In an effort to green its properties across the Americas, InterContinental Hotel Group is now branding 26 of its in-hotel restaurants in its nine-brand portfolio as “certified green.” Maury Zimring, the  Director of Corporate Responsibility and Environmental Sustainability at IHG, turned to the Green Restaurant Association for guidance using its holistic green certification program. GRA founder Michael Oshman embraced the partnership, and what began as a single certification at IHG’s Boston property has blossomed outward.

“When people see InterContinental doing this, they say, ‘This is a highly successful brand, and if they’re doing this, maybe our brand can, too,’” Oshman says. “It’s likely that InterContinental will see the leadership of their steps having a wonderful impact on the industry as a whole.”

“We realized that the restaurant space on property was a unique space, different from the rest of the hotel,” Zimring explains. “There is a lot of potential energy, water [and] waste consumption, and there is a lot of opportunity to do something about that.”

Long an automotive innovator, Ford continues to test many great ways to reuse items one might not typically see in a vehicle. Carrie Majeske, Ford’s Manager of Sustainable and Safety Engineering, is in charge of thinking outside the box on ways to advance the environmental and vehicular safety sectors. Some recent tests included using wheat straw as a plastics reinforcer in cargo bins, using cellulose as a plastics reinforcer, and using coconut “hairs” as trunk lining materials. Other ideas that could potentially pop up in Ford vehicles in the future: using dandelions to create sustainable rubber and using retired U.S. currency as a reinforcer in coin trays.

“We are trying to share the learnings on human rights, energy and environment with our supply chain, so not only are we helping the environment, but we are helping them to have the same standards and the same practices,” Majeske reports. “We’re learning from them, and they’re learning from us.”