Sustainable Key Card introduced for Inn at Laguna Beach as part of Renovation

Renovated guest room

The Inn at Laguna Beach, undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation, is the first hotel in the city to implement 100 percent renewable wood key cards, completely eliminating plastic key cards. The Nordic birch wood, used for the key cards, is harvested from certified sustainably managed forests in Europe which reduces the carbon footprint by lowering CO2 emissions. These PVC-free biodegradable wood key cards also help reduce oil-based plastic waste.

Sustainable Key Card

"We are the first and currently the only hotel in Laguna that has purchased this key," said Inn at Laguna Beach General Manager Peggy Trott. "With our hotel overlooking the Pacific coastline and direct access to the beach, we want to do everything we can to offer guests a memorable and environmentally conscious experience."

View from guest room

Sustainability plays a large role in the hotel's renovation, which includes all 70 guest rooms, the lobby, Pacific Room, Pacific Terrace, and the pool and pool deck. The renovation began February 29, 2012; the first two phases will be completed the week of April 22, with the third phase scheduled to be finished the first week of June.
Renovations:

• Guest rooms: The beach chic theme, both functional and reflective of an ocean front hotel, utilizes soothing warm colors, a mixture of bamboo and rattan furniture, and new carpet exuding a residential feel. Low VOC paint was used on the walls. Dual flush toilets and low flow, top-of-the-line, Speakman shower heads were installed in the bathrooms, along with new glass shower doors and 30% recycled material tiles throughout. There is also an in-room recycling program. A reusable aluminum water bottle is offered for guest purchase with an in-room refillable water station.
• Lobby: New furniture and fixtures.
• Pacific Room: This meeting space which accommodates up to 50 guests, has new furniture and carpet.
• Pacific Terrace on the 4th floor: New furniture and a fire pit.
• Pool Area and Deck: New red brick and a re-plastering of the pool with new pool tiles. (to be completed in phase 3)

"The sustainability aspect of the key card as well as the renovation aligns with our overall vision. It is a perfect match with the Inn at Laguna's participation in the international 'Clean the World' project," Trott said.

About Clean the World
Clean the World recycles hotel guest room hygiene items at its Recycling Operations Center and distributes them for humanitarian purposes with partnering nonprofit organizations. The items are distributed domestically and to children and families in communities around the globe. Laguna Beach became the first City nationwide in 2011 to adopt the program for all of its hotel properties. 

Laguna Beach Becomes First to Partner Citywide with Clean the World

Now 22 hotels and lodging properties know that recycling soap to save lives is something they can all agree on.
The Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau (LBVCB) announced today that all of the hospitality industry lodging properties with 20 rooms or more in this picturesque, coastal Orange County city have partnered with Clean the World Global LLC, a social enterprise committed to saving lives and protecting our planet. Hospitality partners here will collect and recycle hotel soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions and gels to help fight the global spread of preventable diseases.

Laguna Beach has 18 hotel and lodging properties with 20 rooms or more and four properties with less than 20 rooms that have joined the Clean the World hospitality partnership program. These properties include Aliso Creek Inn, Art Hotel Laguna Beach, Best Western Plus Laguna Brisas Spa Hotel, Capri Laguna, Carriage House, Casa Laguna Inn, Crescent Bay Inn, Holiday Inn Laguna Beach, Hotel Laguna, Inn at Laguna Beach, La Casa del Camino, Laguna Beach Inn, Laguna Cliffs Inn, Laguna Riviera, Montage Laguna Beach, Pacific Edge Hotel, Seacliff Laguna Inn, Sunset Cove Villas, Surf & Sand Resort and Spa, The Tides Laguna Beach, The Retreat, and Travelodge Laguna Beach. The properties represent more than 1,200 guest rooms in Laguna Beach.

Clean the World has hospitality partnerships with more than 1,200 hotel properties throughout North America, including 143 partners in California. Clean the World’s California hospitality partners have contributed 70,329 lbs. of soap and 67,844 lbs. of bottled amenities since the organization’s founding in 2009. That equates to 375,088 bars (3 oz. apiece), which is enough to provide 75,018 children with enough soap for an entire month.

This program symbolizes the LBVCB’s hospitality partners ongoing commitment to sustainable and environmental programs, the reduction of hotel waste in local landfills, and the benefits of recycling hotel soaps and bottled amenities (shampoos, conditioners, lotions and gels) as hygiene products to benefit children and families in need.

Clean the World is the largest global recycler of hotel amenities, and in just two years of operation has distributed more than 9 million bars of soap to children and families in the United States, Canada and more than 45 countries worldwide, while also fulfilling a valuable environmental mission by diverting an estimated 600 tons of hotel waste from polluting landfills in the United States and Canada.

“We’re impressed by the efforts of Clean the World and wanted to show our support in a unique way by becoming the first citywide program to embrace its lifesaving mission,” says Judy Bijlani, President/CEO of the Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau. “Our seaside village is an inviting retreat for art lovers, environmentalists and beach enthusiasts, and the idea of recycling soaps and protecting our planet is something we wholeheartedly support.”

Each day 9,000 children around the world die from diseases such as acute respiratory illness and diarrheal diseases that can be prevented by washing with bar soap. Clean the World has a mission to put soap in the hands of people who need it most to improve hygiene and sanitation conditions to lessen the impact of disease and promote better hygiene and living conditions worldwide.

“Laguna Beach is Southern California’s premier seaside destination, and a city deserving of praise for its promotion of sustainability and social responsibility,” says Shawn Seipler, CEO and co-founder of Clean the World. “Our hotel partners in Laguna Beach should be applauded for their collaboration on this unique partnership and its distinction of being our first municipality to embrace Clean the World’s mission to recycle soap and save lives. I hope the efforts of the LBVCB will inspire other communities, municipalities and cities to do the same.”


About Clean the World Global LLC Clean the World Global LLC is a social enterprise committed to saving lives and protecting our planet. It offers sustainable, socially responsible, and charitable programs and services to the international hospitality community. Clean the World Foundation Inc. is the 501 (c) (3) charitable arm of Clean the World Inc. As a private foundation Clean the World Foundation Inc. executes its mission of saving millions of lives around the globe by leading a global hygiene revolution to distribute recycled soap and hygiene products to children and families suffering from high death rates due to the top two killers of children worldwide – acute respiratory infection (pneumonia) and diarrheal diseases (cholera). For more information visit: http://www.cleantheworld.org/. Text CLEAN to 20222 to donate $10 to help Clean the World.

For more information about LBVCB and members working toward sustainability and socially responsible programs, please visit: http://www.greenlagunabeach.com/.