Inspired, Griffin returned to Houston and developed a towel card of her own. She sent sample cards to about 220 Houston area hotels. Several days later she received her first order from the Best Western Hotel in NASA, just outside of Houston and the "Green" Hotels Association® was officially in business.

A friend suggested that she also produce a similar placard for bed sheets. So Griffin created a card illuminating the fact that at most hotels it is customary to change guests’ sheets on a daily basis, consuming millions of gallons of water and literally tons of detergent in the process. “If you feel this is unnecessary,” it reads, “please leave this card on your pillow in the morning. Your bed will be made but your sheets will not be changed that day. Please decide for yourself.” Hotels have found that, given the option, about 80 percent of their guests choose to reuse their towels and sheets. Griffin says hotels displaying the cards can expect to save at least $6.50 a day per occupied room. Harrah's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas reports that it saves over $70,000 per year by using the sheet cards alone.

In addition to money saved, the cards free up staff to attend to other matters. Larry Miller, owner of River Run Bed and Breakfast in Fleischmans, New York told Griffin, “I've never had any one single thing change my life the way your Towel Hanger has. I've always spent all day Saturday gathering up towels, washing, drying, folding and putting them back in guest rooms. Now my Saturdays are mine. Now, with the Towel Hanger, only one in every 30 or 40 guests will want fresh towels on Saturday.” As an indirect effect, the cards help guests and hotel staff alike to realize that they can make personal choices that impact the environment. As Griffin says, “The towel cards and sheet cards get the guests involved and they encourage a hotelier to be green.”

Change management expert, Jeffrey Hiatt, includes Griffin’s “Green” Hotels Association® as a case study in his latest book, ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government and our Community. “The case study,” Hiatt says, “is being used to illustrate how what she did, in terms of introducing the towel cards, made a fundamental and dramatic impact on the [lodging] industry.” ADKAR stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement, and Hiatt explains these factors must all be present for successful change to occur. Griffin’s cards make guests aware of the problem and allows them to recognize that they can have an affect on the problem through their own personal choice. “She didn’t put it as something that someone would view as a policy of the [hotel] management,” explains Hiatt. “She simply said ‘Decide for yourself.’”

Following upon the success of the room cards, Griffin decided to compile a catalogue of money-saving, resource-efficient products for the lodging industry. In addition to the placards, the catalog features items like sink aerators, low-flow shower heads, toilet tank fill diverters, compact fluorescent bulbs, recycling bins, and wall-mounted refillable soap and shampoo dispensers. The typical hotel uses 209 gallons of water per day, per occupied room. Installing water-efficient fixtures can easily cut a hotel’s water and sewer bills by 25-30 percent. Guest lighting is responsible for 30-40 percent of a hotel’s electricity consumption. Installing energy efficient fixtures like compact fluorescent bulbs can save a hotel as much as 75 percent in lighting costs.

There are upfront costs associated with installing new resource-efficient products or retrofitting existing fixtures, but many of the measures pay for themselves within the first year or two of use. In 1996, the Texas Water Institute documented the water savings accomplished by the San Antonio based La Quinta Inn. During a one-month period, the hotel averaged 100 gallons of water consumption per guest per billing period. The hotel then replaced all of its toilets with ultra-flow versions at a cost of $3,250. Within two years the hotel recouped their costs and thereafter continued saving 180,000 gallons of water per year.

A year or so after introducing the catalogue, Griffin recognized the opportunity for GHA to play more of an educational role. GHA began a membership program and shortly thereafter began distributing a monthly newsletter to its members. Today, “Green” Hotels Association® boasts approximately 325 members accounting for at least 20,000 hotel rooms worldwide. Members pay $1 per guestroom per year (12 months); with a minimum of $100 per year and a maximum of $750 per year. The newsletter includes published articles on the latest green products and technologies as well as member news and case studies highlighting the greening measures of member-hotels.

Over the years, a number of Houston hotels have been GHA members. Its most recent addition is America’s Best Value Inn Hotel & Suites (ABVIHS) located just off Interstate 45, south of FM 1960. The hotel is currently remodeling and looking to implement many of the green measures promoted by the Association. Kevin Shah, hotel manager at ABVIHS reports that they have already instituted a hotel-wide recycling program for paper, glass, metal containers, and plastic. Furniture in the lobby and rooms are made of natural woods including bamboo. The hotel is looking into using chemical-free cleaners and is replacing guest toiletry products and amenities with all-natural alternatives. It has installed energy-efficient windows and solar screens to reduce heat gain. Compact fluorescent lights are used to light the interior and outside solar-powered access lighting illuminates the entrance to the hotel. Shah says, “We believe at the end of the day everybody is a winner when mother earth is saved.”

In addition to hotels, Griffin has extended membership to “ally” companies that provide eco-friendly, resource efficient products or services to the hotel industry. In Houston, BP Energy and MGM Services are local allies. BP Energy provides solar installations and energy tags to local businesses. MGM Services provides hoteliers with a wireless device that monitors the capacity of their waste compactors. Typically waste is picked up according to a schedule regardless of whether the compactors are full or not. When they approach full capacity, MGM alerts waste hauling companies to remove the waste. Hotels save 30 to 50 percent on waste hauling costs by reducing the frequency of pick-ups and the waste haulers save money and the environment by limiting their trips.

Some of the greenest members of the “Green” Hotels Association® are right here in Texas. Austin’s Habitat Suites is a charter member of the organization, one of the first 100 hoteliers to join. The hotel is a model of environmental consciousness from the photovoltaic solar panels atop its roof to the native flora that carpets the ground. The hotel has been given a number of awards for its efforts including the 1999 Texas Environmental Excellence Award for Small Business. Its environmental measures are so extensive that time permits only a brief overview. Window tinting, radiant barriers, programmable thermostats, superior insulation and highly efficient air conditioning units keep rooms comfortable with minimal energy use. Guest rooms are cleaned with safe, all-natural cleansers and the grounds outside are cared for using non-toxic, natural means, including lady bugs, to fertilize and rid plants of pests. Inside, the rooms are outfitted with every kind of water-saving device available, from showerheads, to aerating sink heads to low-flow toilets and in the guest house they recently installed a waterless urinal. Habitat Suites reports that these efforts, along with the use of Griffin’s towel and sheet cards, save the hotel nearly 2,400,000 gallons of water per year. Recycled paper is used for all of the hotels’ promotional and sales materials and printing needs. Even the bathroom and facial tissue is 100 percent recycled content and each guest room has its own recycling bins.

Habitat Suite’s General Manager, Natalie Marquis says, “The nice thing about the “Green” Hotels Association® is that it is very cooperative. When Patty has run stories about us I always get phone calls from other hoteliers saying ‘well how did [you] implement this’ or ‘what were the biggest obstacles to doing ‘x’, ‘y’, or ‘z’.” Marquis says Habitat Suites provides an example to other hoteliers that are looking to green their property but might, for lack of knowledge or experience, be wary of doing so.

Habitat Suites is just one of many hotels throughout the world that have used "Green" Hotels Association's® advice and products to save money and the planet. A hotel that is conscious about its environmental impact and sets about limiting its footprint, will invariably save money in the process. Being a green hotel is good for the hoteliers, good for the guests and good for the environment.