There are two ways that people end up at hotels. The first way is the most common; a person knows that they will be traveling somewhere and calls ahead to make a reservation. Then, there are those who are those who end up in a hotel for some other reason; perhaps they are making a long trip and need a room to crash in, somewhere to clean up and take a rest. While the latter group of people don’t really have a choice the first group does and here is the only choice where Mother Nature is concerned: Green Hotels are the Way to Go!
What Exactly IS a Green Hotel?
There are many people out there who live what is called a Green Lifestyle. This is when people do their best to live their lives as Earth friendly as possible, making a small impact on the Earth if any due to the things that they consume and make use of. A green hotel is an extension of this lifestyle; so many things about a person’s lifestyle go out the door when they go on vacation. In many cases, a diet is what gets left behind and in this case it would be Earth conscious thinking.
There are certain requirements that must be met in order for a hotel to be able to really consider themselves to be a Green Hotel. This is not washing fewer loads of clothes and not having a swimming pool like it used to be; a hotel should not have to sacrifice their clientele in order to be considered environmentally friendly.
Keep in mind that when it comes to a green hotel, the qualities that make them so are not always immediately obvious. There are so many ways to tell and there are so many ways that you would never be able to tell unless you paid close attention. For example, fewer loads of laundry is one thing that most green hotels have in common. This lessens the amount of water used for laundry. Just because towels are picked up every day does not mean they have to be washed all day long, at least not in the eyes of green hotel workers.
Some green hotels do other things to go that extra mile, like make donations to environmentally friendly charities and other green businesses in the community. This makes a world of difference, without most people even realizing it. If they collect compost, have solar panels that are used to power their hotels, and even hotels that are active in their community. In essence, those that participate in programs or make steps toward being more environmentally friendly as well as serving the community can be considered green hotels. Doing these like these does not make hotels official, though.
There are certain certifications that are available to a green hotel that can help make their earth friendly ways an official way of becoming a green hotel. One of the most well known of these ways is the Energy Star program. This is a program set in place by the EPA that may have rated refrigerators, ovens, or dishwashers in your home. It also sets a rating of how well a hotel fares in this same aspect, and up to 150 points can be obtained. You can check out a list of the 150 participating green hotels on the site. There are other such similar programs, like the Green Globe and Green Leaf program that operate in different areas around the world.
What are you waiting for? Check out some of the green hotels at your next destination and make your mark in the green movement.
