restaurant and onsite cooking school is purchased from local farmers. In Big Sur, California, the award-
winning Post Ranch Inn specializes in repurposing materials. Wood from old growth redwood wine casks accent walls in guest rooms. Fallen trees become benches dotting walkways. Dinnerware is made from recycled glass and any bro- ken plates are recycled again. The honey used for a special spa facial treatment comes from 18 onsite beehives. Daily updates on energy savings
via the Inn’s 208 kW, 990-panel solar power system can be viewed at Tinyurl. com/PostRanchInnMonitor.
More Sustainable Hotels
While many hotels are implementing energy- and water-saving measures and recycling, some are taking even more Earth-friendly steps in their op- erations and services. Best Western Plus Boulder Inn, in
Boulder, Colorado, is solar powered and supplies bicycles for guests. Forty 1° North, in Newport, Rhode
Island, provides in-room electronic newspaper delivery via iPads, saving 700 pounds of waste per month. Hyatt at Olive 8, in Seattle,
Washington, has an 8,355-square-foot living rooftop that provides an urban habitat for birds, bees and butterflies and reduces storm water runoff to city sewers. The InterContinental New York
photo courtesy of The Resort at the Mountain Oregon’s The Resort at the Moun-
tain, in Welches, installed an additional 11,000 indigenous plants throughout its 300-acre property in 2009, in the spirit of the nearby Mount Hood National Forest. The mountain is home to the only ski lodge certified by the Sustain- able Travel Institute, using United Na- tions criteria. “We are a base camp for skiers, hik- ers, off-road bikers and fly fishermen,” says General Manager John Erickson. “Our ‘field to stream’ menu features northwest products and of course, fish.” The resort’s golf course, following
the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, uses natural methods for weed control. “We pull them up,” says Erick- son. “Wildflowers get to stay where they are.” Golfers and fishermen volunteer to help keep the course in good shape and the water channels clear for salmon and steelhead. From the golf course, visitors can see the salmon swimming upstream. “Most of the fishermen catch and release,” says Erickson. “We want to be good stewards of the land.”
Connect with freelance writer Avery Mack at
AveryMack@mindspring.com.
natural awakenings July 2013 49
Times Square has two green rooftops that feature low-maintenance, drought- tolerant plants to help regulate the building’s temperature. A resident bee- hive produced 40 pounds of locally sourced honey in its initial harvest. Kimpton’s Hotel Monaco, in
Portland, Oregon, offers guests a 50 percent discount on parking for hy- brid cars, plus complimentary electric car charging.
Shore Hotel, in Santa Monica, California, offers a Green Concierge program with information on local farmers’ markets, eco-friendly shop- ping and fair trade espresso spots, plus access to hybrid taxis, bicycles and walking tours.
In the Finger Lakes area of upstate
New York, the Hotel Skyler, a former temple and theater, the third hotel in the U.S. and 10th in the world to achieve Platinum LEED certification, is heated by a geothermal gas pump and outfitted with salvaged architecture. Element hotels [in Colorado, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey and Texas] of- fer green kitchens, spa baths, in-room recycle bins, magnetic guest room door signs, electric vehicle chargers, in-room filtered tap water and bikes to borrow. Chicago’s Hotel Felix, built in 1926, has gone so green that even its sculptures are made from reclaimed materials.
Houston’s Magnolia Hotel pro- vides bus passes for employees. In Massachusetts, the Inn at Field
Farm, in Williamstown, and the Inn at Castle Hill, in Ipswich, are owned by a statewide land trust and nonprofit conservation organization, The Trust- ees of Reservations. The Omni Hotel, in Dallas, is the largest gold-certified LEED hotel outside Las Vegas. Pennsylvania’s Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia relies on microturbines to provide 100 percent of the daily hot water needs and 15 percent of heating requirements. The W Austin Hotel uses only
recyclable containers—no Styrofoam is allowed.
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