Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group manages dozens of premier four star hotels across North America, including Seattle's own Alexis Hotel, Hotel Vintage Park and the Hotel Monaco.

With the help of Resource Venture, all three hotels recently adopted programs to collect food waste from the hotels' restaurant kitchens, lounges and other food areas. This food waste, normally thrown into the garbage and eventually a landfill, will instead be carted away to the largest composting center in America and turned into rich soil amendment.

Environmental improvement is just one of the benefits of diverting waste. According to Carilyn Platt, Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Kimpton, "the Library Bistro at the Alexis was able to recycle and compost 85-90% of their waste, leading to a potential savings of approximately $6500 per year." Kimpton's Hotel Allegro in Chicago implemented a recycling program that saves $400 per week. Similarly, the waste bills for the Villa Florence in San Francisco decreased from $2,800 to $1,000 per month. Clearly, going "green" is saving green cash for Kimpton.

Sustainable Business

Eco-consciousness is nothing new for Kimpton. The company started its first environmental initiatives back in 1985 and currently promotes its activities under the Kimpton EarthCare program. Kimpton EarthCare's mission is to, "Lead the hospitality industry in supporting a sustainable world, by continuing to deliver a premium guest experience through non-intrusive, high quality, eco-friendly products and services."

Some practices adopted at every Kimpton hotel are: Cleaning with environmentally friendly cleaning products, paper recycling, conserving energy via retrofitted light bulbs, implementing low-flow systems for water conservation, recycling coat hangers, offering paperless check-ins/out and eliminating Styrofoam.

What next?

Kimpton Hotel Group is not satisfied resting on its environmental laurels. Chief Operating Officer Niki Leondakis revealed plans in an interview on the EarthCares website to create "Eco Floors" at all 38 of Kimpton Hotels' current properties. According to Niki, these floors will be "offering guests the opportunity to stay in rooms that are specifically designed with conservation in mind."

For more information on EarthCare and Kimpton's Eco-achievements visit: http://www.kimptonhotels.com/cares_earthcare.aspx.