Green travel ideas from two environmentally conscious travelers

Christmas is right around the corner (I know, I know, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet!). But it’s never too early to start preparing for an eco-friendly Christmas. That’s right, a truly green Christmas that’s fun and responsible - you can admire your Christmas lights guilt-free while sipping your eggnog. Here are some ideas for how you can implement some green strategies into your holiday celebrations this year. Some of them were inspired by an article by Jennifer on Tree Hugging Family.

1. Buy a Real Tree or Keep your Fake One

Real Christmas trees are generally more environmentally responsible than fake ones. Fake ones are often make of plastics that take a long time to biodegradable and which contain harmful chemicals and toxins. Real trees can be used and then recycled easily, and you get the lovely smell of fresh pine in your home as well. Or, if you have a fake tree already, just keep using it again and again instead of buying a new one every few years.

2. Buy Eco-Friendly Ornaments or Make Your Own

There are quite a few companies nowadays offering green ornaments - you can purchase them online and have them quickly shipped to your house. If you have trouble finding them, though, you can make your own, too!

Green Eyed Frog

Nigel’s Eco Store

Make Your Own

3. Buy Eco-Friendly Christmas Lights

When if comes to energy usage, less is definitely more. Luckily, you can now find environmentally-friendly LED Christmas lights in most stores.

4. Send Eco-Friendly Holiday Greeting Cards

Emailed Christmas cards might be the most environmentally friendly, but they probably come up a little short in the sentimentality department. Purchasing green holiday greeting cards is pretty easy these days though - look for them at your local card shop or online.

Photo: scottfeldstein

It’s almost ski season! If you’re a skier, you might have heard about the Ski Area Citizen’s Coalition, a  group that creates an annual report on the environmental friendliness of ten different Western ski resorts in the U.S. Regardless, you’re hopefully interested to find out about the country’s most and least environmentally conscious ski resorts, right? Here’s a list, courtesy of the Ski Area Citizen’s Coalition:

THE BEST:

#      Name                                                                          Grade

1     (A) Squaw Valley USA - California                           89.7%
2     (A) Aspen Mountain Ski Resort - Colorado             86.1%
3     (A) Buttermilk Mountain Ski Resort - Colorado     85.7%
4     (A) Sugar Bowl Ski Resort - California                    82.3%
5     (A) Sundance Resort - Utah                                     82.2%
6     (A) Alpine Meadows Ski Area - California              82.0%
7     (A) Park City Mountain Resort - Utah                    81.7%
8     (A) Bogus Basin Mountain Resort - Idaho              81.3%
9     (A) Aspen Highlands Ski Resort - Colorado            80.3%
10     (A) Powderhorn Resort - Colorado                        79.4%

THE WORST: 

#      Name                                                                           Grade
1     (D) Breckenridge Ski Resort - Colorado                   41.5%
2     (D) Copper Mountain Ski Resort - Colorado           45.0%
3     (D) White Pass Ski Area - Washington                    47.0%
4     (D) Sun Valley Resort - Idaho                                   47.4%
5     (D) Arizona Snowbowl - Arizona                               47.4%
6     (D) Brundage Mountain Resort - Idaho                   49.3%
7     (D) Crystal Mountain Ski Area - Washington          51.6%
8     (D) Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard - Nevada               53.9%
9     (D) Brian Head Resort - Utah                                    54.0%
10     (D) Silver Mountain Ski Resort - Idaho                 54.8%

These ratings weren’t just random - they were based on 16 different factors (they added a handful more factors this year). Check out this article for more detailed information, as well as this page from the SACC website.  Just something to keep in mind as you anticipate your ski season this year - there are ways to make hitting the white slopes are more green experience.

Photo: Joao Maximo

Don’t let any mental pictures of LA’s summer smog cloud your thinking about the city’s commitment to environmentally friendly hotel options. In fact, LA is making many good green choices, and the eco-friendly Hotel Palomar is only one example. The Palomar has a program in place called EarthCare which puts to use over 40 eco-friendly practices in and around the hotel. For example, their website lists:

*  In-room recycling bins
* Energy efficient lighting
* Water efficient fixtures
* Toiletries made from natural ingredients by earth-friendly manufacturers
* Organic food and beverage options in our mini bars
* The restaurant adjacent to our hotel follows the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch’s sustainable seafood guidelines
* We are a 100% non-smoking hotel

I found it particularly interesting that this hotel works with an environmentally friendly restaurant - overfishing our oceans is a large problem, and it’s inspiring to see a hotel and a restaurant working together on this front.

These efforts resulted in the hotel being awarded the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership award by the California Environmental Protection Agency.

The hotel itself is beautiful and classy - don’t neglect to check out the artwork before you leave; it provides an interesting reflection on the area’s Hollywood scene.

Photo: Todd Jones Photography

As re-reported by Bnet.com, Oklahoma has unveiled a series - seven, to be exact - of sustainable travel programs designed to meet the growing needs of consumers interested in sustainable and eco-friendly lodging and travel options. I found this article to be interesting on a number of fronts, including this statistic:

“…U.S. Travel Association research shows that 51 percent of consumers would continue to patronize sustainable travel service suppliers regardless of an economic downturn, and 48 percent said continued support of sustainable travel is a necessity.”

51% is an astonishingly high number to me, and it’s encouraging.

The article highlights the potential partnership between Oklahoma’s Colcord Hotel and Clean the World,   non-profit which provides third-world countries with “gently used” hygiene products like soap and shampoo from hotels around the world.

It appears as though a major push to increase recycling will be the first component of these sustainable travel programs. This is a good first step, and it will be interesting to see what the next steps will be. We’ll have to wait for feedback from the programs to determine how these efforts are being received and what new efforts will be made in the future.

Photo: Serge Melki

Key West, Florida is a green town - literally. There are ten green properties, including the LEED certified Weather Forecast Office. Four of these properties have complete something known as the iStayGreen audit. According to this audit, the Doubletree Grand Key Resort in Key West is well on its way to LEED certification - it qualified for the 3 Green Leaf Eco Rating (out of 5 leaves).

In order to qualify for this rating, the resort had to prove that it complied with over 70 eco-initiatives, and the more of these initiatives are met, the more “leaves” the hotel is awarded.

Here’s a short list of some of the efforts this hotel is making to make the property more environmentally friendly:

- Guest rooms air conditioning units automatically turn off when doors are open

-  Shower heads conform to most updated low-flow guidelines

-  Fluorescent lighting is used throughout the property

-  Pool furniture is made out of recyclable materials

- Complimentary shuttle service to multiple locations reduces the number of cars which are used on the island

And more!

Photo: Milan.boer

According to this article from Environmental Leader, Atlanta is in the process of constructing a sustainable, two-mile long racetrack for car and racing aficionados. It will be called the Atlanta Motorsports Park, and it will be (an incredibly expensive) private club - $100,000 to join. What’s attractive about this park, though, is that it will be very environmentally friendly, an idea which, in the past, has not necessarily go hand in hand with a racing track.

Check out the future park’s green attributes:

- waterless urinals

- tank-less water heaters

- using reclaimed water for all irrigation

- recycling all the garbage and oil

- high efficiency HVAC systems and lighting

- thermal resistant windows

It’s wonderful to see such an environmentally responsible project being built in an industry which is known for nasty emissions and waste products.  Hopefully this is the start of a new green trend in this arena.

As I sit here writing this post, I am bemused by how many electrical cords I have in the room. There’s one for my cell phone, one for my printer, at least two for my computer and then I have a power strip for them all to be plugged in to. My light has a cord, my fan has a cord…and across the room, my fiance’s corner looks like a jungle with electrical snakes.

I explain all of this in order to explain my complete fascination with the idea of wireless, or cordless, electricity. Never mind that it’s a very sexy and cool idea - think about the environmental ramifications! As reported by the above CNN article, a company called WiTricity is currently perfecting their wireless electricity technology, and excuse the pun, but the article made my hair stand up. Think about all of those batteries that we throw away - the article reports that companies make more than 40 billion of them every year. And, powering your iPods and mp3 players and computers is wonderful, but what about the implications for the resuscitation of the electric car? The car failed the first time around for a host of reasons, and one of them the sheer impracticality of having to build charging stations every so many miles so that cars could be powered up. Wireless electricity seems to solve that pesky chicken-and-egg problem wherein electric cars will not become widespread until there is the electric car infrastructure to support them, but the infrastructure to support them won’t be built until electric cars really take off.

It seems that, if developed properly, this technology could also save a lot of energy, as it only powers objects when they need to be charged. Right now, our computers and televisions are sucking up energy even when they’re turned off - if they’re plugged in, they’re using up small amounts of energy.

Wireless technology is already here for smaller devices. I cannot wait to see how this potentially green technology develops on a larger scale. Hopefully, I’ll be in the position to tell my own kids in about ten years “back when I was a girl, we had to use these things called electrical cords to power up everything, and it was a pain…”

Photo Credit: Edkohler from Flickr

Traveling with a pooch? As someone who does often, I was interested to see that Loews hotels, already known for their green policies and commitment to the environment, are now offering a “Grrreen Dog” package.

Rates start at $119/night, but the actual rate depends on the hotel you choose.

What might this include? Well, you get a specially crafted room service meal for your pet which contains ingredients that all come from local farms. Vet-approved, of course, so your night in the hotel room with them won’t be a bad one.  You also get a 100% organic cotton bandanna made by Doggie Go Green as well as a Zogoflex Huck dog toy, which is apparently not only indestructible, but it floats and bounces, too. This seems to be a very hand toy to have in a hotel room when you leave your pet alone; coming back to a chewed up bed or sofa would be a touch stressful.

Cute? Yes. But on a more serious and significant note, this program is just another way that this hotel chain is demonstrating their commitment to making every part of their guests services more environmentally friendly. It would be easy to provide low-grade dog food and toys made out of non-biodegradable materials. But, Loews went the extra mile, and I like that.

You can book this package until December 19, 2009.

We stayed at Atlanta’s downtown Sheraton more than a year ago with my family, but I didn’t realize how green this hotel is at the time and how many environmentally friendly choices they’re making. It’s fantastic, and the more I read, the more I realize that this hotel is unique in downtown Atlanta. Hopefully,  more hotels will follow their green lead.

Sheraton lists their green initiatives on their website, but I wanted to summarize  the green moves  I felt were particularly cool in their “greenness.”

Drought Tolerant landscaping - coming from San Diego, I know how crucial this is and during the last two years, due to water shortage, Atlanta found out how precious water is. Trees are much greener this summer, but let’s not forget how brown and dead the lawns and trees were last year. By planting drought resistant trees and bushes, the hotel saves tons of water and keep the grounds looking lush even when water is scarce.

New Energy Efficient Water Heating System -  Yes, it cost the hotel more than $700,000, but the water heating system at the hotel is now 50% more efficient. That’s a lot of energy and money savings.

Telecommuting -  Sheraton reports that the telecommuting option they offer employees saves almost two tons of carbon emissions each month.

Saline Cleaned Pools -  as someone who is bothered by chlorine when I go swimming, this is great. Saline cleaned pools don’t use chemicals to clean the pool that are harsh on the environment. The systems are expensive to install, but save money in the long run.

The downtown Sheraton in Atlanta also carefully monitors their energy consumption. The only element I’d love to see them start using is the key-card system some hotels are now using which automatically turn off all lights and conserve temperature settings when guests don’t use the room.

I’m going to recommend this hotel to friends and family who are visiting - I love to give business to places which are this environmentally conscious.