DENVER, April 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Westin Denver Downtown was recently honored by HOST HOTELS & RESORTS for a sustainability award recognizing the hotel for a tradition of commitment to environmental responsibility.  The hotel's associates have made numerous commitments to reducing impact to the environment such as partnering with A1 Organics on a compost program; established on-line in-room dining menu and guest directory; moving from Styrofoam and plastics to soy or corn based packaging for to-go/box meals and recycling in all 430 guestrooms, public and back-of-the-house space. For Earth Day, the latest sustainability initiative is providing biodegradable wooden key cards to all hotel guests. The cards are made by Colorado based Sustainable Cards, the world leader in producing wooden hotel-key cards.

"As climate change has emerged as a dominant environmental issue, it has become clear that forests and forest products can be an important part of the solution," states Chuck Schuringa, The Westin Denver Downtown's director of operations and Green Team leader.  He continued that sustainable forestry and forest products help to reduce or prevent greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which are thought to be a cause of climate change.

Sustainably become a hotel commitment during the Democratic National Convention when the hotel staff was challenged to reduce water use. At that time, the hotel implemented new water saving shower heads which led to the hotel receiving the "Watts to Water" award from the City of Denver. The award is given for excellence in conservation for significant savings in water and energy usage.

"Green is important to meeting planners," states Tracy Blair, The Westin Denver Downtown's director of sales and marketing. "Our sales and catering teams use sustainably awards and recognition as part of our sales presentation."  Blair continued that sustainability efforts are often as important to a group customer as the size or number of meetings rooms."

Additionally, The Westin recently installed Aqua Recycle which reduces water consumption in the hotel laundry by 80%.  At that same time, the hotel acquired kitchen equipment that reduces energy consumption up to 25%; an added benefit is that the equipment has a quicker preparation time reducing guest wait.

The Westin Denver Downtown is located at 1672 Lawrence Street. See www.westindenverdowntown.com for additional information.

SOURCE The Westin Denver Downtown