-ever Sustainable Suite Design Competition.

(Photo: USGBC)

With the hospitality industry being a large consumer of water and energy use, this competition was aimed to inspire green design throughout the industry.

“The purpose of the competition was to bring greater awareness about green building to the hospitality industry. Hotels are 24-hour a day businesses, and are among the highest consumers of water, energy and other natural resources. By joining with ASID and NEWH, hopefully the hospitality industry will hear the call and bring hotels – newly built and existing – to a higher level of performance by incorporating sustainability into their practices,” said Marie Coleman, a spokeswoman for the USGBC.

More than 65 sustainable designs were submitted. Each one uniquely highlighted the importance of different environmental aspects, exhibiting a promising future for greener design among newly built and existing hotels.

Designs were judged on three categories:

• Design Elements: water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources and indoor environmental quality
• Education: guest room attributes and guest practices
• Overall Design: integrated design approach, originality and innovation, general aesthetic and financial feasibility

WATG, a destination design firm, submitted the winning design in conjunction with IDEO. Their suite, Haptik, a Greek term meaning to experience interactions based on sense of touch, created a combination of sustainability and luxury. Haptik will be featured at the 2010 Hospitality Design Expo & Conference in Las Vegas this May.
Among the innovative winning design were many eco-features such as:

• An “all-off ” switch to ensure lights are automatically turned-off based on passive infrared sensors (PIS)
• room conditioning equipped by a four-pipe horizontal fan-coil system
• pressure-lite technology for the toilets
• a  Trombe wall in the shower that captures solar heat to warm the shower water
• a low flow shower head
• a graywater irrigation system that filters and recycles shower water to outdoor gardens and landscaping
• recycling bins in the room

“It was great to see the level of interest in the competition – not just in the number of submissions we received, but the level of design and innovation these firms and young professionals put into their submissions,” Coleman said.

“Designers are an important part of making green technologies sophisticated and accessible to anyone working in or staying at a hotel, showing that environmental responsibility can be easily attained.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

One could count a thousand ways humans have soiled the planet, from shearing off mountaintops to mine coal to dredging the bottom of the ocean with heavy, coral-destroying equipment.

Congress zeroed in on one needless wave of destruction this past week, introducing legislation in both houses to stop cruise ships from releasing untreated sewage into the ocean.

The Senate’s Clean Cruise Ship Act, proposed by Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), would extend the Clean Water Act to regulate the millions of gallons of waste water from cruise ships. The net effect would be a ban on the release of raw, untreated sewage.

In the House, Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) introduced nearly identical legislation.

In the US, nearly 10 million people vacation aboard cruise liners that dump sewage into the ocean.

According to a news release from Durbin’s office, a single cruise ship can release more than 200,000 gallons of human sewage, one million gallons of gray water from kitchens and bathrooms and 10,000 gallons of sewage sludge each week.

Not to mention the small, but significant disgorging of hazardous waste and oily bilge. (Can we pause here for a collective “ick”?!)

Currently, this waste is regulated in some coastal regions, but unevenly so. Durbin’s Clean Cruise Ship Act would amend the Clean Water Act to:

• Place cruise ships under the EPA guidelines for pollution discharges (much as industries are).

• Prohibit the discharge of sewage, graywater and bilge water within 12 miles of shore

• Require state-of-the-art treatment of waste water that is to be released outside the 12 mile perimeter – Prohibit any dumping of sewage sludge, incinerator ash and hazardous waste in US waters

• Set up inspection and onboard observation to monitor the program.Durbin’s bill also would strengthen discharge requirements for cruise ships operating in the Great Lakes, holding them to the same 12 mile prohibition zone and requiring them to update their technology to treat sewage and gray water before it is discharged into the lakes.

Durbin’s office reports that several environmental groups support his bill, including: Friends of the Earth; Earthjustice; Oceana; Surfrider; Campaign to Safeguard America’s Waters; and Northwest Environmental Advocates.

In response to its members’ interest in green hotels, AAA said it will now designate AAA approved lodgings that have been eco-certified through leading government or private programs.

A bright green “ECO” symbol will identify eco-friendly lodgings in the new 2010 editions of the AAA TourBook guides and on AAA.com. Additionally, travelers will be able to customize their hotel searches on the AAA web site to show green properties first in search results.

“The new ECO symbol serves as a notice to AAA members that a property has taken steps to become an environmental advocate,” Michael Petrone, director of AAA Tourism Information Development, said in a statement. “We are pleased to publish this information as a service to members who make sustainability a factor in their lodging selection.”

AAA said it will not be involved in the evaluation of any property’s environmental practices, but will provide the information from recognized organizations as a service to members. Additional information and a list of recognized certification programs are accessible at AAA.com/eco.

North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA has more than 51 million members.

The Bluebell Garden at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, NC. (Photo: Proximity Hotel)

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

It’s a rare hotel these days that doesn’t offer to not wash your sheets, in the interest of conserving water. A handful of hotels go further, touting their bamboo flooring, low-flow faucets and other flourishes.

But get ready traveler, you ain’t seen nothing yet. There’s an avalanche of green hospitality heading your way as some 700 hotels queue up to complete their LEED certifications with the US Green Building Council over the next year or so, and after their environmental inductions, you can bet they’ll be serving up more than just local greens. In the competitive travel industry, they’ll be angling for eco-kudos, showcasing everything from their fly ash foundations to their roof-top herb gardens.

For the savvy and weary business traveler, as well as the mom-and-pop tourist, this could be a fun new era. You’ll be treated to organic yogurt, natural mattresses and air quality systems. But it also holds perils for both guests and hotel operators.

Guests wanting to go green could quickly be confused by a cacophony of appeals. Travelocity and Orbitz now rate hotels on their eco offerings. AAA is going to stamp entries in its 2010 book with a green symbol denoting the supposed environmentally elite.

Green Seal, which certifies hotels that use non-toxic cleaners, will continue to push its version of green. Energy Star credentials green hotels, just as it does other commercial buildings. And finally, you’ll be seeing plaques about the US Green Building Council’s LEED program, the respected and most all-encompassing designation for hotel properties. There are four levels — certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum — that can be applied to  newly built or retrofitted hotels.

And as in the army, the stripes and colors mean something. A “certified” LEED hotel may not be doing much more than making sensible changes to reduce energy consumption, whereas a gold-rated operation could be a real striver in the green space.

Now add one more layer. The USGBC offers another rating, for operations. It’s called the Existing Building (EB) certification, and only five hotel properties currently carry that distinction, compared with the 700-plus that already have or are about to receive LEED certification for their structure. Getting EB qualified is about daily green actions, like sending out your potato peelings to be composted and using soaps that don’t kill fish when they’re flushed out into the world. Considering that hotel operations consume a lot of resources and generate considerable waste (far more than residences or offices), this lesser known operations certification,  seems like more than a detail. If the green trend holds, expect to see hotels signing up for this designation as well.

A Platinum Night’s Sleep

As this new green stew simmers, hotel operators find themselves in the unusual position of having to adjust their approach to guests. While they want to promise great comforts, new green standards mean it won’t be coddling as usual. Guests will be asked, either directly or through the power of suggestion, to act responsibly by putting recyclables in the nice new bins in their room, or drinking the perfectly fine filtered water from their faucet instead of indulging in the bottled variety.

Yes, it will be a new day at the Days Inn, or anywhere else changes are being made. At the same time, hotels will want to keep guests comfortable, because, well, that’s their job.

To see the shape of things to come, we took a look at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, N.C., the only platinum-rated hotel in the United States.

Dennis Quaintance, Chief Design Officer of Proximity Hotel and President of Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants & Hotels, with the 100 solar panels atop the hotel. (Photo: Proximity Hotel)

Stroll into the Proximity, and you’ll be drenched in sunlight, but invisibly enveloped by several state-of-the-art energy innovations that combine to make the hotel use 40 percent less electricity than a comparable building. Solar rooftop panels heat the hotel’s water, geothermal energy is used for the kitchen refrigerators, large windows reduce the need for indoor lights and  offer views of the outdoors while also admitting fresh air. A special “energy recovery” system uses exhausted cool air to assist the AC. Even the elevators run on a new energy-conserving program that recaptures energy generated.

The hotel used recycled materials in the foundation, drywall and steel staircase. Guest room shelving was made with a 100 percent recycled, formaldehyde-free  particle board (SkyBlend). Water use was reduced with high-efficiency Kohler plumbing that saved 2 million gallons of water in the first year. A nearby stream was restored with the use of native plantings and erosion control techniques. Some of the furniture is so local, it was made on site, and the art, by artist-in-residence Chip Holton, came from across the street.

When the hotel was built in 2007, it sent relatively little construction waste to the landfill – 87 percent of the waste was recycled.

All of this earned the Proximity LEED points, and for co-owners Dennis Quaintance, Nancy King Quaintance and Mike Weaver, it became a challenge to leap the highest bar. They wanted to win a platinum rating, not just because they could, but because they believe in preserving the world for future generations. For husband-and-wife Quaintances, it meant considering the legacy they’d leave to their children, and beyond. Would their descendants look back and know they’d done their best for the environment?

“Don’t let the vacation ruin the destination.”

These words of wisdom hail from environmentalists who have legitimate concerns about ocean pollution due to cruise ship dumping.

Cruise ship vacations have gained in popularity in the last decade, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which states that the industry has grown nearly twice as fast as any other means of travel during that time frame. And, at the same time, the average ship size has been growing at about 90 feet every five years. Ships used to average about 3,000 passengers, but today some carry as many as 8,000.

So with larger ships carrying more passengers, there is mounting concern about how this growth will affect the ocean’s marine life and water quality.

Recently the World Wildlife Federation’s Baltic Sea chapter recommended that area ports upgrade their facilities to cope with contamination from cruise ship sewage. The WWF said that Baltic-area ports are not keeping their facilities up-to-date in terms of disposing of cruise ship waste and suggested that the money being made by cruise ship tourism be spent upgrading the facilities, according to a report in the Environmental News Service.

“We find it unfair that so many ports are profiting from cruise line tourism but are not prepared to take care of their waste,” said Pauli Merriman, director of the WWF Baltic Ecoregion Progamme, in the ENS report.

In one week, a single average size cruise ship can generate about 200,000 gallons of sewage as well as 1 million gallons of gray water (the runoff from showers and kitchens), says Friends of the Earth Clean Vessels Campaign director Marcie Keever.

“That amounts to about 50 swimming pools-worth of polluted water,” she says.

Cleaning up pollution from cruise ships uses technology that separates the solids from the liquids and uses reverse osmosis to get rid of the pollutants. The solids get incinerated with the ashes either being dumped on land or at sea beyond 3 to 12 nautical miles. On land, the human manure can be recycled as nutrients for soil.

In the U.S., says Keever, there are no regulations for dumping sewage from vessels beyond three nautical miles from shore. Beyond three miles, cruise ships are allowed to dump raw, partially treated, or treated sewage.

As for port-side dumping, she says, “the dumping of treated sewage (using 30-year old-technology) is allowed in many ports except for states that have created no-discharge areas or agreements…. California is one of the places with anti-dumping laws, as are Alaska and Maine. Washington and Florida have voluntary agreements with the cruise industry but those agreements don’t go any further that U.S. federal requirements in most cases.”

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Restaurant Associates have unveiled a guide to green dining best practices, which is aimed at helping corporate cafeterias, museums and restaurants cut costs and spare the environment.

The science-based recommendations have been tested by two Restaurant Associates clients, Random House and Hearst Corporation. The two companies combined will save over $85,000 each year, cut 275 tons of carbon pollution and reduce landfill waste by 60 tons annually, according to early test results.

An earlier survey by the National Restaurant Association found that environmentally friendly equipment and sustainable practices topped chefs’ lists of hot trends and top cost-savers for 2009.

The green dining best practices with the biggest environmental impacts include food purchasing (addressing specific products like meat, produce and seafood), facility operation (improvements in the use of energy, waste, and water), packaging, transportation of food, and the use of toxic cleaning chemicals.

“Consumers today know what they want: delicious food at affordable prices that’s good for them and for the planet. This is a tall order, but it’s one we can meet,” Ed Sirhal, president of Restaurant Associates, said in a statement. “Using these best practices as a guide, we unearthed opportunities for cost and environmental savings that were right there for the taking. We encourage companies throughout the food services industry to do the same.”

Restaurant Associates said it will roll out the green dining best practices in all 110 of its facilities nationwide, and has engaged the Green Restaurant Association to audit and certify those efforts by 2011. The company has also committed to increasing the amount of sustainable seafood on its menus, offering clients “bottleless” water dispensers as an alternative to bottled water, reducing the carbon footprint of the meats and proteins it serves 20 percent by July 2010 and also reducing energy use in its facilities.

Related video:
Environmental Defense Fund and Restaurant Associates officials explain the Green Dining Best Practices program:

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has announced it’s ditching polystyrene coffee and tea cups to switch to “Bio-Cups” coated with Ingeo plant-based plastic, which are biodegradable and take up less space.

“The introduction of the Bio-Cups on board fits in perfectly with our sustainability policy,” said Bart Vos, executive vice president of In-Flight Services for KLM. “Our staff on board are also enthusiastic as the cups are not only environmentally friendly, but also easy to store and have a good design as well.”

The Bio-Cups are the result of a collaboration by KLM, Moonen Packaging of The Netherlands, and NatureWorks LLC, based in Minnetonka, Minn..  They are paper cups, reinforced with the Ingeo shell, which makes them sturdier and more moisture- and grease-resistant. They are lightweight, but rigid, making them a good choice for in-flight service.

By contrast, polystyrene cups are not biodegradable.

NatureWorks LLC, a company dedicated to providing low-carbon alternatives to conventional, petroleum-based plastics and fibers, will be supplying the Ingeo cups to KLM. NatureWorks, based in Minnetonka, Minn., is a joint-venture of Cargill and Teijin Limited of Japan. Moonen Packaging also supplies Ingeo cups to media companies, coffee retailers, and others.

Montage Beverly Hills, the 201-room luxury hotel that opened November 2008 in Beverly Hills, has earned Gold certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED for New Construction rating system.

This is the first certified ultra-luxury hotel in Southern California for LEED for New Construction and one of only four Gold certified hotels worldwide designated by this third-party benchmarking system designed to encourage the design, the construction and the operations of more sustainable buildings. Montage Beverly Hills also is the first newly constructed mixed-use hotel and residential project to be LEED certified as a single development, denoting it as a high performance building that is a responsible, efficient and healthy place to live and work.

“We’re gratified to have created and be operating Southern California’s first hotel and residential project to obtain Gold level certification,” Alan J. Fuerstman, founder and CEO of Montage Hotels & Resorts, said in a statement.

A total of 18 hotels worldwide have to date achieved LEED certification at Certified Silver, Gold or Platinum levels. The specific LEED for New Construction V2.2 rating system designations reflect assessments of factors such as site selection, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. LEED, begun in 2000, now encompasses more than 22,000 registered and certified projects in the U.S. and 91 countries and is administered by the USGBC, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit coalition of building industry leaders.

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From Green Right Now Reports

The Orchard Hotel has earned LEED-EB (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification for an existing building by the U.S. Green Building Council. San Francisco’s only hotel to earn this honor, the Orchard Hotel is the second hotel in California and fourth hotel in the world with this certification.

LEED-EB is the USGBC’s rating system for operating high performance buildings dedicated to whole-building cleaning and maintenance issues, recycling programs, exterior maintenance programs and systems upgrades.

The Orchard Hotel, managed by Portfolio Hotels & Resorts, based in Oak Brook, IL, includes 104 guest rooms and is located just two blocks from Union Square. The hotel said the inspiration for meeting the LEED-EB guidelines comes from its 85-year-old owner, Mrs. S.C. Huang. She is passionate about clean environments, after the untimely cancer-related deaths of three family members, and has devoted herself to creating environmentally safe and sustainable hotels.

“Mrs. S.C. Huang pursued a LEED certification for her existing hotel for several important reasons,” Stefan Mühle, general manager for the hotels and regional director for Portfolio Hotels & Resorts, said in a statement. “Studies prove that LEED certified buildings have lower operating costs, higher employee productivity, and happier, healthier occupants. We’re extremely proud to lead the hospitality industry in our dedication to our environment and our guests’ and employees’ quality of life.”

The Orchard Hotel achieved LEED-EB certification for managing energy use, sustainable cleaning and maintenance practices, employee education, recycling policies, lighting, water and material use as well as incorporating a variety of other sustainable strategies. The hotel’s green practices also include chemical-free cleaning products, a 100% tobacco-free environment, recycled paper and soy-based inks, low flow toilets and showers, CFL, halogen or LED lighting throughout the hotel; low or no-VOC paints, adhesives and sealants; strict recycling and compost programs and more.

In 2007, the Orchard Hotel’s sister property, the Orchard Garden Hotel, was awarded LEED-NC® (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design-New Construction) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. San Francisco’s first hotel to earn this honor, the Orchard Garden was only the third hotel in the U.S. and fourth hotel in the world with this certification.

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It can be a challenge to update an historic building, let alone transform it into a model of green modernity. Rattling pipes crowd walls that need new duct work; old fixtures adhere stubbornly to aging walls and facades retain character, but heating and cooling – not so much.

Still, the historic Heathman Hotel in downtown Portland has recently undergone two green upgrades, and is determined to become a model of sustainability, while sacrificing none of its landmark historic elegance.

The 81-year-old Heathman, like most vintage urban hotels, has been through many nips and tucks over the decades. It got its first green redo about three years ago with the renovation of the guest bedrooms and living areas and the addition of a new heating and cooling system. The project, which won financial incentives from the Energy Trust of Oregon, and included switching to CFL light bulbs, proved enlightening: The changes trimmed energy usage by 20 to 30 percent at the 150-room hotel.

“My return on investment, we realized that in less than two years; a year and half for the HVAC investment,” said hotel general manager Chris Erickson. “It was a wise idea and now as we move into the future, it’s all straight to the bottom line.”

Green redo Number Two, is currently underway as the Heathman overhauls its guest bathrooms, all 155 of them, which will save thousands of gallons of water every day. New low-flow shower heads and water-wise commodes (which use 1.5 gallons per flush instead of 3 gallons) are expected to cut bathroom water use in half, without guests even noticing.

Having witnessed during his career how most hotel renovations send tons of refuse to the dump, Erickson decided to turn this latest bathroom project into a study of converting to a more sustainable operation, sustainably.

He contracted with Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects to design the new look of the bathrooms, and also with the non-profit ReBuilding Center of Portland, to whisk away the outgoing material.

The Center sent “deconstruction” experts to assess how everything coming out of the bathrooms could be reclaimed, thus giving the used sinks, fixtures and doors a second life through the center’s resale program, and also reducing the impact on the landfill.

The program they came up with has produced a nearly waste-free, or 99 percent landfill-free, remodel that diverted an estimated 15 tons of debris. Only the mirrors that were accidentally broken while being removed had to be discarded.