Hilton Hotels Go Green

May 1, 2009

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Hilton Hotels Corp. is making strides in meeting its sustainability goals set in 2008. Most recently, the hotel chain earned green lodging certification for one hotel in Florida and installed carpets that are made from more than 70 percent of recycled content at its Home2 Suites, a new mid-tier extended-stay hotel concept.

Incorporating sustainability into the design and building of the Home2 Suites by Hilton is a key commitment by the hospitality company, which should help it meet several environmental goals set in 2008 — reducing energy consumption, CO2 emissions and waste output — all by 20 percent, and cutting water use 10 percent by 2014.

Home2 Suites is using state-of-the-art post-consumer recycled content carpeting from InterfaceFLOR, to outfit its model prototype at the Memphis, Tenn. headquarters. The InterfaceFLOR carpet tile in the prototype guestroom meets CRI Green Label Plus Certified air quality standards and a Platinum rating for the NSF 140 sustainable carpet assessment standard. It contains 35-36 percent pre-consumer recycled content and 33 percent post-consumer recycled content, equaling approximately 70 percent total recycled content.

These products are part of InterfaceFLOR’s Convert design platform, which recently received the first Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for carpet in North America.

In Florida, the Hilton Marco Island Beach Resort and Spa recently became the first Collier County lodge to earn the Two Palm award from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for energy savings, reports marconews.com. The voluntary state initiative with three certification levels encourages hotels and motels to adopt cost-saving “green” practices that reduce waste and conserve natural resources.

Hotels must implement a variety of green practices in the areas of energy and water conservation, waste reduction, indoor air quality, and environmental education to earn the initial One Palm certification under the Green Lodgings program, and to advance to the Two Palm status, hotels must implement additional best management practices for an entire year, and provide supporting data to back them, according to marconews.com.

Some of the changes implemented by the Marco Hilton to earn the Two Palm certification include redesigning the landscape and using automatic urinals in public restrooms to reduce water needs, replacing windows with thermal-paned tinted insulated glass, using energy-saving lighting and installing more efficient water heaters, according to the article.

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