Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Living the Good Life While Doing What's Good for the Planet

That's the concept Fairmont Hotels and Environmental Media Association want to promote in their new partnership. The first item of business: a star-studded event to promote the partnership:
On Sunday, the new partners took time out from their respective day jobs of running luxury green hotels and pitching environmental messages to the TV and movie industry, to host a star-studded "Green Power Baby Shower" at Santa Monica's Fairmont Miramar. Attended by a multi-generational celebrity mix that included "Meet the Parents" actress Blythe Danner, plus Noah Wyle, Laura Dern and Ming-Na, all with families in tow, the event brought eco-chic to everything from safe cleaning to family travel.

Demonstrating that green truly has gone mainstream, the sponsors also covered a lot of ground. Alongside early advocates like Whole Foods Market, Silk soy, and Begley's Best cleaner from actor-advocate Ed Begley Jr., trendsetters like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher also discovered recent global entries including the Toyota Prius, Johnson Seafarms, Ltd.'s introduction of their U.K. salmon, and The Fairmont Mayakoba, opening on Mexico's Riviera Maya this fall.
While I won't say I travel a lot, I've made several trips in the last two months, and continue to notice that the "Green Hotel" concept seems to be catching on. Just recently I've stayed in lodgings ranging from Boston's Lenox Hotel to a Motel 6 outside of Milwaukee, and in both cases I saw heavy promotion of their efforts to conserve energy, for instance. Is the lodging industry ahead of the curve on this?

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