Two Green Roofs Going Up in Times Square

Last week, we wrote about a new trend in hotels – beekeeping. 

A new hotel going up in NYC – the InterContinental New York Times Square – is jumping in with beehives on one of its two green roofs.

Right in the middle of Times Square, the honey will be ready this summer to be used in the hotel’s restaurant, cocktails, and bottled for gifts and amenities.

The hotel chain has two other apiaries, one at InterContinental New York Barclay and the other at InterContinental Boston. 

In addition to green roofs on the 2^nd and 7^th floors, which will also have a herb garden that serves the restaurant, the hotel is pending LEED-certification.

Besides providing locally sourced herbs and honey, the green roofs retain heat in the winter and absorb sunlight in the summer, reduce stormwater run-off and the heat island effect.

Another outstanding measure is the hotel’s composting initiative – separating organic waste on-site and sending it out for composting.

The other green features of the building are pretty standard, including: recycling 75% of construction waste and using at least 20% of them for the building; locally sourced materials; building on an urban, rather than greenfield site; using green cleaning producs and changing sheets/ linens less frequently; efficient lights, motion detectors and an energy management system.