The ascent of the six summits of New England in winter was not only 1,500+ miles of adventurous driving and icy mountain climbing; it was a chance to sample a wide range of accommodation. We stayed at small independent hotels with doors on the streets, local B&Bs, large hotel chains and in our trusty tent. From park rangers to B&B proprietors, night managers sipping coffee to aps that got us direct from the car to the room, we sampled low to high tech, warm and cozy to cool efficiency.
Where we sleep on our mega road trip will be a big part of the experience and it will also have a great impact on the environment. The estimated CO2 pollution from one hotel night stay is 20kg. How do we minimize that impact?
We found LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, that certify buildings as resource efficient. They use less water and energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings receive one of four LEED rating levels: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Both Marriott and Starwood are working toward getting large numbers of their hotels registered and certified.
Another green building rating system exists called Green Globe that is for companies and organizations, which are committed to making positive contributions to people and the planet. It has members in over 40 countries worldwide, including Intercontinental and Radisson.
Hyatt has some hotels that are LEED certified and others that are Green Globe Certified.
Hilton, which is also affiliated with both LEED and Green Globe certifications, was one of the first to establish an overall sustainability platform, Lightstay. It was the first global hospitality company to be certified ISO 14001 for Environmental Management and won an award by Forbes (2015) as a top 50 Green Brand.
How easy is it to actually book an eco-friendly hotel online? The Beach Meter blog provided a list of green hotel booking platforms and we found these three worked best.
Bookdifferent, which is based on the booking.com database, includes both green and non-green hotels. It’s easy to use, with footprints indicating the amount of CO2 produced per room, per night and the option to select a range of eco-labels. Interestingly, none of the hotels are classified LEED and only two are Green Globe (and neither of them in the USA). Green Key Global is the most widely used Eco-label in the USA on this site with 216 hotels registered.
TripAdvisor has created a GreenLeaders program, making it possible to use the current trip advisor search program. Independent experts conduct audits of some hotels each year in addition to those triggered by customer feedback. The green option is under the Style drop down.
GreenHotelWorld is an easy to use search engine that claims to offset your CO2 if you choose to stay in a non-green hotel. It also provides the option to filter your search by which environmental green practice you are interested in and which certification labels the hotel has. GreenHotelWorld estimates there are over 50 active certifications worldwide and they link with all of them. They list fourteen of these labels and LEED and TripAdvisors GreenLeaders are on the list.
These hotel-booking platforms will be very useful when looking for environmentally friendly hotels as we make our way 16,162miles around North America.
Not one of them uses their facilities/amenities list to provide information on EV charging. For that we will have to use one of the EV charging aps. Needless to say, it will be far simpler to have all this information in one place.
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