One Small Step: Choose a Green Hotel
The greenest vacation you can take is at home, but I understand how difficult that is. Sometimes you want to go to a different and exciting place. And perhaps get away from the cat.
One way to cut your impact while on the go is to choose a green hotel. These are hotels that do the little things like using bulk soap in dispensers rather than individually packaged items. They also compost, practice green cleaning and gray water recycling.
And how about recycling bins in guest rooms? You might find that in a green hotel. For instance, the Boulder Outlook Hotel and Suites features guest recycling bins and alternative energy.
It’s easy to research green hotels at Environmentally Friendly Hotels. They rate a large number of hotels around the world by giving them between one and seven green trees. But you don’t have to guess what the green trees mean. You’ll be able to see what each hotel is doing checklist-style.
So, before you plan your next trip, see how many trees your hotel has earned!
Image via flickr.
Another great website for finding “Green” hotels is iStayGreen.org. It has around 3,000 properties that have been Green Eco-Leaf Rated. It’s also a social networking site similar to Facebook – TripAdvisor – and Expedia but all wrapped up into one website for the eco-friendly traveler to hang out at. Their members write reviews on the properties they stay at based on their “Green” initiatives, so basically the public is creating an accountability system that forces the property owners to be truthful in their claims and do something about becoming more environmentally friendly.iStayGreen.org rates the Boulder Outlook Hotel 4 Green Eco-Leafs at http://www.istaygreen.org/property.cfm/hid/11242464