The State Helps NJ Hotels Go Green

New Jersey's Hospitality Industry will be getting a little help in going green this week from the state.The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Garden State Green Hotels project will be hosting its first Green Hotels Workshop on Friday October 19th at Atlantic Cape Community College.

Ky Asral, Manager for the D-E-P's Hotel Grant, says participants will learn about the programs that can actually help them go green. He says "having an engineer come out, working with our New Jersey Clean Energy Program to get the savings that we can actually offer them, to also learn about worker training that's available. These are all things that we'll be going over at the workshop. Plus there's going to be a panel of General Managers who've already gone through the greening process."

Asral says going green isn't something that's regulatory or required of New Jersey's Hotels but it does help the environment, it reduces the burden on our electric grid and he says it actually saves facilities money. He says during the workshop, they'll be prepared to show hotel owners and operators how much money they can save by going green. He says they'll also tell them about grants being offered by the State Board of Public Utilities and the New Jersey Clean Energy Program that can help them pay 70 percent of the cost of upgrades.

He says they'll also be showing the hotel owners and operators that 'Green Hotels' are actually achieving a higher degree of customer satisfaction.

The workshop is a part of the Garden State Hotels Project that was launched by the NJDEP in April in conjunction with several state and federal agencies. The Department says the project is designed to assist New Jersey hotel owners and operators increase energy efficiency and cost savings through the utilization of green practices.

The workshop is being held at the Walter Edge Theater on the Mays Landing campus of Atlantic Cape Community College from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon. To register call Atlantic Cape Community College at 609-343-4829 or fax the registration form found at Here to 609-343-4807.

For more information on the Garden state Hotel Project, visit: http://www.nj.gov/dep/sage/green-hotels.html