Priority Club Connect: Blondie's Travelogue: All About Green Traveling Even For Those Who Don't Drive A Prius!

Green Is Back In Style! Or Is It? IHG Thinks So.....

Today, many people desire to be environmentally friendly. It is not uncommon for someone you know or even yourself to be cognizant of turning the lights off after leaving a room, using cold water to wash clothes, installing energy efficient light bulbs, driving more energy efficient cars and recycling garbage.

Some of you may not know that the hotel industry is on board and working to be more environmentally friendly to reduce each hotels carbon footprint. Some hotels even have motion sensors in rooms or hallways to control lighting & air conditioning. I am a firm believer that green travel can be just as rewarding and luxurious.

Did you know that IHG recently was awarded by the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) for its commitment to reducing environmental impact? The InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) is moving forward in greening its hotels. The InterContinental San Francisco features double paned windows, energy efficient light bulbs and motion sensors. The spa uses recycled packaging and organic ingredients. The hotel also uses industrial drain cleaners which use microbial technology to get rid of the yucky stuff that can clog pipes. The InterContinental Chicago recently received its Energy Star rating & its Green Seal silver certification. The General Manager, Edward Andrews heavily promotes recycling and reusing, has installed energy efficient lightbulbs and has made improvements to every toilet & sink to reduce water consumption. Hotel Indigo Chicago (Vernon Hills) doesn't use throw-a-way cups, has parking for hybrid cars, aggressively saves water & electricity and uses chemicals that are eco-friendly. IHG has reduced waste by 60% via recycling programs, saved $2.28 million worth of electricity, saved $139,715 with reduced garbage collections from 14 to 5 per month and saves 22,000 liters (almost 6,000 gallons) of water each month in a 100 room hotel.

The CEO of IHG, Andrew Coslett has publicly announced he will be pushing and supporting the green movement. However, David Jerome, IHG Senior Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility recently spoke at a travel summit and when asked if IHG could go green with all the hotels, he responded that there are 130 competing green standards for hotels and that's why the company has created its own internal standard. I hope Andrew and David continue working on becoming green across the board; and not just the internal standards, but continue working on achieving other green certification standards as well.

Read IHG's Press Release in January 2009 on reducing environmental impact.

Learn about the "Green Engage" software introduced by the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).

Let's Take Holiday Inn's Renewed Focus & Rebranding On The Color Green & Make It A Reality!

My Easy Tips For Traveling Green:

Try hanging towels to dry & reuse them rather than leaving on the floor to be replaced after one use (this is so hard for me).
Let housekeeping know that fresh sheets are not needed on a daily basis.
Leave those shampoo bottles for the next guest if unopened. If used, take home and finish. Good idea for soap bars too!
When leaving room, turn off the TV, radio, and lights.
If recycling is offered at the hotel, do it. Ask staff member if you are unsure if the hotel offers recycling.
As a Priority Club Member, free newspapers are delivered as a club benefit. Instead, ask hotel to not deliver you a newspaper. Try to find one that has been used and left in a public area.
Take advantage of electronic check-out through the TV or other means to reduce paperwork. Tell hotel not to put that final bill under your door.
Take advantage of walking tours instead of taking a taxi or the subway.

Places to Check Out:

travelgreen.org

ihg.com/responsibility

istaygreen.org

greenlodgingnews.com

Current Up-to-Date News

News as of 6/2009: National Geographic & the InterContinental Hotel Group extend partnership.

News as of 9/2009: Holiday Inn's rebranded logo will use energy efficient GE LED lighting in its new exterior signage. This will reduce Holiday Inn's energy usage by more than half and reduce kilowatt hours used by 52 percent. For additional information on GE LED products and lighting systems, visit www.lumination.com.

Please take the time to ask questions or comment below my blog post. Remember, I can be reached at AmandaKehoe@att.net.

Here is me traveling green last year. I stayed at a resort named, "One of the world's best ecotourism models" by National Geographic.

Sources: nbta.org

greentravelsummit.com

1,273 Views Tags: ihg, intercontinental, holiday_inn, green, amanda_kehoe, blondie, amanda, green_travel, environment, ceo, travelogue, ecotourism, eco_resort, blondie's

May 5, 2009 2:34 PM

RKohli says:

Amanda,

This is awesome! Thank you for the great advice. I will certainly put it to use.

Looking forward to hearing more from you.

Rishav

Jul 21, 2009 2:45 PM

Tony_UK says in response to RKohli:

Great ideas.

I've always tried to be a 'low impact' guest, so I've a few more suggestions.

1. Never use more that one towel - you can dry your hands on the bath towel and then re-use it for a bath or shower later.

2. The slip-mat doesn't need to be changed daily either - just hung over the bath and dried off.

3. Only use one waste-bin so that only one plastic liner is discarded.

4. Switch off the air-conditioning while you are out of the room during the day. This saves huge amounts of power. It will only take a few minutes to bring the room to temperature.

5. Use public transport or a hotel shuttle-bus where practicable instead of taxi or rental car.

Enjoy your stay, wherever you are!

Tony UK

Jul 27, 2009 4:36 PM

Amanda Kehoe says in response to Tony_UK:

Tony,

Thanks for sharing your tips. Tip # 2 is an important tip as well. Especially when one person or one family is using it; it doesn't need to be replaced daily. Tip # 3 makes a good point when liners are used in multiple trash cans within the hotel room.

Thank you for sharing and adding tips to traveling green!

Amanda

Oct 9, 2009 6:45 AM

Ronald Chadwick says:

Petrol or as the US call is gas is in Europe expensive about $6.5 a US gallon so driving style is a great way to reduce MPG. Anticipate and slow with out braking, accelerate slower, get into a high gear earlier and plan journeys so two or three tasks can be done on one trip. Walk for shorter journeys, maybe the state should get more sidewalks. Switch of the engine if stopping for more than minute or two in slow moving traffic. Look at traffic reports on the net so to avoid known hold ups, saves time as well

A 5% drop in cruising speed can save 15% of fuel in some cars. Autoes.

Oct 15, 2009 4:10 AM

Amanda Kehoe says in response to Ronald Chadwick:

Thank you for sharing your tips on how to reduce automobile emissions. Maintaining proper air amount in tires, and your tip on accelerating slowly are great ways to reduce gas consumption. I have read reports that state, traveling at 60mph is an ideal speed for lower gas consumption.

Oct 29, 2009 3:19 AM

iristina says in response to Amanda Kehoe:

Great ideas!

#6 about the newspaper - I always like it when hotels ask me at check-in if I'd like a paper delivered to my room. I never have time to read it when I'm working, so it is a waste when delivered. I often don't think about this when I'm checking in though. If I am staying more than one night, I do remember to call the next morning to have the next delivery stopped.

Dec 31, 2009 8:48 AM

vsolo says in response to Ronald Chadwick:

When I rented a car(s) in Germany, they all (even the economy cars) had active LPK indicators (Liter per Kilometer) [i.e. MPG in the US] where you could see them as you drove.

While we did enjoy driving over 180 kph (110 mph) we could see that we were using 3 times as much gas as when we drove less that 100kph (60 mph) & at 7 American dollars per gallon (I forgot what it was in Euros per litre)