By Lorraine Sanders
Looking for the latest hotel trend? Prepare to see green. Along with super-cush bedding, flat screen TVs and healthier minibar snacks, hotels and resorts are quickly incorporating eco amenities like recycling programs, non-toxic cleaning products and water conservation into their daily operations. Other properties are offsetting their power consumption by purchasing renewable energy credits and carbon offsets, while others still are turning to solar panels to keep the lights on. No longer confined to hippie-dippy destinations or the newest luxury properties, green initiatives are gaining traction in the unlikeliest of places.
Take the three-star Residence Inn West Orange Hotel, for example. Earlier this year, the 128-suite Marriott property became the first hotel in New Jersey to operate using solar power. Installed on the inn's southward-facing rooftops, the solar electric system produces power that meets about one-fifth of the hotel's total electricity needs. Over the next 30 years, the hotel's setup will reduce carbon emissions by 3,000 tons, says the Solar Center, an energy company that designed the system. That's the equivalent of planting about 43 acres of trees.
While the Residence Inn West Orange turned to solar power, many properties are embracing renewable energy credits to offset their operations. Fairmont Hotels and Resorts has purchased wind power credits equal to the amount of energy used by the computers at all of its North American properties' front desks. The company estimates that the move will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 100 tons in just one year. Fairmont hotels have also implemented a variety of environmental stewardship programs at individual hotels. The Fairmont Orchid Hawaii Resort on Hawaii's Big Island, for example, uses biodegradable cleaning products, pesticide-free landscaping practices and supports a local university program that monitors the nearby coral reefs.
Santa Monica's Ambrose Hotel is another destination dedicated to supporting environmentally-friendly programs close to home. The luxury boutique hotel publishes a newsletter highlighting non-profits and their accomplishments, encourages its staff to volunteer (while still collecting pay) on projects like tree planting and coastal clean-up days and serves as a drop-off location for the California Recycles cell phone recycling program. In addition to its community-minded initiatives, the hotel has implemented a slew of green practices since its opening in 2001. Guests at the Ambrose will find energy-efficient appliances, non-toxic cleaning products, recycling bins in all guestrooms and public areas, 100 percent recycled paper products, preferred parking spaces for hybrid vehicles and even a hybrid limo for zooming around town guilt-free.
Just as the Ambrose is one of the most green hotels in Southern California, the Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco and the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa in Napa Valley are, quite possibly, the most eco-friendly hotels in Northern California. Boasting LEED certification, the 86-room Orchard Garden Hotel is just about as green as lodging gets. Not only does the hotel offer usual suspects like an in-room recycling program, energy-efficient lighting and non-toxic cleaning products, but it also has the distinction of having been built according to the environmentally-sound construction practices established by the U.S. Green Building Council. Hotel furnishings are made with wood harvested from sustainable forests, and the wallpaper here was hung with non-toxic glue, just to name a few of the building's green characteristics.
Napa's Gaia Hotel and Spa uses similar green building practices. The property features lumber culled from sustainable forests, low-VOC adhesives and paints, carpet composed of recycled materials and recycled granite and tiles in all bathrooms. The property's waste-water is filtered and cleaned and then used in the koi pond, while solar panels provide 10 percent of the property's energy. Curious guests will find educational touch-screen kiosks designed to explain the hotel's environmental practices and educate visitors about sustainability.
Guest education is also a top priority at The Inn at Shelburne Farms. Located on Lake Champlain, this working farm hosts a variety of programs for students, families and inn guests interested in learning more about sustainable forestry and environmentally-friendly land use. Open from May to October, the farm's 24-room inn offers individually-decorated rooms, where guests bunk in after days spent exploring the farm's dairy, 400-acre forest, eight miles of trails and farm store. The inn's restaurant uses food grown on the premises or from local Vermont farms.
While the Inn at Shelburne Farm achieves the green ethic in Vermont's pristine wilderness, the Hilton Portland and Executive Tower is an example of a large, mainstream branded property that is pursuing green initiatives in an urban setting. The 782-room hotel composts kitchen waste and donates excess food to Portland food banks. Likewise, the hotel donates used shampoo and conditioner, furnishings, linens, curtains, dishware and bedding that would otherwise go in the trash to local homeless shelters. Bathrooms feature low-flow toilets, showerheads and smaller sink basins to encourage water conservation, and eco-friendly cleaning products are used throughout the property.
Even major vacation properties are getting in on the green action. Take the TradeWinds Island Grand Beach Resort and the TradeWinds Sandpiper Hotel and Suites, for example. Located on the Gulf of Mexico in St. Petersburg, Fla., both resorts have been certified by Florida's voluntary Green Lodging Certification Program. Each resort features a recycling program, energy-efficient appliances and lighting, towel and linen reuse programs and a high-efficiency air-filtration system to boost indoor air quality. The Tradewinds Island Grand is also doing its part for local wildlife. The property replaced its beachfront lights this year with low-impact LED bulbs to aid sea turtle nesting and hatching.
While the Tradewinds Resorts are leading the environmental charge on Florida's West Coast, several other resort areas around the country have launched their own environmental programs. Vail Resorts, which includes the area's five mountain resorts and 125 retail locations, has purchased wind power credits to offset 100 percent of its energy use. Wind power has also made headlines at the Sunday River Ski Resort in Maine, where wind power credits offset all operations at both the Grand Summit Resort Hotel and the Jordan Grand Resort and Conference Center, as well as all of the resort's base lodges, ski lifts, snowmaking machines and offices. Aramark Parks and Resorts, which owns numerous lodging options and marinas in Utah and Arizona along Lake Powell, announced in April that it has purchased enough renewable energy certificates to offset 24.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide used in its lodging facilities.
To find eco-friendly lodging for your next trip, start with resources like the Green Hotels Association, Green Seal and the Florida Lodging Certification Program's directory of programs around the country.