TOPS'L Beach and Racquet Resort

TOPS’L Beach & Racquet Resort in Destin, managed byResortQuest Northwest Florida, has received the prestigious EcoGreen Award™.

This full service resort, covering over 52 acres, took over a month to transform from regular lighting to environmentally-friendly light bulbs and fixtures. As TOPS’L is comprised of many different condos, homes, buildings and facilities, the cost to transition to environmentally friendly lighting was several thousand dollars. 

Commenting on the process, Phil Tumminia, General Manager of TOPS’L said: “Replacing current non-green lighting with green lighting was minimal compared to the overall savings in the life of each bulb. Also, we donated the functioning incandescent bulbs to “Habitat for Humanity” to help with their building needs.”

Tropical Lights, Inc. developed the EcoGreen Award™ Certification for the hotel, hospitality and restaurant industry to specifically reduce energy consumption by converting to efficient lighting technologies. Both parties win with effective lighting; the facility owner/operator helps reduce energy consumption and also benefits from reduced operated costs! According to Tropical Lights, Inc. the U.S. could reduce energy consumption by 20% in just a single year, with simple light bulb changes. U.S. buildings consume 65% of total electricity generated, with lighting being more than 50% of that use. Efficient lighting technologies can reduce usage by almost 70% immediately, making it quite clear that this area is the place to start.

The ResortQuest local and national office is also taking steps to become an eco-friendly business. They have teamed up with Hurlburt Field Air Force Special Operations, 16th Services Division in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, to collect all recyclable paper, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, toner cartridges, cardboard, wood pallets, and out-of-date marketing materials. Also, materials such as used cell phones, rechargeable batteries, ink stamps, plastic bags and fluorescent lights are being recycled by various sources.