In honor of Earth Day, here's a look at new Orlando restaurants, corporate event venues, hotels, conference centers, and private rooms that factor the environment into their design or operations. Many of these new and renovated Orlando venues have LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council or another certification group. They can accommodate groups large or small for private and corporate events, conferences, meetings, weddings, business dinners, teambuilding activities, cocktail parties, and more.
An urban garden in front of East End Market is filled with edible plants and varietals that require a minimal amount of irrigation. Upcoming sustainability initiatives at the space include the addition of solar panels, a windmill for pumping water to irrigate the garden, and a cistern for harvesting rainwater. The market is an adaptive reuse project that turned a vacant church building into a market of local vendors and a multipurpose event space upstairs. During construction, energy-efficient updates included re-insulating the ceiling and adding double-pane windows. Materials from other unused facilities on the property were also incorporated into the new facility, such as siding from an old barn.
Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate received its Two Palm Certification from the Florida Green Lodging Program in March. The program recognizes lodging facilities that make a commitment to conserve and protect Florida’s natural resources. Rather than sending them to a landfill, the resort recycles televisions, refrigerators, and other electronic items. It also has installed low-flow faucets, toilets, and showerheads. For meetings, the resort offers eco-friendly options such as wipe-off boards for signage, water coolers instead of individual bottles, and organic food in catering menus. The property has 720 rooms and more than 125,000 square feet of flexible event space.
Shake Shack opened in Winter Park in July on the shore of Lake Killarney with seating for 110 people. The interior walls are covered with century-old lumber that was salvaged from northern Florida’s Suwanee River. Chairs and booths are made from lumber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and tabletops are made from reclaimed bowling alley lanes. The fast-casual restaurant also has energy-efficient kitchen equipment and lighting. On the lakefront patio, guests will find Adirondack-style chairs, a fire pit, and ping-pong tables.
Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center is working with My Yard Farms to create a culinary garden and outdoor kitchen. The garden will be located in the resort’s 12,000-square-foot Coquina Lawn event space and will be used for receptions, wine tastings, chef's dinners, and more. Ingredients will also be incorporated into menu items at new restaurant Moor, scheduled to open in May. The property has a variety of other energy-efficiency measures in place which a spokesperson says have saved more than 280,000 gallons of water and more than 4,000 gallons of oil since the start of this year. The resort has more than 400,000 square feet of event space. The largest room holds as many as 5,500 people.
The $500 million Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts opened in November in downtown Orlando and is seeking LEED certification. During the three-year construction of the 330,000-square-foot facility, more than 75 percent of the waste generated—about four million pounds in all—was repurposed and diverted from the landfill. Workers used low-emission paint, adhesives, and other coatings, and the venue’s janitorial staff uses eco-friendly cleaning products. Low-flow plumbing fixtures throughout the venue use about 40 percent less water than conventional plumbing. The center has two performance theaters, a community theater, an outdoor plaza, and classrooms.
The Orange County Convention Center has LEED Gold certification and was the first convention center in the United States to become ISO certified for the implementation of an environmental management system. New initiatives include a partnership with Harvest Power to turn food waste into electric power and fertilizer, plus a partnership with Duke Energy to use Smart Meter data to better manage energy usage. The convention center has also developed educational videos for attendees and new containers for show workers to deposit recyclable materials, which have improved its average recycling rate per event to 75 percent.
Grande Lakes Orlando Resort, which includes the JW Marriott Orlando and the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, began working with Harvest Power in 2014, resulting in the recycling of 168 pounds of food waste to date. Future plans include using the recycled materials in the soil at the resort's Whisper Creek Farm. The farm supplies many ingredients to the restaurants on the property, including the new Whisper Creek Farm: The Kitchen that opened April 18, and Highball & Harvest, which opened in September.
A multimillion-dollar renovation at the Wyndham Orlando Resort International Drive that was completed in November 2014 included the installation of energy-saving LED lighting in the meeting rooms and other areas of the property. The hotel also added electric golf carts, high-efficiency air-conditioning units, low-flow faucets and toilets in the 613 guest rooms, and programmable thermostats in meeting rooms. The renovation project added 10,000 square feet of meeting space to the property.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts turned Tampa’s century-old federal courthouse into Le Méridien Tampa, which opened in July. During the $26 million renovation, elements of the original courthouse were preserved, including the marble and terrazzo lobby as well as oak door frames and window casings. The hotel offers Starwood’s sustainable meetings services, including offering paperless meeting planning and food from local vendors. The hotel also donates excess food from banquets to the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity and Metropolitan Ministries, an organization that works with homeless families. That organization also receives towels and linens that the hotel can no longer use. The 130-room hotel has 4,000 square feet of event space.
Aloft Orlando Downtown is on pace to receive LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, based on its use of eco-friendly materials and mechanical systems. The hotel opened in 2013 in the former Orlando Utilities Commission building. Terrazzo floors, marble walls, and teak wood paneling from the original structure were preserved in the renovation. The hotel also is equipped with solar panels for water heating, occupancy sensors, and high-efficiency lighting. The Starwood property has 118 guest rooms and 7,000 square feet of event space, including three meeting rooms and seven boardrooms.
