Sustainable Travel: It’s Our Choice

Go Green and Enjoy Sustainable Travel

 

eco hotels for sustainable travelAs we try to find ways to be more responsible to our environment, our interest in living green naturally extends beyond our home life into our travel life.

How can we become green, eco-friendly travelers?

We can start by:

  • Choosing lodging facilities that have worked with eco-conscious commercial contractors dedicated to using green construction supplies
  • Exploring tourism-related programs that reward the traveler, community and planet by implementing practices that promote sustainability

By supporting these types of organizations, we can make sustainable tourism and travel easier for everyone to achieve.

Examples of Sustainable Hotels

The Ritz-Carlton in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a great example of a tourism-related business committed to environmental responsibility and sustainable travel. This hotel combines luxurious amenities with many eco-friendly offerings like low-flowing toilets and showerheads. The first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) recognized hotel in Charlotte, the Ritz-Carlton’s vegetated rooftop provides homegrown herbs for the hotel’s restaurants. In addition, two rooftop beehives allow 60,000 honeybees to supply natural honey for the hotel’s guests.

Las-Vegas-Palazzo-Resort wins eco awardThe Las Vegas Palazzo Hotel & Resort, another LEED-certified property, was recently designated Most Eco-Friendly Hotel in America. The Palazzo has integrated sustainability features into its facility that include a water recycling system; solar panel heating; and a waste reuse operation. The hotel insures that guests will receive an eco-friendly travel experience through concepts like green dining, valet bicycle parking and their Eco Linen program.

By choosing hotels that are committed to reducing their ecological footprint, we can enjoy a healthy, eco-friendly environment with the knowledge that we are supporting sustainable tourism.

Editor’s Notes:

  1. Who would have guessed that a large luxury hotel built in a desert region could win 1st place in an Eco friendly award?  It’s astonishing what we can do to make sure we’re green, everywhere we go.
  2. Of course if you travel, you’ll want to offset your carbon emissions, especially if you fly.   Use an on-line carbon calculator to see how much carbon your journey emits, and donate money which will be used to off-set that amount (see How to Buy a Carbon Offset for details). You can chose from non-profits such as CarbonNeutral or CarbonFund  who work with environmental projects.  Or choose something more local to you – for example The Woodland Trust will plant trees in the UK when you donate to cover your carbon emissions.  Just google “carbon offset” or “carbon offset with tree planting” and then your country.
  3. When it comes to accommodation, things have improved dramatically in the last few years.  Instead of only basic cabins you now have a huge choice of eco friendly accommodation all over the world with the degree of luxury that you choose. To find sustainable accommodation, go to Eco Hotels of the World or google “eco friendly hotels” and the name of your country.

Now you can easily plan your next sustainable holiday, with no guilt!

This was a Guest Post by Sam Marquit – to find out more, go here http://fmarquitv.tumblr.com/

If you enjoyed this article, please Share, Like, Tweet or Pin it (buttons below) – thank you!


Tags

eco tourism, ecotourism, green hotels, sustainable travel


  • Eco tourism is definitely becoming more easy to achieve for the average traveler. I am personally pleased to note that even in Las Vegas a hotel chain has decided to go the green route but I do wonder how much persuasion it took at board level.

  • {"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}
    Join 5 De-Stress Yoga Challenge happy woman
    >