An Earth Day Worth Celebrating

Happy Earth Day! For someone who edits and publishes a green publication--Green Lodging News--Earth Day is the best day of the year and certainly worthy of being a national holiday. Ideally, Earth Day should be a day when all of us volunteer to help clean up our planet and commit to being better stewards of the natural resources Mother Nature provides us.

I have been swamped with press releases the last few weeks from properties announcing Earth Day commitments and celebrations. Here are just a few examples:

• Hyatt Regency Aruba is holding an Earth Week. The property already hosted a trade show for local businesses to showcase their environmentally friendly products. Today, the property will have a tree planting.
• At Grand Velas All Suites & Spa Resort Riviera Maya, guests will tour the resort grounds and learn about the native flora and fauna and plant mangrove trees. Children will have an opportunity to create artwork using recycled newspapers and plastic bottles.
• The Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake hosted a day of activities including a T-shirt design contest, aluminum can recycling drive, and group cleanup of Geneva State Park.
• Accor North America is holding its annual Accor Earth Guest Day. Activities include the cleaning up of local parks, collecting items for recycling, planting hundreds of trees, donating clothes and toys, and collection of used linens for donation.
• In recognition of Earth Day and Arbor Day (April 30), students at partner schools of Doubletree hotels are committing to complete a series of "Tree Task of the Day" activities--everything from creating a recycling bin at home to creatively repurposing paper bags.
• Chefs and other culinary officials who work for Delaware North Companies are pledging to refrain from using 90 percent of the fish and seafood species that are listed on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch "avoid" list.
• Atmosphere Hospitality Management announced its new Adoba Eco Hotel & Suites brand. Each will be built to earn LEED Gold or Platinum certification.
• Hilton New York team members and their families will participate in an Earth Day tree planting on Randall's Island.
• Great Wolf Resorts is celebrating the one-year anniversary of earning Green Seal certification for all of its properties.
• Pineapple Hospitality has launched a new website called GreenerHotels.com. Hotels will have to be certified by one or more of six certification programs to be listed on the site.

These are just some of the activities that have already taken place or will be taking place. This year's Earth Day is the 40th one. Be sure to take some time to think about what you can do to lighten your property's environmental footprint in the coming year. Once again, happy Earth Day!