The Greenest Hotel in San Francisco!

Greetings, fair readers! It's a beautiful late summer day in downtown San Francisco. Our 105 solar panels are hard at work providing clean energy for Hotel Carlton's 161 guest rooms!

It can be downright dizzying trying to keep track of all of the Carlton's green initiatives and the corresponding recognition and awards from the hospitality community and the federal/municipal government, so this post will be about what makes us the "Greenest" Hotel in San Francisco!

Hotel Carlton strives to incorporate sustainability into our core business operations. Specifically, we use the following policies and practices to be completely carbon neutral:

• Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
• Purchase environmentally-friendly products
• Conserve energy, water, and natural resources
• Generate clean energy through on-site solar production

We increase waste diversion by recycling all paper, bottles, and cans and composting all food and landscape waste. We reduce the waste generated by donating reusable items (furniture, stationary) to charitable organizations.

We minimize the use of toxic materials to protect employee health and the environment. Specifically, we dispose of or recycle toxic products safely, choose less-toxic janitorial cleaning products, recycle waste (lamps, batteries, aerosol cans, and other universal waste), and purchase rechargeable batteries and low-mercury fluorescent lamps when possible.

We purchase/use remanufactured toner cartridges, office and toilet paper with 35% - 100% recycled content, products with minimal packaging (no plastic, styrofoam, or aerosol), Energy Star rated appliances and office equipment, and water-efficient toilets, showerheads, and faucet aerators.

We conserve fossil fuels by promoting the use of public transit, offer telecommuting options, and participate in Spare the Air campaigns (partnering with carbonfund.org).

Operationally, we strive to keep our carbon footprint as small as possible. The Carlton does not have any vending machines in the hotel. Instead, we offer water pitchers in each room and encourage guests to use the filtered water machines on the first and ninth floors. Each shower/bathtub is equipped with dispensers for body wash, shampoo, and conditioner (as opposed to the traditional small bottles). We have a towel/linen re-use program, as we do not automatically wash sheets and towels each day, leaving our guests staying multiple nights the option to use the same sheets and towels until they would like clean replacements. Each guest room also has a blue recycling container, as we encourage our guests to deposit paper and other recyclables in these containers to aid us in our environmentally-responsible efforts.

In recognition for our green initiatives and practices, the Carlton has received several awards:

2007 Certified Green Business by the City of San Francisco
2008 Energy Star Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency
2008 Good Earthkeeping Award from the California Hotel & Lodging Association Stars of the Industry
2009 Hotel Hero Award for Innovation from the Hotel Council of San Francisco
2009 LEED EB Gold Certification from the US Green Building Council
2009 Magellan Award for being an eco-friendly hotel/resort from Travel Weekly

These are listed in the order they were received, but we are most proud of our LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification because we were the first hotel in the United States to earn the rigorous Gold certification.

Hotel Carlton’s general manager, Pam Janusz, is also a YouTube sensation, as she recently gave an interview and tour of the hotel to San Francisco Green Business HQ. Click here to check it out!

Thanks for reading!