A few weeks back, as the blog launched, I posted a note about the Fairmont Orchid in the Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island. The Orchid has been in the forefront of efforts to reduce energy usage and reliance on chemicals. I stupidly relied on older stories that said the Fairmont was no longer using toxic and environmentally unfriendly cleaning agents and had switched to a lineup of treehugging cleaning products. That may have been the original intention but the reality has been more difficult. An alert reader called me on this story and said the Fairmont was in fact

still using some regular cleaning products. I contacted the hotel and sadly, it's true. The party line is the hotel is still "evaluating" a number of products. The same alert reader then followed with the hotel, again, and told me it was roughly 50-50. Regardless, rather than bash the Fairmont, I'd like to commend them for at least thinking about this. It also illustrates how difficult it is to get hotels clean enough to meet exacting visitor standards using green products. Everyone knows that most green products require a little more elbow grease. That's fine in your house but more difficult when hundreds of rooms need to be cleaned. In any case, hopefully the Orchid will be able to switch over entirely in the future.

—Alex, 09/24/06