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MA GREEN

March 31, 2010

Join MOTT’s new green program

MOTT’s new green hospitality program, MA GREEN, provides MLA lodging members the opportunity to connect with eco-conscious travelers.

For visitors, MA GREEN provides online information about travel businesses’ environmental practices. And it tells visitors how to see green programs in action, how to be a green traveler, and how to enjoy the land, lakes, rivers, and ocean that have been preserved for visitors and residents to enjoy. Visitor content will be accessible from the MA GREEN logo on the home page of massvacation.com.

For travel businesses, MA GREEN provides all Massachusetts’ travel businesses – hotels, attractions, restaurants, and retail establishments -- the opportunity to share information about their environmental practices with visitors. And it provides resources to help Massachusetts’ businesses develop environmental programs. Content includes a link to the MLA site.

MA GREEN recognizes five existing certification programs: LEED, Energy Star, Green Seal, Green Key (level 3 and higher) and, for restaurants, Certified Green Restaurant. It also provides links to businesses’ green pages -- web pages dedicated to their environmental practices -- regardless of whether they are certified.

The program has been designed to be as inclusive as possible. Hence, the multiple certifications and green links. The latter enables travel businesses that do not qualify for certification, or cannot currently achieve it for technical or financial reasons, to still have the ability to inform visitors about their environmental practices.

Certifications and links will be verified by MOTT before being published online.

There are two ways for MLA hotel members to participate in MA GREEN.
1. If your hotel holds a current LEED, Energy Star, Green Seal, or Green Key (level 3 or higher) certification, you can add it to your current listing on massvacation.com.

2. If your hotel has a page on your web site dedicated to your environmental practices, you can add the link to your current listing on massvacation.com. This link is available to all lodging properties, regardless of whether they hold a green certification.

For more details about how to participate in MA GREEN, visit www.massvacation.com/MAGreenBusiness. You‘ll also find information about the benefits of adopting green practices; technical assistance, benchmarking tools, grants, and financial incentives for energy, water, and solid waste; green meeting practices; and links to more information resources.

For MA GREEN’s consumer program, visit www.massvacation.com/MAGreen.

Questions about the program? Contact MAGREEN@state.ma.us.