The American Hotel & Lodging Association has named the Emory Conference Center Hotel as the 2012 Achievement Award winner for Good Earthkeeping in the competition's large property category.  

Achievement Awards are given to individual hotels that have developed outstanding programs, events and campaigns.  

"It's a pleasure to work in a community where sustainability and environmental commitment are integral to business success," says Kathryn Johnson, general manager of the Emory Conference Center Hotel.  

The Emory Conference Center Hotel, which is surrounded by 26 acres of forest preserve, earned the Earthkeeping Achievement Award for its environmental responsibilities and recycling efforts.  

As Georgia's only hotel to centralize some of its recycling using a single-stream recycling unit that breaks down cardboard and other paper products, the Emory Conference Center Hotel's sustainability efforts have made a large environmental impact on campus. Included in the hotel's recycling efforts is a Bio-EZ food digester that turns food waste into gray water and drained, therefore eliminating the need to bag discarded food. Cooking oils are also recycled and converted into bio-diesel, which fuels Emory shuttle buses.  

Emory Conference Center Hotel was the first to earn LEED-Silver Certification status for sustainable conference center hotels in Atlanta. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-Silver recognition — a building rating system that provides standards for environmental construction — is specifically for the newest section of the hotel built in 2010. The original hotel building, which opened in 1995, is Green Seal Certified.