Green Hotels

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Just how “green” does a hotel need to be before it can call itself environmentally friendly?

Wen I-Chang, owner of the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa in American Canyon, spent an extra $2 million on his hotel so it could earn the highest environmental ranking of any hotel in the world.

Solar tubes illuminate the Gaia during the day, and its urinals operate without water. The hotel uses bleach-free, environmentally friendly products. Much of its power is generated with solar panels, and its lagoon and grounds are replenished with runoff water. The tiles and carpets underfoot are all made from recycled materials.

“I feel, as a businessman, I’m obligated to do this,” Chang, 62, says of his decision to spend an extra 10 percent to 15 percent in building costs to ensure his hotel received the coveted gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Chang’s is the only hotel in the world to receive the gold certification, which is the second-highest award from USGBC, a Washington D.C.,-based nonprofit that is widely considered the authority on green building certification.

But at thousands of other hotels in the nation, hoteliers flaunt their membership in the Green Hotel Association and other green business groups. To become members of some, hoteliers need only pay as little as $100 a year to obtain a handbook on how to make their businesses more green. They’re given cards for their guest pillows that implore visitors to conserve water by indicating whether they need their sheets changed daily.

In today’s green mania, many consumers want to feel as though they’re spending their dollars in establishments that respect Mother Earth. The phrase “reduce, reuse and recycle” is a mantra as ubiquitous as “don’t drive drunk.” For many people, throwing a soda can into a regular trash bin is akin to blowing cigarette smoke into a toddler’s face. It’s not just lazy and stupid — it’s wrong.

Beware of Green-Washing

Business people get this. And more and more they are going green — or at least saying they are — to make their customers happy. Websites abound that offer listings of hotels that have gone green. Environmentalists and green-certification organizations warn consumers, however, that a listing on a website or a card on a towel rack asking guests to reuse towels does not a green hotel make. 

“We call it green-washing,” says Ashley Katz, communication coordinator for USGBC, which offers the LEED certification. “We see that across the board — people saying that they have a green building, but they just have, say, a bamboo floor. A bamboo floor does not make them a green building.”

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