The Worlkd Is Your Oyster: TRAVEL
Travel has become an integral part of modern life, and whether it's for business or pleasure, we expect the experience to be easy and enjoyable. Today it's also possible to combine luxury accommodations and unforgettable experiences with environmental consciousness. Even routine necessities like auto and air travel can be merged with a newfound eco-awareness.
Bio-Beetle is pushing the car rental industry in a green direction by offering rental cars fueled by biodiesel—a clean-burning diesel gasoline made from renewable sources like vegetable oil. What began as a way for Shaun Stenshol to help green the local tourism industry on the island of Maui in Hawaii has become a smash success. 2006 saw the opening of a second location in Los Angeles, California. Car models include Volkswagen Beetles, Jettas, and Passats and even a biodiesel-powered Jeep. Rates are reasonable and run from $200 to $300 per week in Los Angeles and slightly more for a week in Hawaii.
Visitors to the West Coast can also turn to EV Rental Cars for eco-friendly car transportation. Available in major Californian cities such as San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco, EV Rental Cars provides an auto fleet comprised exclusively of hybrid vehicles, including the Toyota Prius, Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, and the Honda Civic Hybrid. Expansion plans are under way for Las Vegas, Nevada, and the company is already up and running in Phoenix, Arizona.
If you're in need of a car service to take you to the airport, the Dodgers game, or the Academy Awards ceremony, then turn to Eco Limo, a company that operates a fleet of stylish, black Toyota Prius vehicles. If your car service needs are on the East Coast, in New York City, then OZO Car will chauffeur you in style in its own fleet of Toyota Prius hybrid vehicles. OZO Car outfits all of its vehicles with wireless Internet access so you can be as productive as you wish while en route. If flying into Logan Airport outside of Boston, Massachusetts, then call PlanetTran to come get you in one of its eco-advanced hybrid vehicles. PlanetTran's eco-car service operates throughout the Boston area, and plans are in the works to open a second location in San Francisco.
Eco-travel agencies can help you green your transportation and provide broad expertise to let you travel in style while treading lightly on the planet. Better World Club offers a range of travel-related services including insurance, roadside assistance, and travel planning. For each trip booked online through its website the company donates $1 to environmental causes. Vouchers that offset greenhouse gas emissions associated with air travel can be easily purchased and are automatically included when booking directly through the company's travel agents. Better World Club members also benefit from eco-travel discounts through an extensive green partner network. Recent partnerships with Bio-Beetle and EV Rental Car, for example, enable members to receive eco-friendly rental car discounts of up to 15 percent off regular prices.
Manaca EcoTravel uses an extensive eco-assessment tool to select the best eco-tours and eco-lodges around the world (think Peru, Australia, Fiji, and Madagascar). The company rates each one on its commitment to the environment as seen through food, education, community, and protection of fragile sites. Upon receiving approval by Manaca's staff, eco-operators then sign the Responsible Tourism Pledge attesting to their ongoing commitment to Earth-conscious practices. Visitors to the company website can surf the database of eco-options and contact Manaca to book destinations and airfare. You could soon find yourself at far-flung destinations like the Chumbe Island Coral Park in Tanzania, a private nature reserve that includes one of the most pristine coral reef sanctuaries in the world. Nestled right on the ocean in a protected area, the resort is mandated to have zero impact on the environment, which means you'll be sleeping in a state-of-the-art eco-bungalow equipped with solar water heating and electricity, rainwater catchment systems, gray water filtration, and composting toilets.
Eco-lodging is not only for adventure seekers. Many hotels in the United States and abroad are implementing measures to green their operations. In fact, two of the most widely respected hotel operators in North America are combining stylish accommodations with eco-principles to offer guests uncompromising experiences.
The Kimpton Group is the largest boutique hotelier in the country. From the Triton Hotel in San Francisco, to the Sky Hotel in Aspen, to 70 Park Avenue in New York City, Kimpton manages forty four-star properties throughout the country. In addition to providing intimate settings, stylish decor, and high-tech conveniences like in-room MP3 players and wireless Internet, Kimpton also provides a healthy, eco-enlightened atmosphere for business or leisure. Each hotel features water conservation and recycling programs as well as nontoxic cleaning products. Travelers may give little thought to how hotel linens are washed and rooms are kept tidy, but toxin-free laundry detergent and carpet and counter cleaners give guests a safer lodging experience and the staff a healthier working environment. Kimpton's environmental commitment even extends to its corporate materials, which are printed on recycled paper with soy ink, and to its in-house beverages—guests are treated to organic coffee and tea throughout the day and an organic wine happy hour. Several Kimpton hotels also offer "eco floors," and the Triton has celebrity-designed eco-suites. Guests can stay in the Red Hot Chili Pepper suite equipped with rescued furniture, hemp textiles, and organic cotton sheets, or Woody Harrelson's "oasis" with bamboo floors and hemp linens.
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts merges luxurious ambience with eco-intelligence. The company's forty-four properties in eight countries are set amid some of the most pristine and desirable real estate, such as the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, which draws 40 percent of its energy from wind power and hydropower from free-flowing rivers and is situated in the heart of the Canadian Rockies on a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Fairmont's luxury hotels are landmarks in U.S. cities such as Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Santa Monica, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. In 1990, the company began implementation of its Green Partnership program, which strives for improvements across all of its hotel properties in waste management, energy and water conservation, and community outreach. Since 1997, Fairmont has successfully encouraged more than 80 percent of its hotel properties to reduce paper consumption by 20 percent. Bathrooms have been retrofitted with low-flow showerheads, toilet dams, and tap aerators to conserve water. Energy-efficient lighting has been installed in many properties. And now every front desk computer in every hotel is run on certified wind energy, so checking in is done entirely off the power grid. The results have been widely recognized, and in 2006, Fairmont received the World Travel & Tourism Council's prestigious 2006 Global Tourism Business Award, recognizing Fairmont as one of the word's leading examples of environmental best practices and responsible tourism.
Other hoteliers are making eco-strides too. The Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco opened in October of 2006 and is the first hotel in California to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. Guest rooms in the luxury boutique hotel are outfitted with an LCD flat-screen television with DVD and CD player, cordless telephone, and wireless Internet access. Bath products are all organic. And each room is fitted with a key-card energy control system designed to automatically shut off all lights and electronics when you leave the room. Up the road in Napa Valley, the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel offers luxury amenities, spa services, and plenty of eco-intelligent design features. The hotel is pursuing LEED certification and features eco-innovations like solar power for energy needs and recycled gray water from showers and sinks for outdoor landscaping irrigation.
In Boston, the Saunders Group operates the historic Lenox Hotel and the Copley Square Hotel, both of which have been recognized for their award-winning environmental programs. Superior energy efficiency and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are achieved through forward-thinking initiatives like low-E windows that provide superior insulation and energy-efficient heat pumps for heating and cooling in guest rooms. Hotel vans run on compressed natural gas to reduce pollution and emissions. Water conservation is addressed through low-flow showerheads and toilets. Waste disposal demands are minimized by donations of food scraps to a local pig farm. These are but a few of the more than ninety projects that led the EPA to label the Saunders Hotel Group "a national leader in energy efficiency and environmental innovation."
Travelers in search of vacation destinations can go in eco-style too. Snow lovers can launch into some of the deepest powder in North America at Silverton Mountain in Colorado. Silverton has been ranked by Powder magazine as number one in steeps and number one in powder in the U.S. It's the ultimate skiing experience, with an equally formidable environmental record. For starters, no ski runs are ever cut clear, which keeps the environment pristine and the skiing adventurous. Silverton also plants two trees for every one that is cut down to make room for a lift. You may be picturing a mountain the size of Aspen (great environmental record by the way) with lift lines to match, but this is a different skiing experience. Silverton offers access to some of the most pristine terrain in the country and manages to effectively serve its skiers with just one lift. There are no more than one hundred skiers allowed on the mountain each day, and a guide accompanies every one. Located in the San Juan Mountains, Silverton's thirteen hundred acres have been leased to owner Aaron Brill by the Bureau of Land Management with the understanding that he will preserve the land.
If big resorts are more your style, then Vail Resorts, the company that owns and operates Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, and Keystone ski resorts in Colorado, Heavenly ski resort in California and Nevada, and Grand Teton Lodge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, will help you minimize your eco-impact with every lift you ride or cup of hot chocolate you drink. In 2006, Vail began offsetting all of its energy consumption at all of its mountains—including lifts, restaurants, and resort hotels—through purchases of wind energy. Yet you won't see wind farms towering above China Bowl or other pristine ski areas. The wind energy credits that Vail Resorts purchases through Renewable Choice Energy enable wind-generated power to enter the national power grid elsewhere, serving to reduce carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions by 211 million pounds per year—the equivalent of taking eighteen thousand cars off the road. In the United States, Vail is now the second largest purchaser of wind energy, behind only Whole Foods.
Not into snowcapped vacations? There's always the exploration of remote locales via a luxury small-craft ship. These boats take you to the places that the larger cruise boats simply can't access. Once you arrive at your destination, a team of seasoned guides—geologists and oceanographers—will take you along as they conduct cutting-edge research for the likes of the National Geographic Society. Lindblad Expeditions has been taking travelers and researchers around the world for thirty years. From the Galapagos to the Antarctic, founder Sven Lindblad ensures that exploration is as much about discovery as it is about environmental conservation. Lindblad's conservation programs range from the Baja Forever Campaign to partnerships with the World Wildlife Fund, the Alaska Whale Foundation, the Marine Stewardship Council, and the RARE Center for Tropical Conservation. Lindblad is also a member of the Chef's Collaborative, an organization that sources the freshest ingredients from local farmers and fisherman, so you can support the local economies you visit by enjoying a sumptuous feast.
Lindblad is a member of the Adventure Collection, a group of premier adventure travel operators as committed to creating unique and unforgettable vacations as they are to eco-conservation and responsible tourism. Buddy Bombard's Europe will take you on tours of Europe's castles and make you feel like you can reach out and touch the spires and turrets from your perch in a hot air balloon. Backroads will guide you on adventure bike treks amid North American glacier peaks. Bushtracks Expeditions sets you down in remote eco-regions through its private-air safaris. Canadian Mountain Holidays helicopters you into the pristine mountain high country accompanied by expert guides for activities ranging from skiing to climbing and mountaineering. Geographic Expeditions can lead your adventure to the East Face of Mount Everest. And these are but a few of the exploration possibilities that await you.
Car Rentals and Services
BIO-BEETLE
Bio-beetle.com
The first all-biodiesel rental car company in the world, Bio-Beetle offers its rental car services in Los Angeles and the Hawaiian island of Maui. True to its name, Bio-Beetle rents Volkswagen Beetles as well as Golfs, Jettas, Passats, and Jeeps.
ECO LIMO
Eco-limo.com
When in Los Angeles, do what the stars do and hire Eco Limo to take you around town in a stylish, eco-intelligent black Toyota Prius. National expansion plans are currently in planning. Look for Eco Limo locations soon in San Francisco, Washington, DC, and New York.
EV RENTAL CARS
Evrental.com
With locations in California, Arizona, and coming soon, Las Vegas, EV Rental offers more than 350 hybrid engine rental cars. The company's mission is to offer the most technologically and environmentally advanced cars to the public as soon as they are available. Hybrid car models available include the Toyota Prius, Toyota Highlander SUV, and the Honda Civic.
OZO CAR
Ozocar.com
A New York City car service that chauffeurs customers exclusively in hybrid vehicles, Ozo Car is committed to providing a luxury experience that won't compromise the planet. All vehicles are fitted with wireless Internet access so you can be as productive as you wish while en route.
PLANET TRAN
Planettran.com
Servicing Boston and nearby Logan Airport, Planet Tran is an eco-service that picks you up and transports you in eco-style with its fleet of hybrid vehicles. A second location is being planned for San Francisco.
Travel Agencies
BETTER WORLD CLUB
Betterworldclub.com
Better World Club offers a range of travel-related services including insurance, roadside assistance, and travel planning. For each trip booked online at its website, the company donates $1 to environmental causes. Vouchers that offset greenhouse gas emissions associated with air travel can be easily purchased and are automatically included when booking directly through the company's travel agents.
MANACA TRAVEL
Manaca.com
Manaca EcoTravel uses an extensive eco-assessment tool to select the best eco-tours and eco-lodges around the world—rating food, education, community, and protection of fragile sites. Visitors to the website can surf the database of eco-options and contact Manaca to book destinations and airfare.
Hotel Operators
FAIRMONT HOTELS & RESORTS
Fairmont.com
Fairmont's hotels and resorts merge luxurious ambience with eco-intelligence. The company's forty-four properties in eight countries implement eco-initiatives to conserve energy and water and recycle waste. All front-desk computers in every hotel are powered by wind energy from the purchase of renewable energy credits.
KIMPTON HOTELS
Kimptonhotels.com
Eco-floors and celebrity-designed eco-suites are just the beginning. Kimpton hotels also feature water conservation and recycling programs and use only nontoxic cleaning products. Stop by one of the chain's boutique hotels around the country for a free organic wine happy hour.
SAUNDERS HOTEL GROUP
Saundershotelgroup.net
The Saunders Group operates the historic Lenox Hotel and the Copley Square Hotel, both of which have been recognized for their award-winning environmental programs. The EPA has labeled the Saunders Hotel Group "a national leader in energy efficiency and environmental innovation."
Getaways/Destinations
CHUMBE ISLAND CORAL PARK
Chumbeisland.com
Stay at this private nature reserve in Tanzania that offers one of the most pristine choral reef sanctuaries in the world. Guests sleep in state-of-the-art eco-bungalows equipped with solar water heating and electricity, rainwater catchment systems, gray water filtration, and composting toilets.
GAIA NAPA VALLEY HOTEL
Gaiahotelnapavalley.com
The Gaia Napa Valley Hotel offers luxury amenities, spa services, and plenty of eco-intelligent design features. The hotel is pursuing LEED certification and features eco-innovations like solar power for energy needs and recycled gray water from showers and sinks for outdoor landscaping irrigation.
HOTELITO DESCONOCIDO
Hotelito.com
Perched on a wetland estuary between the Sierra Madre Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Hotelito is run entirely on solar power—candles light the rooms and restaurant at night. The resort also sits on a major sea turtle and bird reserve.
MACHU PICCHU PUEBLO HOTEL
Inkaterra.com
Located in Machu Picchu's Historical Sanctuary in the cloud forest, Pueblo's whitewashed cottages are spread across twelve acres of streams, waterfalls, and forest. The hotel features the world's largest collection of native orchids, and the rooms are outfitted with handcrafted Andean architecture, alpaca bedspreads, and handmade organic amenities and aromatherapy products.
ORCHARD GARDEN HOTEL
Theorchardgardenhotel.com
The first hotel in California to be LEED certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, the Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco features guest rooms outfitted with an LCD flat-screen television with DVD and CD player, a cordless telephone, and wireless Internet access. Bath products are all organic. And each room is fitted with a key-card energy-control system designed to automatically shut off all lights and electronics when you leave the room.
WILDERNESS OUTPOST AT BEDWELL RIVER
Wildretreat.com
Inspired by late-nineteenth-century Great Camps, the Wilderness Outpost in British Columbia offers eighteen sumptuous tents equipped for luxury camping. Each tent at this eco-resort features an Adirondack-style bed, antique dressers, pressed-glass oil lamps, heirloom accessories, and a propane wood stove. Explore the natural surroundings by going on an eco-safari on horseback and by helicopter.
Adventure
ADVENTURE COLLECTION
Adventurecollection.com
The Adventure Collection is a group of premier adventure travel operators as committed to creating unique and unforgettable vacations as they are to eco-conservation and responsible tourism. Explore the corners of the Earth with award-winning tour operators by helicopter, private airplane, small cruise ship, bicycle, or hot air balloon. If you can dream it, these companies can likely make it happen.
JIMINY PEAK MOUNTAIN RESORT
Jiminypeak.com
The first ski resort in the U.S. to install its own wind turbine to generate wind power, Jiminy broke ground on the $4 million turbine in 2006, and construction is scheduled for completion in 2007. When finished, the wind turbine will create enough clean energy to supply one-third of the resort's energy needs, roughly the equivalent of powering 766 homes.
LINDBLAD EXPEDITIONS
Expeditions.com
Skip the big, impersonal cruise for a Lindblad adventure. Destinations include the Galapagos and the Antarctic, and guides are often geologists and oceanographers. Conservation is a focal point of Lindblad's mission, as is a commitment to supporting local agriculture.
SILVERTON MOUNTAIN
Silvertonmountain.com
Skiing has never looked like this. No ski run is ever cut clear, and there are less than one hundred skiers allowed on the mountain each day. Go big. Go deep. Get all the freshies your legs can take.
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY IN MOTION BICYCLE TOUR
Portlandpeace.org
Bike hundreds of miles along the beautiful Oregon coastline, study and apply the philosophies of permaculture and alternative building, and observe local economics projects and grassroots democracy movements in the places through which you travel.
VAIL SKI RESORTS
Vailresorts.com
Vail Resorts, the company that owns and operates Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, and Keystone ski resorts in Colorado, Heavenly ski resort in California and Nevada, and Grand Teton Lodge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, offsets all of its energy consumption at all of its mountains—including lifts, restaurants, and resort hotels—through purchases of wind energy.
Ones to Watch
"1" HOTEL & RESIDENCES
Starwoodhotels.com
The first global eco-luxury hotel brand is getting set to open its doors. "1" will combine green architecture and interior design with top-flight service and comfort. The Starwood Capital Group is behind the venture and has brought in the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) as an environmental advisor. The first hotel is slated to open in Seattle in 2008, with others to follow in Scottsdale, Arizona; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Mammoth ski resort in California. "1" hotels in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, are also anticipated.
ALOFT HOTELS
Starwoodhotels.com/alofthotels
Coming in 2008 are the Aloft Hotels, labeled "a vision of W Hotels." The hotels will be more accessibly priced than W Hotels but will still deliver upscale contemporary decor and super-fun atmosphere. Green features include Seventh Generation cleaning supplies and laundry detergents to rid toxins from hotel rooms and linens and even the pool. Coveted parking spaces directly outside the hotel will be reserved exclusively for hybrid cars.
BOEING
Boeing.com/news/releases/2003/q3/nr_030711p.html
The world-class leader in airplanes is working on a hydrogen fuel-cell airplane that would emit zero greenhouse gas emissions while in flight. The prototype is currently being developed at its research center in Madrid, Spain.
RICHARD BRANSON
virgin.com/subsites/virginfuels
The world-class entrepreneur behind Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Records, and lots of other Virgins is placing big bets on alternative energy. Branson has committed to investing $3 billion to develop the green fuels of the future, and word has it he's on to a fuel source that could help green all transportation, including air travel.
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
Blancaneauxlodge.com
Coppola bought Blancaneaux Lodge in the jungles of Belize because it reminded him of the wild beauty of the Philippine jungle where he filmed Apocalypse Now. The resort not only provides a luxurious escape, but it's also environmentally aware. Ninety percent of the lodge's power comes from a hydroelectric plant Coppola built to harness the water of the nearby Privassion River. With three resorts in Belize—he also owns Turtle Inn and La Lancha—Coppola has mastered the pairing of sumptuous vacationing and eco-consciousness. Where will he go next?
LEONARDO DICAPRIO
In 2005 DiCaprio purchased the 104-acre Blackadore Caye island, off the coast of Belize. Always the avid conservationist, he's rumored to have plans to turn it into an exclusive eco-luxury resort.
Information/Education
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY HOTELS
Environmentallyfriendlyhotels.com
This website maintains a global database of hotels, resorts, lodges, inns, motels, and bed and breakfasts that are implementing green measures. The site rates properties on a scale of 1 to 7 for eco-friendly commitment, and travelers often post comments to provide additional information about the properties.
GOLF AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Golfandenvironment.org
An initiative of Audubon International, Golf and the Environment teams up with golf courses around the world to help management teams design and maintain courses in ways that support healthier ecosystems. Visit the website to find hundreds of golf courses that have been certified by Audubon International, attesting to their environmentally friendly practices.
GREEN HOTELS ASSOCIATION
GreenHotels.com
Green Hotels promotes and supports the greening of the hotel industry. The website features an extensive list of member hotels throughout the United States and internationally that are interested in implementing programs that save water, energy, and reduce solid waste. Green Hotels does not verify or certify eco-claims made by its member hotels, but the list presents a good starting point for discovering hotels, inns, and bed and breakfasts that take environmental issues seriously.
NATIONAL SKI AREAS ASSOCIATION
Nsaa.org
NSAA is the trade association for ski area owners and operators, and it maintains a database on its website of environmental practices implemented by its members. Click on "The Green Room" in the environment section of the website to view the environmental steps that specific ski mountains throughout the U.S. are taking to combat global warming.
RAINFOREST ALLIANCE
Rainforest-alliance.org
The Rainforest Alliance implements programs for ecosystems and the people and wildlife that depend on them. The organization's Eco-Index of Sustainable Tourism lists hotels, resorts, and tour operators throughout Latin America and the Caribbean that follow environmental and socially responsible principles.
RESPONSIBLETRAVEL.COM
This website offers an easily searchable database of eco-aware hotels and resorts around the globe. Tour operators listed are all carefully screened. Travelers also contribute independent reviews of the properties listed to provide an additional screen. Budget-conscious backpackers, families, and luxury destination seekers will all find useful information here.
SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL
Sustainabletravelinternational.org
Sustainable Travel International (STI) is a nonprofit organization that provides education to travelers and outreach to the travel industry to improve the environmental conditions in tourism destinations. The website maintains a great database of eco-tour operators and accommodations around the globe.
WILD ASIA
Wildasia.net
This Malaysia-based think tank supports conservation initiatives in Asia to develop responsible tourism. The organization's website offers an easily searchable database of hotels and resorts throughout Asia that are committed to eco-conservation, respecting local cultures, and contributing to local economies.
