Bamboo & Cork Flooring

How often do you take the time to notice flooring? I’m guessing not often.  At the Hotel Felix we want to provide our guests with a comfortable, eco-friendly, environment and that environment includes flooring.  Our use of sustainable and recycled flooring materials is part of the reason why we are Silver LEED certified and Green Seal certified.  If you don’t know much about bamboo or cork flooring, well here’s your chance to learn something new!

photo by danielepesaresi

Bamboo Flooring

• fast growing plant
• harvest replenishes itself within 3-5 years as oppose to the hundred years needed for one tree
• no need for replanting, grows from stem left behind
• little or no pesticides needed
• the Hotel Felix uses bamboo flooring in the Spa

photo by mauroguanandi

Cork Flooring

• it’s “springy” - so it’s perfect for high traffic areas
• made from Cork Oak bark, only the bark is harvested, so the tree remains
• provides insulation, keeping warmth in and acts as a sound barrier
• 9 to 12 years regeneration of bark
• anti-microbial
• the Hotel Felix uses this flooring in the meetings rooms

HAPPY EARTH DAY

photo by flaivoloka

The Hotel Felix isn’t just committed to being green on Earth Day, we are green every day, all day!

The words green, eco-friendly, and sustainability are tossed around casually by some, but at the Hotel Felix, we take being green seriously!  Sustainability isn’t just a word to us, it’s a choice and one we are proud to make.

But what does sustainability and being green mean? As Chicago’s first Silver LEED certified hotel, that means the U.S. Green Building Council inspected the hotel structure and rated it based on several categories: water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, and indoor environmental quality. We are also one of fifteen hotels in Chicago to be awarded the Green Seal Environmental Standard for Lodging - Silver.  The Green Seal certification process reviews several procedures: waste management, energy conservation and management, pollution prevention, and organizational commitment.

At the Hotel Felix you will find:

• compact fluorescent & LED lighting
• natural northern exposure which brings in sunlight and help keep our guests warm in the winter
• use of recycled carpet
• bamboo flooring
• revamped plumbing system
• low flow, high pressure shower heads
• on site recycling program
• organic and/or recycled artwork

You can read more about the green initiatives at the Hotel Felix here.

Hotel Felix Earns Green Seal Certification

We’re thrilled to announce that we received the Green Seal Environmental Standard for Lodging - Silver certification this week. This adds us to an elite group of hotels nationally to earn this certification.

The certification process takes three months minimum and includes nearly three dozen environmentally responsible criteria for lodging properties.

Green Seal is a national nonprofit organization that provides scientific-based environmental standards in this increasingly competitive marketplace. To learn more about Green Seal, please visit www.greenseal.org

Hotel Felix Receives Green Seal Certification

Kermit was wrong; It is easy being green

Having worked in the hotel industry for many years, I’ve been under the impression that being a green business was both difficult & expensive. The logic that you couldn’t possibly be green with hundreds of thousands of people through your halls every year is prevalent amoungst hoteliers. We were very, very wrong.

Currently, almost every one of our vendors have green options. There are Green Seal chemicals, bleach-free products, recyclable cups for coffee, mops made of plastic bottles & even plates that melt to a recyclable state when put in sunlight. How cool is that? Those icky blue bins that take away from the aesthetics of a room….they aren’t your only option anymore. Now, you can buy trash cans that are made of bamboo or recycled metals that have multiple liners in them for trash & recyclables. Did you know that white paper towels can’t be recycled because they have bleach in them? The only option before was to use brown paper towels.  Now there are paper towels made of recycled paper that have attractive designs on them.

So no more excuses hoteliers. Now we can have our hotel attractive & care for the environment too. Turns out being green IS easy. Sorry Kermit.

(JB)