Resource Tracking Tool (RTT) User Guide

Have you been having trouble using HospitalityGreen’s Resource Tracking Tool (RTT)? Don’t fret! Help is on the way.

An e-mail has been sent to all GC Participants with a User Guide for using the RTT. It also includes directions for making a report using the tool and steps for auditing data entry.

So be sure to keep a lookout for the RTT User Guide from go.green@hospitalitygreen.com. It might also be helpful to add the e-mail address to your contact to be sure our e-mails do not end up in your spam folder. Plus, it provides you with an easy way to send all of your sustainable business and Green Concierge questions directly to us.

The Perfect Bulb

We at HospitalityGreen have been hard at work finding the perfect energy-efficient light bulbs for our Green Concierge Participants. We can confidently conclude that TCP, based out of Aurora, Ohio, has one of the best products on the market. They have numerous combinations of instant-on, dimmable LED and CFL bulbs that produce a much truer light than their incandescent counterparts.

Best of all, these products are available through a local distributor- Ulster Electric! Preston Woolheater of Ulster Electric has provided us with a special price exclusively for properties participating in the GC program.

Check out our Lighting Fact Sheet here.

Questions?

HospitalityGreen

go.green@hospitalitygreen.com

(845) 436-6173

Ulster Electric

Preston Woolheater

pwoolheater@ulsterelectric.com

(845) 331-5653

New electronic recycling law passed by DEC

As of April 1, 2011, new regulation passed by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation now requires all manufacturers of covered electronic equipment (CEE) to accept unwanted items (free of charge) from consumers for collection, handling, recycling or reuse.

Accepted items include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Computers
• Televisions
• Cathode ray tubes
• Small scale servers
• Computer peripherals
• Keyboards
• Computer Mice
• Scanners
• Printers
• VCRs and DVD players
• Cable/satellite receivers
• And more...

Please take full advantage of this new regulation as state waste sites and collection companies will soon no longer accept electronic waste. Feel free to contact any CEE manufacturer for further collection details or visit the DEC website for more information at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/65583.html

Product Stewardship & Waste Reduction Section
Division of Materials Management
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233-7253
518-402-8706

Dear GC Participants
As you might know, Roscoe, the town in Sullivan County is in the finals for winning the title of Ultimate Fishing Town, USA. One more round to go.

But we are in a dog fight with Waddington, NY “Carp Capital.”
We need your votes in the final round starting at Noon on May 10th and continuing through May 31st.

We are mobilizing our efforts. In order for Roscoe to win the title, prize and publicity for Roscoe, Sullivan County and the entire Catskill Region, we need each and every participant in the Green Concierge project to vote the maximum number of times with the World Fishing Network.

Knowing that you are busy, the Roscoe Chamber, Phil Vallone, Rolling V and the Sullivan County Visitor's Association are offering to vote in the final round for you 4x’s a day through the upcoming final round.

So here is what you can do to help. If you have already registered, just send Phyllis Andrews at pla@scva.net your (registered) email address(es), and they will make sure that your email addresses are voted the total 4 times daily starting with May 10.

If you haven’t yet registered to vote in this contest, on May 10 do the following:

~ Go to www.wfnfishingtown.com
~ Cast your vote for Roscoe
~ You will receive an email from WFN to verify your email by simply responding to their email
~ Repeat this process for every email account you have
~ IMPORTANT: Send your registered email addresses to us ASAP (via return email) so we can vote for you

EXAMPLE OF INFORMATION WE NEED
Tina tina@gmail.com,
Tina Tourist tina@yahoo.com
Tom & Tina tinat@gmail.com

HospitalityGreen has pledged to put its full participation from participating GC properties into this effort. Believe me, we would do the same for each of you. Let's do whatever we can to 'bring home the fish' to the Catskill's Region.

Thank you and stay posted.

Getting the word out - Part 2 - 3/30 Meeting

Now that you've patiently answered our questions about your lighting and water usage, let us poke around in your cleaning supply closets, and have begun logging your recycling quantities into the Resource Tracking Tool- what happens now?

Despite the un-sexy nature of tallying how many low flush toilets you have and what kind of office paper you buy, these actions have allowed us both to gain an understanding of your operational practices and how they relate to achieving certification in the Green Concierge program. Many of you have already made conscientious choices in the name of saving money or resources, in ways that complement our certification standards. So let us help you reach for the first level, the bronze level, of certification.

Hospitality Green has begun promoting your properties as Phase 1 participants in the GC Certification. Your commitment of working towards becoming a bronze level certified Green Concierge property will continue to open doors through our marketing efforts. We've gathered helpful "green" marketing tips and called it our Green Marketing Fact Sheet, which will help you reach audiences who are interested in eco lodging. Use the Green Marketing Fact Sheet to augment your marketing campaigns. Through your existing channels promote your involvement as a Phase 1 participant in the GC certification.

One of the very useful marketing resources we found is a reputable national green travel guide called Green Lodge. Green Lodge is the guide to green hotels. The site caters to eco-savy travelers looking to find green hotel options and reduce their carbon footprint while traveling. The Green Lodge website is designed to be a one-stop shop for researching and booking a green hotel -giving the traveler the information and resources to make the best choice for their next hotel stay. Their on line guide provides detailed information on the eco-habits and practices of each hotel and clearly states the certification program associated with the individual hotel. In order for the hotel to be listed in their on line guide, Green Lodge conducts an independent audit of the certification program as well as requires annual documentation from the certification program on the property.

In March GreenLodge has audited and has recognized the Green Concierge certification to be of high quality and has rated our certification in an elite category of third party certification programs at their silver level. With the submittal of our facility report, GreenLodge will list our three tiers (bronze, silver and gold) certified properties in their online guide of eco-properties.

To help your customer's understanding of the program and your'green'practices and to uphold the integrity of the GC program, your property's "Green Page" is in development. Your "Green Page" intended to be located on your website, will display your Environmental Policy, highlight your sustainable practices, and explain the Green Concierge certification. As a participant in Phase 1 and while working towards bronze level certification in 2011, you will be able to display the GC "birdie" icon next to your name wherever it appears in any promotional materials, and online.

Please make sure to fax your choice of verbiage for your Environmental Policy. Displaying an environmental policy is a requirement for GC Bronze level certification. We also need the short marketing survey faxed back to us on or before April 15th.

If you weren't at the meeting, we regret that you weren't there. You missed a great meeting. We will be sending you a packet of material. Please make sure to fax back the information we need right away. If you have not attended a meeting, it is required that every facility attend a minimum of one meeting this year. Please plan to be there or send a representative to the May meeting. The date will be scheduled later in the month of April.

In the meantime, familiarize yourself with the 3 Tiers of GC certification standards, which can be found in print in your blue folders, or by visiting the Green Concierge website and signing in. Once you're logged in to your site, you can click on "GC Certification Standards" under Facility Documents, and then click the link" GC Green Lodging Standards" in the next page. That will show you the 3 levels of certification- Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Also, be sure to log your recycling, reuse and waste diversion information into the Resource Tracking Tool (RTT), also on your facility page on the Green Concierge website. We are here to assist you with any issues you may have with the RTT, so please let us know!

We can be reached by email at go.green@hospitalitygreen.com or by calling the office at (845).436.6173.

Green Concierge participants come together at Hunter Mountain-Part 1

Catskill Lodging owners in the Green Concierge program showing off their Welcome to the Watershed certificates at Hunter Mountain's Kaatskill Mountain Club Hotel

The Green Concierge lodging operators truly are ambassadors of the Catskill Watershed and were recognized for it by Catskill Watershed Corporation's Diane Galusha.In photo, back row, left to right: Jay Frischman of Alport Plumbing Supply, Rick Remsyder of Ulster County Tourism, Kurt Goettsche & Eric Goettsche of Thompson House, Ron Landstrom of Point Lookout Mountain Inn, Kevin Kraft of Lifebridge Sanctuary, Denise Owens of Frost Valley YMCA, Mary O'Connor of Jimmy O'Connor's Mountain Inn, Sara Loughlin of Phonecia Lodge & Cabins, Katy Bray of Skylake Lodge, Sam Scoggins of Stone House B&B, Rick Rasmussen of Hotel Vienna, Evadne Giannini of Hospitality Green, Ruth Christman of Christman's Windham Inn & Golf Resort, Warren Hart ofGreene County Tourism. Front row, left to right: Cara Danzig of Kaatskill Mountain Club, Carol Molnar and Peter Molnar of Margaretville Motel and Margaretville Mountain Inn, Kelly Coughlin of Rosehaven Inn, Stefania Jozic of Washington Irving Inn and Diane Galusha of Catskill Watershed Corporation.

We accomplished a lot in our 2 hour meeting at Hunter, thanks to the support and staff at Kaatskill Mountain Club, and to all who came to engage in the discussion. We focused on cleaning products and environmentally preferable purchasing in the first half of the meeting, and the second half on the phase 1 certification commitment and marketing the Green Concierge properties. This posting is organized to provide the purchasing info that was shared in the meeting. A follow up post will address the second half of the meeting.

Certified "Green" Cleaning products-how to find options locally?

Pictured left to right are Simple Green Naturals, Ace Brand Concentrated Peroxide Cleaner, the same cleaner diluted and ready to use in a 32 oz re-fillable spray bottle, and the Johnson Diversey Concentrated all purpose cleaner. (Not pictured is the Clorox Greenworks product, which have recently been GS certified) If you are a smaller facility, it makes more sense to go with a ready to use or a concentrated cleaner you can dilute easily with basic materials, like the small measuring cup pictured. Concentrated cleaners are where you can save $$ though, as the product is diluted with either 32 or 64 parts water! Currently the Ace Cleaner sells for $19 at Ace Hardware Stores, and one container of concentrate makes 64 refillable spray bottles! Simple Green Naturals and Clorox Greenworks are available at Lowe's in Kingston. Johnson Diversey (JD) products are an economical choice for larger properties who go through

alot of chemical, as they are also diluted with 32 or 64 parts water. For Technical Assistance with the JD cleaners, contact Diana Dissen: Customer Support Diversey, Inc. diana.dissen@diversey.com, 1-800-558-2332 ext 5. The products can be found through hill & markes distribution network, by contacting our hill & markes representative Diane Tangredi: dtangredi@hillnmarkes.com.

So, how can you tell if a product on a shelf is Green Seal Certified?

At right you can see a close up of the labels on the 2 products mentioned earlier. If you don't see the Green Seal logo on the label, the product hasn't been certified by Green Seal. Similarly, in the green folders which were handed out at the meeting, there is a page showing common symbols for all kinds of products, to help you identify ones which have been certified by a legitimate agency. We will soon be posting these handouts on the Green Concierge website. Also, GreenSeal's website can aid in determining if a product you've bought is in fact GS-37 certified. Click "find the Green Seal" to search for products. If you see it listed, its Green Seal certified!

Recycling results quadrupled for Hotel Vienna after they placed the small blue Busch recycling bins in their guest rooms. We find most people will comply if recycling bins are accessible and visible. We recommend consistency by placing a clearly marked recycling container to the left of a trash container, so recycling becomes second nature to guests and staff alike! As a participant in the Green Concierge program, Busch bins can be ordered by filling in the order form available on the http://the-green-concierge.com website. Log on to your page and click on "Participating Businesses." To order Busch bins of any size, visit www.buschsystems.com or email busch@buschsystems.com

Non toxic mattresses were located for and tested by Lifebridge Sanctuary, who was happy to report the new chemical free mattresses they purchased from Keetsa have been great. Kevin and Barbara worked a nice deal with Keetsa, who gave them a discount as they were purchasing 10+mattresses. You can visit Keetsa's website here or call the NYC store and speak with Stephen Andrieux, 212-343-0333, steve@keetsa.com. Keetsa's store is located at 69 Mercer St. ground floor, NY, NY 10012. And, Lifebridge was able to donate their old futon mattresses to the local social services agency, listed in their Soft Goods Fact Sheet!

Insulating old buildings = heating cost savings Phonecia Lodge reported that insulating their 1930's &40's-era buildings resulted in dramatic savings on their heating bills. They were able to finance this undertaking with low interest loan incentives offered by NYSERDA and Ulster Savings Bank, which they saw immediate payback for when cold weather arrived. We realize state and federal funding for such projects has diminished since then, and will do our best to alert you to new incentives for your energy upgrades. Its good to establish a relationship with NYSERDA, as some of you already have, in the form of an energy audit. This can help initiate the process of energy upgrades specific to your facility. Contact NYSERDA regarding an audit by visiting here

Assistance was asked for in locating environmentally preferable products (EPP) for laundry detergent, ice melter and trash bags. The next time you're out shopping, see what your local store offers for "green" or "environmentally friendly" products. Make a note of the brand name. The EcoLogo website is a fabulous user friendly site that allows one to search for all kinds of product by type and brand name. If you see a product listed there from your local store, its a match! We will continue to locate local sources for reputable products, and will do our best to alert you to them.

Part Two, Marketing to follow in next post...

HospitalityGreen’s Green Concierge Project Seeks Two Summer Interns

Immediate opening for Two Summer Interns to work with hospitality businesses throughout the Catskill Watershed

HospitalityGreen LLC (HG) is providing an excellent opportunity for two interns to learn and gain experience working with owners and operators in the hospitality industry, promoting and implementing sustainable business practices. Our interns assume a diversity of responsibilities including: answering and researching questions regarding sustainable hotel operations, serving as an HG representative throughout the business community, developing informational material for blog postings, conducting on site assessments and trouble shooting.
There are also multiple opportunities for the development of special projects and PT and FT work depending upon the interest and qualifications of the chosen candidates.

Qualifications
• Must have an insured car and a valid driver’s license
• Educational background in the natural sciences, the hospitality industry, sustainability management, environmental education, or related field.
• Previous experience working with businesses.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, comfortable speaking with business and facility operators, and a professional appearance
• High level of organizational skills to effectively administer the diverse demands of the job, as well as work independently and keep detailed records and receipts
• Motivated, enthusiastic, creative, and willing to work with large and small businesses and independently travel throughout the Catskill Watershed
• Must be able to execute in depth internet research and be facile in MS Word, excel and ppt.
• Familiarity with the Catskills or map skills a plus and love of mountains and clean streams a MUST!
Position: Green Concierge Summer Interns (2)
Location: 35 Main Street, Mountaindale, NY 12763
Position Dates: late May – late August
Work Schedule: 20-24 hours per week / flexible schedule is acceptable
Compensation: Reimbursement for all travel and client visit expenses, private apartment in Mountaindale, $500 stipend, academic credit, extensive B to B experience, opportunity to attend all HG trainings w/out charge, chance to spend the summer traveling throughout and working in an incredibly beautiful place!
Closing date: April 22, 2011 or until filled
For more information or to apply, please email or mail a resume and a brief letter of inquiry or interest to:
Evadne Giannini, Green Concierge Program Director
HospitalityGreen LLC
PO Box 222, 35 Main Street
Mountaindale, NY 12763
e.giannini@hospitalitygreen.com
www.hospitalitygreen.com