Like the movie Mission: Impossible, where disks self-destruct in 60 seconds, a new biodegradable half-liter water bottle doesn’t fill up landfills or require recycling because it disintegrates in 30 days.

According to Tamas Vago, director of F&B, InterContinental Chicago, his hotel is currently the only one in the Windy City to use these biodegradable water bottles for banquets. Because the demand for this new product is so high from the only vendor and distributor who supply them, the first of these water bottles just recently arrived.

“Meeting planners are moving more and more into green. Initially, we plan to use these water bottles mostly for banquets,” says Vago. “The half-liter bottle is the only size now available.

He anticipates using the bottles elsewhere in the 792-room hotel with more than 40,000-square-feet of event space and five food and beverage outlets. “Now that we have them in-house, I anticipate they will be made available in the restaurants and other outlets,” Vago adds

More than a Color
The speed with which the green movement has moved forward has kept innovators like Vago on their toes. “If you had asked me a year ago what green means, I would have said, ‘It’s a color,’” Vago says. “The demand for green is coming on so strong. It’s more green, more green.”

Vago explains the InterContinental Chicago’s decision to go green as quickly as possible. “Environmentally, it is our future. We need to do it, and we need to do it right now,” he says.

Because his hotel is currently the first and only property in Chicago to use these biodegradable water bottles, he promotes this distinction.

Other green initiatives for which Vago has been responsible include the implementation of five-gallon water dispensers in lieu of water bottles for a specific client who insisted on being environmentally pro-active.

“About a year-and-a-half-ago, this client insisted, ‘No more water bottles,’” Vago recalls.

He says they also offer green packages for banquets that use only products available within a 100-mile radius, in order to reduce the carbon footprint.

When possible, he uses organic products and locally produced items such as Wisconsin cheeses.

He adds that they are extending their recycling efforts from back-of-the-house to the front, continuously looking for ways to improve operations and become greener.

“Decisions like the one to use biodegradable water bottles help the environment and help meet the changing needs of our clients,” says Vago. “The decision came from us. It is still a very individual one, but it is spreading to other hotels.”

Susan Bard Hall is a frequent contributor to HOTEL F&B.