America's First Certified Green Restaurant Hotel Chain

The InterContinental Hotels & Resorts brand has been named the nation's first Certified Green restaurant hotel chain by the Green Restaurant Association (GRA). The hotel chain, based in the U.S. and Canada, has made sure all of its corporately managed restaurants have become Certified Green Restaurants.

The company began the process in 2011, when the InterContinental Boston hotel's Miel Brasserie Provençale was the first restaurant to receive the certification. Today, it has 26 restaurants certified throughout its properties. The GRA has certified each restaurant by evaluating environmental categories including energy, water, waste, food, packaging, chemicals, and building materials.

"The sheer positive environmental impact of the InterContinental Hotels and Resorts becoming Certified Green Restaurants is huge in terms of the energy saved, water conserved, safer chemicals used, waste diverted, sustainable food consumed, and green packaging employed," said Michael Oshman, founder and CEO of the Green Restaurant Association. "IHG Hotels is making an equally large environmental impact by succeeding in becoming the first hotel chain to achieve this goal, and sending a message to the marketplace of how feasible this is."

In the InterContinental's San Francisco location, Luce restaurant reached the three-star Certified Green Restaurant level due to its renewal energy initiatives and its superefficient spray valves that use less than 1 gallon per minute.

Additionally, Michael Jordan's Chicago Steakhouse is raising the bar in the environmental category due to chemical and pollution reduction by providing electric vehicle charging stations for green-minded diners.