1. Villa Montana, Caribbean–I have never been to the Caribbean and the web site looks enticing.  I like smaller resorts with a personal vibe about them.  This looks like it can do the trick.

2. Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort, Fiji– Anything with the Cousteau name must be nice to the environment. Plus, just the name “Fiji” sounds exotic, distant and offers the possibility of a real getaway to me.This is a five star resort offering luxury accommodations.  I can only dream, but it sounds wonderful. It was also given the Australasia Leading Green Hotel award by World Travel. Luxe and green–don’t you love it already.

3. Amelia Island Plantation, Amelia Island, Florida–A golf course that co habits with marshlands and savannahs.  I never thought it possible to do that and keep those greens, well green.  Amelia Island has achieved this and offers world class golf.

4. Barton Creek Resort & Spa, Austin, Texas–a golf course and an Audubon sanctuary, gives new meaning to the term ‘birdie.’  Plus, the reviews from UpTake were all positive and that does not always happen, does it?

I think after this short bit of research that eco-friendly lodging can be found at the more expensive end of the pricing spectrum.  Next time, I will be looking for lodging in the $50 to $100 range.  Can cheap also be green? And offer the niceties I look for when I travel?  We will see, till next week.

Searching a bit further, I found just the thing,  Montfair Resort Farm.  It offers air conditioned cabins, hiking and fishing on over a hundred acres, plus it has all sorts of credentials attesting to its eco-friendly stature.  And I thought it would be hard.  Nope, it wasn’t.

Speaking of green, while I rest by their lake, I will be reading a good book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  With measured prose and a persuasive manner, she has convinced me to compost, only buy organic and plant my own vegetable garden next spring. She is presents hard facts in a light-hearted manner and  despite the heaviness of the subject matter, very readable.  I feel better already.  Virginia is green and I am too (almost).

Casa Poniente, El Remanso Wildlife Lodge, Costa Rica: Photograph: Daniel Beltra

1.  A resource for green travel lodges from other green travel bloggers
I think I want to stay at every single one of the lodges listed here. Oh…to travel all the time. I could go green, volunteer, and just hang out in all these wonderful places.

2.  The Greening of Hotels or is it just marketing…
As a marketer and a member of the travel industry, I hope the effots of hotels are real and not just “spin.”

3. Travel and your carbon footprint (plus a site that give green and volunteer travel tips)–
Discusses the concept of travel and the carbon footprint it cause.

4.  Offsetting your travel carbon footprint by what you do at home
This suggests you can travel, be green and then lessen your carbon footprint from your own back yard.

5.  Green Travel Carnival–if you want to meet other people who care about green travel, this will do it. Of course, you can participate too, if you wish. I love carnivals for connecting to like-minded individuals.

The “Rich Coast” of Costa Rica is famed for its cloud-wreathed rain forests, unspoiled beaches, volcanic hot springs, and incredible biodiversity. It was the first country I visited that had embraced eco-tourism and as a result, it is a great place for a green vacation.

Recommendations

The Villa Blanca Cloud Hotel, Spa and Nature Reserve showcases it all in splendid style, with impeccable green credentials. Head outside to learn more about your surroundings with some hands-on education about Costa Rican nature: bats, frogs, chocolate, and birds are all the topics of green tours. Visit sloths, howler monkeys, and macaws in Manuel Antonio Park, which also has beaches for snorkeling and observing sea turtles. If you want to stay at a true eco-tourism project, try Lapa Rios Rainforest Ecolodge, which is built on a 1000-acre nature preserve to show that “a forest left standing is worth more than one cut down.” Then head up into the treetops for a canopy tour among the clouds!

Great for family vacations

I highly recommend Costa Rica as a destination to take your elementary school aged children. They will be fascinated by the howler monkeys, which seem to be everywhere, especially when you want to sleep in a little later than usual. If you get a chance to see the scarlet macaws in flight at sunset, they will never want to cage a bird again. Plus, they are sure to see a sloth or two and maybe even that fabulous bird, the Resplendent Quetzal–it is on the list of every birder I know as a must see. (o.k I only know two, but they are really into birdwatching.) If you are lucky you can check out a real exploding volcano, take in a hot spring and maybe see that other amazing bird made famous by Fruit Loops, the toucan. If you do go to see the volcano, you must stay at the lodge and if sounds like a semi-truck is driving by, leap out of bed and run to your window. It is the sound of a volcano spewing. I slept through it….

Tip

The roads are really bad–two lane country roads with deep potholes all over (I mean every few feet!) If you are prone to motion sickness, find a place with well-paved, straight roads. The alternative is very small aircrafts that hop from town to town, but that can also be bad for the motion sickness prone. Other than that, I could visit this country every year and still find new places to discover. Go, it is the ultimate wildlife destination and did I mention the beaches, warm, clean and empty!

Keep Tahoe Blue! This ubiquitous sticker shows Tahoe’s green pride and the need to protect this environmentally sensitive area. The classic Northern California combination of a forest-ringed lake with frosty white slopes invites green travel activities such camping, hiking, and alpine skiing.

For eco-conscious winter-sports, I suggest you check out Sugar Bowl, the first ski resort to utilize 100% green power in their operations and with some beautiful back bowls. The secluded acreage of Granlibakken Resort will appeal to some, while others will prefer to be closer to the action at the Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe, which participates in

In the summer, kayak along the 72-mile Lake Tahoe Water Trail, or enjoy a naturalist-led tour of the Lake Tahoe Basin. If you like to mountain bike ride, I suggest the Flume trail for a terrific view of the lake or Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride for a wildly technical ride. If you are just visiting, rent a bike on Thursday and participate in the Pedal There program–a biking program designed to decrease traffic in Tahoe City.

Volunteer to teach English and eco-consciousness in Thailand or Laos

Horseback riding and interpretive nature hikes in the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona

View endangered sea turtles in St. Croix

A professional birding and wildlife holiday in East Africa

Dive with sharks and learn about conservation efforts in Fiji

These are my destinations of choice–where would you go? What kind of activities do you consider “green. Let me know.

As we have discussed before, green travel allows the eco-conscious to reduce their impact on the place they’re visiting – usually by patronizing environmentally friendly hotels or purchasing carbon-offset vouchers for flights or lodging. (Vacation is considered a time to splurge, but the A/C, jet fuel, and fresh towels add up!) In the past few years, thousands of green lodging choices have materialized in the US — from eco-camps on a wilderness preserve, to a Marriott that recycles and saves water, to a resort with solar panels. Countries with unspoiled natural beauty (New Zealand, Costa Rica, and Belize) offer green travel and sustainable eco-tourism in pristine jungles and rain forests.

When planning green travel:

• Check out green lodging from outdoorsy to upscale.
• Explore green camping and hiking in your home state.
• Choose an area that fascinates you, and learn about preserving its biodiversity.

Ways to offset your carbon footprint when traveling:

• Choose not to have towels and sheets washed every day.
• Eat food grown by local farmers.
• Use trains over planes, public transport instead of a car.
• Plant an indigenous tree.

They say, “Take only pictures, and leave only footprints.” When you travel green, you tread much more lightly.

Here are few eco-friendly lodging suggestions to get you started on planning your next green trip:

Post Ranch Inn Big Sur, California

Sadie Cove Wilderness Lodge Alaska

Habitat Suites Austin, Texas

CESiaK, Mexico

Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa Napa Valley, California

FireSky Resort and Spa Scottsdale, Arizona

duPlooy’s Jungle Lodge Belize

The Ambrose Santa Monica, California

Alma Del Monte Taos, New Mexico

Finca Esperanza Verde Nicaragua

Have fun and stay green!

WholeTravel is starting mainly with ecotourism properties in Central America and planning to build out from there. If anyone reading this post owns a hotel/resort/accommodation that fits the Whole Travel profile, you can send them an e-mail requesting a self-evaluation questionnaire and start the process of getting listed on their site.

Just wanted to check in and post a link related to a discussion we’ve been having on this blog the last week or so.  The folks at MarketingProfs had a very interesting post recently about how hotels play on travelers’ emotions through environmental messaging rather than really doing the most they can to decrease their environmental footprint.

Well, as you know, we’ve tried to get beyond the marketing messages and get a better idea of concrete actions that both Hilton and Marriott have taken.  We declared Marriott the winner.

First of all, I completely agree with MarketingProfs’ assessment of where the “green consumerist” movement is right now.  There is a lot of marketing to play on people’s emotional response to environmental issues, but not enough substance, regulation, or knowledge of how to implement effective environmental change in products and services.  (That’s note to say that the knowledge isn’t out there — it is, in many respects.)

Secondly, this gets at exactly what we’re trying to do with Simple Green Choices.  We want to take the traveler’s emotion OUT of the equation and look at what travelers can do by making the proper choices and taking actions that lessen their environmental impact.

Reusing towels is a nice first action–it saves energy, water, and money on the hotel’s bottom line, but it’s a drop in the bucket.  Let’s all be honest–with ourselves and with our customers.

(Before I get into the meat of this post, let me offer a disclaimer. I cannot possibly know all of the environmental initiatives and programs going on at each hotel. I also cannot measure what the hotels’ baselines are in terms of energy use, water use, pollution, etc. I cannot tell you whether one hotel has followed through on their environmental initiatives and the other hasn’t. I wish all that data were available at my fingertips, but it’s not. Until we have a lodging certification system that allows for consistent audits across all properties, we’ll never be able to measure hotels accurately against one another.

Well, you might ask: what do you know? What I know is what Hilton and Marriott have published on their website–their public commitments to environmental values and programs. I have to take them at their word that they are executing these programs, and I have to assume that we, the public, will hold them accountable. I would suggest that if you stay in a Marriott or a Hilton, ask about these programs and what the location you’re staying in has done with regard to them.

And please check out Hilton and Marriott’s webpages on environmental programs and stewardship on your own. See if you agree with my judgment.

Hilton
So, what is Hilton doing? Here is a boiled-down list of their main environmental initiatives.

• Nearly every Hilton hotel (including Hilton, Hilton Garden, DoubleTree, Hampton Inn, and Homewood Suites) participates in the “Green Program”–which means that guests are given the option of reusing towels. Apparently, this program saves 12 million gallons of fresh water annually.
• Hilton says that it implemented a “corporate-wide” initiative to retrofit rooms with CFL lightbulbs - reducing room wattage from 750 to 220 Watts. It’s unclear, though, how many rooms have been retrofitted, though, and from the numbers, it’s obvious that it does not incorporate every hotel–or even nearly that number.
• Hilton seems to have explored how an individual hotel’s recycling program could work and printed their findings in corporate manuals, but there is no mandate for any hotel manager to implement this program. Also, they are currently EXAMINING in-room recycling options (no action yet on the corporate level).
• The hotel chain has instituted HER (Hilton Environmental Reporting) system, which seems to be a piece of software that allows managers to benchmark their environmental performance and report to corporate. This system was instituted in 2004 and none of the information has been made public in any comprehensive way.
• In the UK and Ireland, Hilton Hotels get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources.
• In the UK and Ireland, Hilton initiated a 15,000-person strong task force to tackle environmental issues, which they say led to 780 specific actions. Unfortunately, none of these actions are named.
• In September 2003, 400 Hilton hotels across the world participated in Environmental Action Month, where each of the local branches did something to ameliorate its environmental impact, and they published examples on their website.
• In November, Hilton Garden Hotels (a subset of Hiltons) announced that they would be phasing out use of styrofoam cups in favor of paper and corn based “ecotainers.” They’re compostable, which begs the question: has Hilton instituted a composting program?
• Way back in the late 1990s, Hilton conducted an energy reduction program in 14 of their European hotels and since then “several more hotels were given the go-ahead for audit and improvement programmes.”

Bottom Line: In North America, Hilton’s main approach has been to allow individual properties and managers to take action on environmental issues if they so choose. It’s nice that they reuse linens and save freshwater, but there’s a lot more that can be done. The UK and Europe seem to be taking more action, but on the whole, count me unimpressed.

Marriott
What is Marriott doing about the environment? We saw earlier in the week that they have a high opinion of their efforts thus far, while also acknowledging there is a lot left to do:

• They have a BUZZWORD! ECHO (Environmentally Conscious Hospitality Operators) is the name they’ve given to their green initiatives.
• Headquarters Initiatives: they’ve replaced plastic utensils with spudware, given premium parking spaces to hybrid drivers, and made reusable mugs available. This feels pretty week.
• Their energy- and water-efficient laundry facility in Washington D.C. serves six locations and saves 3.5 million gallons of water annually just on its own! (Compared to 12 million gallons for Hilton’s whole towel reuse program.)
• They’re building the first LEED-certified hotel in Baltimore, a Fairfield Inn that will open in 2009. They built the chain’s first LEED-certified hotel in Adelphi, Maryland.
• The company has led a whole smorgasbord of energy- and resource-saving initiatives, including: replacing 4,500 outdoor signs with LED displays, replacing 450,000 light-bulbs with CFLs in 2006, saving 11-17 percent on their water usage through linen reuse programs, and installing 400,000 low-flow shower heads (which each save 10% on hot water use per year)
• 96% of Marriott’s hotels recycle in some form. Of course, there’s no quantification here, but it’s an area they say they’re working on. We’ll see.
• Most impressively, Marriott is a member of the EPA’s Climate Leaders program, and they’ve committed to reducing their energy use 6% per guest room in the period from 2005 to 2010. This is a modest but quantifiable step toward reducing energy use.
• Marriott has received more EnergySTAR labels than any other company (160) and for this, won the EPA’s 2007 Energy Star “Sustained Excellence” award.

Bottom Line: Many of Marriott’s environmental initiatives also rely on the actions of local property managers. However, Marriott has created incentive systems to award and highlight managers for their environmental iniatives. And on a corporate level, they are taking MEASURABLE steps toward reducing their energy and water use. Next step: waste reduction. We’ll see how they do there.

The winnner is… MARRIOTT

The result here isn’t in doubt. If you want to make the Hilton/Marriott decision based on environmental factors, choose Marriott. Based on the information available, there is no doubt in my mind that Marriott has more active and committed programs to reduce their environmental impact. They’ve also worked to earn many more EPA endorsements for their efforts than Hilton. To be frank, though, I’d like to see both of these chains take a more integrated approach to their environmental impact.

Have you had an experience at a Marriott or Hilton that you’d like to share? Please comment or send us an e-mail at simplegreenchoices@gmail.com.