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Today's Date: 2/4/2012

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Hotel Fifty – Sustainability

Sustainable Portland Hotels

In Portland, it isn’t important that businesses and people think and be green (environmentally speaking), it’s nearly a mandate. The fact is, the city of Portland’s substantial efforts at sustainability are evident everywhere. So, when Hotel Fifty proudly outlines its sustainable efforts, it understands it is part of something way bigger.

Even Travel Portland (Portland’s private non-profit destination marketing organization) on its Green Meetings website page encourages meeting planners to Meet Portland. Meet Green. Why, they even boast a Green Meetings Toolkit. To learn more, visit greenmeetings.travelportland.com. Not only that, they’ve posted a list of 142 Portland businesses listed as Green Resources!

So you see, environmental conservation is an essential element of Hotel Fifty’s mission and vision. The hotel embraces green practices across all departments, acknowledging that green initiatives are not only environmentally responsible, but economically beneficial too.

Kermit the Frog was oh so wrong when he sang, “It ain’t easy being green!” It can be when an organization chooses to be. And management and staff at Hotel Fifty, in proud Portland, Oregon tradition, continue to work toward decreasing its hotel global footprint by implementing the following environmentally sustainable features, products and practices (by hotel division):

Rooms Division

• Offer water saving options for sheets and towels in guest rooms
• Repurpose gently-used hygiene products for distribution in impoverished communities worldwide

 **Hotel Fifty has partnered with Gilchrist and Soames’ “Clean the World” program to repurpose gently-used hygiene products for distribution in impoverished communities worldwide. As a partner in the Clean the World program, Hotel Fifty collects gently used soap and shampoo from guest rooms and places them in specialty containers, which are then taken to Clean the World’s Soap Recycling Plant. At the plant, soap is re-batched and sanitized to remove impurities and make it clean and safe for the next user. “Clean The World is providing us with a better alternative to the disposal of partially-used hygiene products,” says Terry Hanley, General Manager of Hotel Fifty. “In addition to cutting back on the amount of waste we send to the landfill, we’re excited about the positive impact that our partnership will have on those who may not have easy access to essential hygiene items.”

• Paperless guest check-in and check-out
• Key cards made from recycled corn products
• Environmentally safe, certified green cleaning products for guest rooms and public areas
• Low-flow toilets and shower heads
• Access to public transportation

****Hotel Fifty is mere steps away from MAX Light Railservice, Portland’s highly touted transportation solution… itself widely renowned for reducing the city’s carbon footprint. TriMet’s MAX (Metropolitan Area Express) Light Rail connects downtown Portland with Beaverton, Clackamas, Gresham, Hillsboro, North/Northeast Portland and the Portland International Airport.And one of several conveniently accessible destinations from Hotel Fifty via MAX is the Oregon Convention Center. Talk about “near-total greenness.” Why, in September 2008, the OCC was recertified with the LEED-EB Silver rating from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), making it the first convention center in the nation to achieve recertification at a higher rating!

Engineering

• Implemented internal policy to turn off lighting and HVAC when guest rooms are not occupied
• Recycle programs for cardboard, paper, aluminum, plastic, toners and printing ink
• Purchase recycled paper and related products

Sales and Marketing

• Sales and Marketing’s salute to sustainability comes through its use of paperless, online promotional sales tools such as eMeetings & Events Guide and Weddings eBrochure. Once paper-trail staples, no more!

Human Resources

• Associate training on hotel ‘green’ practices