In order to be eligible for the contest, general managers had to participate in four categories and show that they had made a measurable impact on their local community and hotel. The categories were:

• Create and implement a hotel-specific environmental event -- each hotel had to launch an environmental effort appropriate to their particular location and reflective of their local environment.
• Complete an environmental hotel self-audit -- each hotel had to conduct an environmental "self-audit," to help them determine how and where they can save energy.
• Conserving for Tomorrow -- hotels had to participate in Bass Hotels & Resorts' Conserving for Tomorrow guest towel and linen reuse program.
• Raising funds for UNICEF's Water and Environmental Sanitation Program -- each hotel had to raise funds for the UNICEF Water and Environmental Sanitation program. (Participating hotels raised over $19,000 for the organization and an additional $7,000 for local charities through participation in the Conserving Our Planet Program.)

Bass Hotels & Resorts received more than 50 entries from hotel general managers in over 30 countries. The winning hotel general manager will receive an all-expense-paid trip to an environmental game preserve in South Africa.

Many hotels undertook significant environmental projects including:

• In conjunction with the Kuching South City Council in Malaysia, employees at the Crowne Plaza Riverside Kuching, Holiday Inn Kuching, Holiday Inn Resort Damai Beach and Holiday Inn Resort Damai Lagoon participated in the "Millenium Tree Planting" program. The event was part of a nationwide effort to preserve the country with greenery and saw a total of 100,000 trees being planted simultaneously in 60 seconds across all states of Malaysia.
• In Madrid, Spain, the City Council regulates and carries out the separate waste collection within the city. The timetable and procedures of this service were designed to cover only the domestic demands and did not consider the specific needs of the hotels. In January 2001, the Castella Inter-Continental Madrid convinced the City Council to provide containers for separate waste collection on-site at their hotel and helped 12 other hotels within the area obtain the separate waste collection containers, therefore taking waste collection in Madrid to a new level.
• Hotel Inter-Continental New Orleans employees rolled up their sleeves to help clean one of the City's most popular tourist destinations - - a New Orleans cemetery. Several employees turned out to weed, cut grass, and clean the Valence Street Cemetery, located in the historic Garden District neighborhood of New Orleans. Volunteers spruced up family tombs that have gone unattended for years and cleaned up the area.

Mr. Bensouda's hotel met and exceeded all levels of criteria of the contest. They held the following environmental campaigns within their local community: beach clean-up, tree planting and drafting, cleaning projects at a fish market and a city bus stand as well as a can collection. As plants are very expensive in the Middle East, the hotel propagates their own plants in house and, within five months, the hotel grew over 202 plants. The hotel's management staff also organized training classes for their employees where they gave instruction on tree drafting, reducing electrical power consumption, proper usage of electricity and water, how to make compost, and instructions on the garden irrigation system. For the UNICEF fundraising aspect of the contest, the hotel organized a car wash for guests and locals in the community in their car park and placed a shoeshine stand in the hotel lobby to raise money for UNICEF.

Children's category:

Americas
(Pre-teen) Nicholas Croteau-LeFebre, Hotel Inter- Continental Montreal, Madrid (Teen) Jacobo Javier Avilez Izquierdo, Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, Tampico, Mexico

Asia Pacific
(Pre-teen) I.D. Gede Preamrta Widnyana, Hotel Inter-Continental Bali, Indonesia (Teen) no submission

Europe, the Middle East Africa
(Pre-teen) Dilshani Rajaratnam Hotel Inter-& Continental Dubai, UAE (Teen) Mena Morad Michel, Semiramis Inter- Continental Cairo, Egypt

Note: Bass Hotels & Resorts(R), the hotel business of Bass PLC of the United Kingdom, owns, operates or franchises more than 3,000 hotels and 490,000 guest rooms in close to 100 countries and territories.

The following are some of the service marks owned by Bass Hotels & Resorts, Inc., its subsidiaries or affiliates: Holiday Inn(R), Crowne Plaza(R), Holiday Inn Express(R) in the Americas, Express by Holiday Inn(SM) in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, Holiday Inn Select(R), Holiday Inn Garden Court(SM), Holiday Inn SunSpree(R) Resort, Staybridge Suites(R) by Holiday Inn(R), Holiday Inn Family Suites(SM) Resort , Holidex(R), Priority Club(R), Inter-Continental(R), Forum(R), and Six Continents Club(R). Centra(R) in Canada and Mexico; Centra(SM) in the U.S.; Parkroyal(SM) in the U.S. and Canada; Parkroyal(R) in Mexico.

Bass Hotels & Resorts, Inc. offers information and reservations capability on the Internet -- www.basshotels.com , www.interconti.com for Inter- Continental Hotels and Resorts, www.crowneplaza.com for Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts, www.holiday-inn.com for Holiday Inn hotels, www.hiexpress.com for Holiday Inn Express hotels, www.staybridge.com for Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn, and www.priorityclub.com .