Is your hotel really eco-friendly? by Peter Greenberg

Whenever I start hearing a travel industry buzzword, it doesn’t take me long to become skeptical. Over the past decade, the terms I’ve heard used most often — and most carelessly — are “green travel” and “eco-travel.”

Many travelers are interested in staying in environmentally friendly properties. But what’s the best way to figure out if a hotel or resort is actually integrating eco-friendly features, or if it’s simply “greenwashing” for the sake of appearances?

One thing that drives me nuts is hotels that put up that little placard (often made of plastic, by the way) that says, “We can help save the environment by not washing your sheets and towels every day.” In their defense, having been inside hotel laundry facilities, I agree that reducing washing loads can save significant amounts of energy and water. But if that’s all a hotel is doing to help the environment, it’s not doing very much. It's also saving money, but not passing the savings on to its guests.

The same deal goes for those low-flow toilets and showers. That may seem like an eco-friendly move, but in many cases the requirement is already in the municipal code.

Here are the additional elements you should look for in a hotel that claims to be green:

• Are there recycling bins in the room? Energy-efficient light bulbs? Solar panels? These may seem like small steps, but together they add up to meaningful conservation efforts.

• How does your hotel deal with wasteful items? Omni, Hyatt, Kimpton, Westin and Sheraton are among the many chains that have removed telephone books from rooms, for example.

• What does the hotel do to regulate temperatures in an energy-saving way? Another one of my pet peeves is hotel rooms that waste energy by setting thermostats to well below freezing, even when the room is unoccupied. A better option is sensor thermostats that automatically shut off or reset when the room is empty. Guests can do their part by shutting the drapes to keep in heat or cool air.

• Look around the hotel’s exterior. Is the landscaping a water-guzzling field with beautiful but hard-to-maintain flowers, or does it incorporate native plants?

Some hotel brands have begun to implement chain-wide green initiatives, which I hope will make the rest of the industry take notice. Fairmont Hotels, for example, has a “green team” to implement conservation policies in each of its properties; as one success story, both the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Fairmont Scottsdale convert their kitchen grease into biodiesel.

Another chain worth calling out is Kimpton Hotels, whose EarthCare initiative encompasses environmentally friendly cleaning products (eliminating more than 48,000 gallons of toxic cleaners from water supplies each year) and in-room recycling. Individual Kimpton hotels employ additional amenities such as free or discounted parking for guests who drive hybrid cars; some properties even recycle clothes hangers.

Other properties doing their part include non-chain hotels and resorts. This spring, Hawks Cay Resort in the Florida Keys will implement a property-wide "Bottle Free" program. Each guest room will contain two reusable bottles, which can be filled up at water stations throughout the property.

Finally, the Breakers in Palm Beach, which was awarded with Green Lodging Certification by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in 2006, has measures such as a 1,100-foot reverse osmosis water facility and well that converts unusable, high salt content water to irrigation water used on the golf course; this conserves approximately 95 million gallons of potable water each year.

Hotels that are LEEDing the way

While there’s no real international standard for what constitutes a “responsible” hotel, something called LEED Certification from the Green Building Council is fast becoming the nationally accepted benchmark for green building design and construction. Here are six developments worth paying attention to:

• In Charlotte, North Carolina, the new Ritz-Carlton, which opened this month, is the first LEED-certified luxury brand. Built to achieve gold status, the hotel features elements such as a vegetative roof with 18,000 plants that insulate the building and reduce rain runoff, a natural water purification and container system, and even employee uniforms made from a material created from regenerated plastic bottles.

• Viceroy Resorts and Residences, Snowmass, Colo., is being built as a silver LEED-certified hotel. It’s expected to save 2,100 barrels of oil, 10 million gallons of water and 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, and was constructed to use more than 30 percent less energy, 20 percent less water and more than 30 percent less carbon dioxide than standard buildings.

• The Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa achieved gold LEED certification, with measures such as using Forest Stewardship Council-approved wood-based materials, carpets containing post-consumer recycled material and recycled tiles and granite in the bathrooms.

• Palazzo Resort-Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas is the largest building project in the world to receive LEED certification, with silver status.

• Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, N.C., reached platinum status and observes more than 70 sustainable practices, including using solar energy to heat approximately 60 percent of its water, and employing salvaged trees in its restaurant tables.

• Westin’s Element is aiming to become the first major hotel brand that is LEED certified across all of its properties.

My take is that the hotel industry is moving in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go before most properties are truly environmentally friendly. What do you think? Do you consider whether a hotel is eco-friendly when deciding where to stay? Share your thoughts with other travelers in the comments section.

Peter Greenberg is the Travel Editor for CBS News. He is also the author of The New York Times best-seller “Don’t Go There!” and “Tough Times, Great Travels,” and host of the nationally syndicated Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio show, as well as travel editor at large for AARP. Visit him on the Web at http://www.petergreenberg.com.