You know when you invariably get lost on vacation and have that fight with your spouse or travel buddy about which direction to take? Now eco-travelers can have that dispute ahead of time — while they try to navigate toward green lodgings.
The Eco-Suite at the Fairfield in Baltimore's Inner Harbor district.
Tags: · Climate Change, Green Hotels, Green Key, Green Seal, green travel, hotel certifications, lodging, motels, U.S. Green Building Council, Vacations
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Considering how the desert challenges our green aspirations, it’s surprising there’s not already a reality show: Extreme Green — Finding eco-friendly solutions where the sun always shines.
OK, so the title could use some work. The facts remain – the desert is great for producing heat and making solar power. But when it comes to human habitation, it’s an air conditioning-dependent, rugged place.
They understand that in Palm Desert, a small city in Southern California’s desert Coachella Valley. Palm Desert, in fact, would make a good candidate for the Extreme Green pilot show.
“Palm Desert has a long history of interest in the environment both in energy conservation and saving water and respect for the environment,” said Lauri Aylaian, director of community development for the resort city of 50,000.
Tags: · California, Coachella Valley, Electric vehicles, energy incentives, golf carts, golf courses, native vegetation, Palm Desert, Southern California, Vacations
By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now
“Don’t let the vacation ruin the destination.”
These words of wisdom hail from environmentalists who have legitimate concerns about ocean pollution due to cruise ship dumping.
Cruise ship vacations have gained in popularity in the last decade, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which states that the industry has grown nearly twice as fast as any other means of travel during that time frame. And, at the same time, the average ship size has been growing at about 90 feet every five years. Ships used to average about 3,000 passengers, but today some carry as many as 8,000.
So with larger ships carrying more passengers, there is mounting concern about how this growth will affect the ocean’s marine life and water quality.
Recently the World Wildlife Federation’s Baltic Sea chapter recommended that area ports upgrade their facilities to cope with contamination from cruise ship sewage. The WWF said that Baltic-area ports are not keeping their facilities up-to-date in terms of disposing of cruise ship waste and suggested that the money being made by cruise ship tourism be spent upgrading the facilities, according to a report in the Environmental News Service.
Tags: · cruise ships, dumping, effluent, EPA, Friends of the Earth, garbage, Oceans, Sewage, Travel, treated wastewater, untreated wastewater, Vacations, World Wildlife Fund
Set atop a ridge overlooking the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains, the Len Foote Hike Inn at Amicalola Falls State Park in north Georgia offers a sweeping view of the foothills, the lights of the old gold-rush town of Dahlonega and distant peaks to the east. The 20-room lodge, celebrating its 10th anniversary in October, also offers a close-up view of how thoughtful design and day-to-day diligence combine for low-impact living.
The Hike Inn was built for those who love the outdoors, but aren’t so crazy about sleeping on the ground. Guests arrive on foot, hiking a five-mile trail that takes you through a deeply shaded forest of oak and pine, tulip poplar and maple; through tunnels of rhododendron and patches of pungent galax, a broadleaf evergreen groundcover. Your steps will be lighter, though, knowing that a hot shower and hot meal are waiting for a you at the end of the trail.
The inn, named for the naturalist who inspired the Mark Trail newspaper comic strip, was designed to provide accommodations “somewhere between a tent and a Holiday Inn,” says architect Garland Reynolds of nearby Gainesville, Ga.
Traditional Japanese inns inspire the steeply pitched roofs and deep eaves, Reynolds says.
And there are practical concerns: the eaves provide shelter from rain and snow as you move from the bunkhouse to the bathhouse to the mess hall and on to the Sunrise Room, the social center of the inn where guests gather around a wood stove, reading, chatting or playing one another in a collection of board games. The covered deck off the Sunrise Room (pictured above) is the place to stand, coffee cup in hand, to welcome the crimson streaks of daybreak.
Barbara Kessler
Andrew Winston
Danielle Nierenberg
Anthony Swift