W Hotels Worldwide, will.i.am and The Coca-Cola Company introduce the Ekocycle brand. W Hotel guest rooms across the globe to have sheets and bedside chargers made in part with recycled plastic bottles
W Hotels Worldwide, part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has made a new partnership with global music artist and entrepreneur will.i.am and The Coca-Cola Company to shake up the hotel industry, one guest room at a time. Together, they are bringing the Ekocycle brand to W Hotel rooms around the world, changing sheets and changing minds.
W Hotels will soon begin re-making their beds with new Ekocycle branded sheets, which are made in part with rPET (polyester partially made using recycled plastic). Rolling out into W Hotels in North America first with global properties to follow, each king size sheet set utilises approximately 31 recycled 20 oz. plastic bottles – which equates to more than 268,000 plastic bottles across all W Hotel beds in North America. The result is bedding that is as luxurious as it is environmentally conscious, ensuring that guests continue to have the same incredibly comfortable sleep they have come to expect from a night in a W Hotel bed. Guests can rest assured that they won’t feel a difference, as the more sustainable sheets are made using the same high quality process as the W brand’s current bedding, with the only difference being the use of recycled polyester instead of new polyester.
W Hotels and the Ekocycle team didn’t stop with changing the sheets. Together, they wanted to recycle even more plastic, so they turned their attention to the nightstand and created a colourful little bedtime companion. The Mobile Charger and Accessory Valet (MCAV), is a multi-tasking USB charging device that also acts as a jewellery/ watch stand and an alarm clock. Developed by Miniwiz, an emerging engineering firm from Taipei focused exclusively on post-consumer recycled material design applications, the MCAV is partially created out of three recycled plastic bottles and is available in six colours, including gold, red, hot pink, black, white and silver. These devices will soon be bedside in every W Hotel room around the world, powering up devices and waking up guests from Los Angeles to London. “W guests want to live a stylish, more sustainable lifestyle and this partnership is a way to allow them to do so when they are on the road,” says Sarah Doyle, global brand director, W Hotels Worldwide. “Working with will.i.am and Coca-Cola’s Ekocycle brand allows us to ‘change’ our sheets, reset our alarm clocks and pledge to make a difference one W Hotel stay at a time.”
Doing wonders with waste
Embedded in the ethos that ‘waste is only waste if we waste it’, the idea for Ekocycle was born after will.i.am was inspired to turn waste left behind at a Black Eyed Peas gig into recycled sought-after objects and joined forces with The Coca-Cola Company. Ekocycle has a simple ambition: work with iconic brands to help consumers recognise that items they consider waste today can live on as brand new lifestyle products they can use tomorrow. As longtime partners, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, the parent company of W Hotels, and The Coca-Cola Company share a similar vision when it comes to global sustainability, which makes W and Ekocycle the perfect pair.
“I am very excited to bring the Ekocycle movement to W Hotel guests around the world,” says will.i.am. “When it comes to finding partners for the Ekocycle initiative, Coca-Cola and I want to work with those who understand our message: that being more sustainable can be stylish. The new Ekocycle sheets and chargers that will now be at W are further proof that we can transform so much of the way we live through more sustainable, recycled materials.”
Bea Perez, vice president and chief sustainability officer, The Coca-Cola Company believes, “The Ekocycle brand mission is to excite and inspire people around the idea that waste can be valuable and create new, desirable products. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has been a likeminded innovator of sustainable solutions and longtime partner of Coca-Cola. We’re delighted that W Hotels is joining the Ekocycle movement and providing hotel guests worldwide with the opportunity to experience sustainable luxury with Ekocycle brand sheets.”
The official partnership kicked off recently with an exclusive celebration at the flagship W New York, hosted by W Hotels, will.i.am and The Coca-Cola Company. W New York revolutionised the hotel industry when it debuted in 1998, making it the perfect location for yet another hospitality revolution: this unique blending of style with sustainability. For guests who want to continue to sleep eco-chic long after they check out, the sheets (starting at US$ 207) and MCAV (US$ 75) will soon be available for purchase online at whotelsthestore.com.