Support for Madison Square Park Conservancy’s sustainability initiatives helps us ensure that our efforts are making a real difference. As we kick off Plastic-Free July, we want to highlight our friends and neighbors at The New York EDITION, who have been sponsoring our efforts to reduce single-use plastics and are promoting sustainable change across the community.

Globally, The EDITION has committed to Stay Plastic Free––a call to action for the hospitality industry to eliminate single-use plastic waste from hotels. They are working to set the standard for environmentally conscious hospitality by replacing single-use plastic items at their hotels. Plastic water bottles, straws, and carry-out containers are a thing of the past at The EDITION. They’ve even replaced plastic room keys with keys made from biodegradable wood materials, sourced from certified forests.

They have also made changes to preserve water in hotel bathrooms and improved recycling. In The Clocktower, their Michelin-starred restaurant, they set aside used oyster shells rather than throwing them away so that they can be recycled by the Billion Oyster Project—a non-profit that returns shells to the New York Harbor to restore underwater habitats that are rich in biodiversity and help protect the city’s shorelines from storm surges.

All of us at Madison Square Park Conservancy thank The EDITION for their continued support and applaud the changes they have made to operate more sustainably, setting a standard for all of our community’s businesses.

(Photos courtesy for The New York EDITION and Elaine Martin)