InterContinental Hotels Groupis getting greener. The company's Americas Operations division recently launched an environmental initiative to replace more than 250,000 incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFL) in guestrooms at more than 200 company-managed hotels across the Americas.

IHG predicts its program will result in an annual reduction of almost 50 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, which is the equivalent of removing more than 17,000 cars from American highways. From a cost perspective, the typical savings per CFL is at least $30 over its lifetime.

The incandescent light bulbs will be changed over to CFLs within one year. Over the course of the year, an additional 15,000 CFLs will be distributed to employees of IHG's company-managed properties for use in their homes so that they will have the opportunity to adopt the same practice being implemented at hotels.

The program is part of group's “Chase the Extraordinary” road tour, during which IHG executives visit company-managed hotels and rally employees around new initiatives, of which the light bulb changeover is the lead effort.

In keeping with the tour's environmental theme, a 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid has been driven by the group of executives including Tom Murray, chief operating officer, the Americas and Alvaro Diago, area president-Latin America.