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Holiday Inn & Suites feted for going green
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| Holiday Inn Hotels & Suites General Manager Rod Butler tosses plastic bottles and aluminum cans in the hotel’s recycling cart as part of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Green Lodging Program. The Holiday Inn recently earned the One Palm designation identifying it as an environmentally friendly hotel. MICHAEL MITSEFF/Lake City Reporter |
Hotel receives One Palm certification, the first in the city.
By MICHAEL MITSEFF
mmitseff@lakecityreporter.com
On Thursday, the Lake City Holiday Inn & Suites was the first hotel in the city to achieve the Florida Green Lodging Program’s coveted One Palm certification.
The Department of Environmental Protection program bestows the certification only on hotels and motels that comply with the program’s “green” requirements.
“The site evaluation was done on Oct. 31,” Holiday Inn General Manager Rod Butler said, noting that the DEP evaluation focused on five areas of the hotel’s operation.
“The evaluation basically breaks down into communication, water conservation, energy efficiency, waste reduction and clean air practices,” Butler said.
The immediate benefit to earning a One Palm designation is that it allows state agencies and departments to hold meetings and conferences at a hotel or motel.
“We had to educate our staff on the practices that we implemented at the hotel, and we had to educate our guests and let them know that we have areas for recycling of waste,” Butler said.
Some of the programs the Holiday Inn has initiated include a recycling program for the staff and guests, bulk purchasing, preventative maintenance, linen and towel reuse option and the use of high-efficiency lighting and Energy Star rated appliances, said Butler.
One of the easiest green areas to implement was water conservation.
“Our linen reuse program allows guests to decide if they want the hotel to change the sheets on their beds during their stay, or whether they want to reuse the towels,” Butler said.
To let guests know about the choice, information cards are in every room and a small cardboard “tent” can be placed on the beds or in the bathroom to notify the hotel staff to not change the bed or wash the towels.
The Florida Green Lodging Program was started in March 2004 to establish environmental guidelines for hotels and motels.
Initially, it encouraged the hotel and motel industry to begin conserving natural resources and prevent pollution.
A few years ago, Gov. Charlie Crist signed three executive orders initiating state energy-use policies, including one that requires state agencies and departments to hold meetings and conferences only at hotels with the Florida Green Lodging Program designation by Jan. 1, 2008 — whenever possible.
“We are proud to be the first to earn the One Palm designation in the city,” he said. “We encourage our staff to offer suggestions about additional practices that we can implement as well.”
In addition to the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, three other Lake City hotels have applied for the coveted One Palm certification: Country Inn & Suites; Fairfield Inn & Suites Lake City and Hampton Inn & Suites.
“My hope is that if there are government agencies that are planning meetings in other counties because they have green lodging facilities, that we in turn could attract some of that business,” Butler said.
The Department of Environmental Protection program bestows the certification only on hotels and motels that comply with the program’s “green” requirements.
“The site evaluation was done on Oct. 31,” Holiday Inn General Manager Rod Butler said, noting that the DEP evaluation focused on five areas of the hotel’s operation.
“The evaluation basically breaks down into communication, water conservation, energy efficiency, waste reduction and clean air practices,” Butler said.
The immediate benefit to earning a One Palm designation is that it allows state agencies and departments to hold meetings and conferences at a hotel or motel.
“We had to educate our staff on the practices that we implemented at the hotel, and we had to educate our guests and let them know that we have areas for recycling of waste,” Butler said.
Some of the programs the Holiday Inn has initiated include a recycling program for the staff and guests, bulk purchasing, preventative maintenance, linen and towel reuse option and the use of high-efficiency lighting and Energy Star rated appliances, said Butler.
One of the easiest green areas to implement was water conservation.
“Our linen reuse program allows guests to decide if they want the hotel to change the sheets on their beds during their stay, or whether they want to reuse the towels,” Butler said.
To let guests know about the choice, information cards are in every room and a small cardboard “tent” can be placed on the beds or in the bathroom to notify the hotel staff to not change the bed or wash the towels.
The Florida Green Lodging Program was started in March 2004 to establish environmental guidelines for hotels and motels.
Initially, it encouraged the hotel and motel industry to begin conserving natural resources and prevent pollution.
A few years ago, Gov. Charlie Crist signed three executive orders initiating state energy-use policies, including one that requires state agencies and departments to hold meetings and conferences only at hotels with the Florida Green Lodging Program designation by Jan. 1, 2008 — whenever possible.
“We are proud to be the first to earn the One Palm designation in the city,” he said. “We encourage our staff to offer suggestions about additional practices that we can implement as well.”
In addition to the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, three other Lake City hotels have applied for the coveted One Palm certification: Country Inn & Suites; Fairfield Inn & Suites Lake City and Hampton Inn & Suites.
“My hope is that if there are government agencies that are planning meetings in other counties because they have green lodging facilities, that we in turn could attract some of that business,” Butler said.
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just one columbia countian wrote on Nov 8, 2008 1:33 PM:
My children attend school at Fort White High, and they have a really good recycling program. Perhaps some of the other county schools can take a page out of Fort White's book and start their own recycling program. "