The Lenox Hotel's organic waste toters

Saunders Hotel Group Joins EPA's Food Recovery Challenge

The Lenox Hotel, the Comfort Inn & Suites Boston/Airport and the Hampton Inn Norwood have joined the EPA's Food Recovery Challenge. 

Samantha Sorrin, SHG's Sustainability Program Coordinator, said that the program reports help SHG managers visualize their properties' food waste output, identify food items that are over-purchased, develop ideas for improvement and establish reduction goals.

Sorrin says that SHG's primary goal for the program is to reduce over-purchasing without compromising the restaurants' luxury dining experience.  Already, SHG has identified ways to reduce their food purchasing and waste hauling bills. For example, they take unused banquet food to their employee cafeterias rather than throwing it out.

SHG is also considering other methods for reducing waste, including the Leanpath system for food waste auditing and reduction. 

Each hotel has its food waste hauled to compost facilities. SHG bolstered its food waste collection systems with sturdy bins, good signage and training, and it now works smoothly at each property.

 The Comfort Inn and the Hampton Inn lobby restaurants feature compostable plates, cups and cutlery, which are composted with their food waste.

 Each hotel recycles its cooking oil. The Comfort Inn's waste oil is picked up by Lifecycle Renewables, which uses it to make heat and electricity at combined heat and power (CHP) stations. 

How To Replace Your PTAC Units with No Capital Expense   

Hotels can now acquire PTAC units using Power Purchasing Agreements (PPA's), also known as On-Site Utility Solutions. PPA's are an effective strategy for hotels that want to reduce energy costs and conserve capital.

American DG Energy, a BGT member and presenter, provides PPA solutions for commercial CHP, boilers, chillers and heat pumps. Now they offer this financial model for PTAC units, too.

PTAC's are self-contained heating and air conditioning units in many hotels and residential buildings. (See a recent BGT presentation on PTAC units here.) As they age, they become inefficient and noisy, leading to guest complaints. Most hotels replace units as they break.

The key difference of the PPA approach is that a property's PTAC's are replaced all at once, with no capital costs. Hotels pay only for the energy produced by the system. All capital, installation, maintenance and operating expenses are paid and managed by the provider.

Hotels get a monthly utility bill from the provider, often receiving a discount on the price of energy. PPA's typically offer energy savings of 5 to 10 percent off of the hotels' utility rates, equating to $5 to $15 /room/month. More important, the hotels get to upgrade to a new system without using capital.

If you are thinking about replacing your PTACs, you now have a new option to consider.

Mattress Recycling Vendors

Recently, a hotelier asked me for mattress recyclers that serve Boston hotels.* Here's the list that I provided.

• The Wish Project, 978-441-WISH (9474). See this article about their mattress sterilization trailer. 
• United Teen Equality Center, 978-967-6622. They recently recycled the Sheraton Boston's mattresses.
• DH Global Logistics, 
  703.743.7670.
• Nationwide Mattress Recycling, 508 879 2760: See their 2012 presentation to BGT.
• Sleep Inc., 978-495-3203, I don't know whether they take mattresses not sold by them.         

*I welcome your questions about how to green lodging properties.

The following BGT meetings will be 2:30 to 4:00. 

January 15: Millennium Bostonian Hotel

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See you January 15 at the Millennium Bostonian!