How to Find Green Hotels: Green Hotel Certifications

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How to Find Green Hotels: Green Hotel Certifications

Choosing a green hotel when traveling is one of the best ways to reduce your carbon foot-print. Hotels place a huge impact on our environment with their frequent use of disposable items, toiletries, repeated washings of towels and linens, heating or air-conditioning systems, lighting, etc. However a "green hotel" is a better option for using practices that produce lesser waste. The only problem is – How to find a green hotel? How do you know if a hotel is indeed "green" or just "greenwashing"? Greenwashing hotels are NOT genuinely green and just using the term "green hotel" to make their establishment more appealing to environmentally-conscious tourists. The following are some tips on finding a genuinely green hotel:

First, don't rely on hotel star ratings. The star rating system for hotels indicates which hotels are high-class or most preferred by guests however, it does not determine how green a hotel really is. Not all world-class hotels are green, sad to say, and not all certified green hotels are widely popular to tourists. This makes the task of finding green hotels all the more difficult. Good thing, a growing number of green hotel certifications have now emerged making it easier to find accommodations that share the same commitment to caring for the environment.

If you are in search for a green hotel nearest your travel destination, find out which hotels hold any of the following green certifications. PS: We have included links to where you can search for or find directories or listings of the hotels that hold the following green certifications:

USGBC (US Green Building Council) – LEED Certification

LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a green building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It has transformed the way we view buildings, neighborhoods, and communities across the globe – that is, with the goal to be designed and constructed, and operated and maintained using green practices. LEED is intended to provide building owners and/or operators a concise guideline for defining and applying practical and measurable green building practices in terms of designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining buildings which of course include hotels and inns or lodges.

EPA Energy Star Label

The EPA Energy Star Label has strict energy efficiency requirements set by the United States EPA or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It places distinction on which hotels apply the best or most efficient eco-friendly or energy-saving practices. Hotels recognized with the EPA Energy Star distinction use at least 35% less energy than those hotels without the label or rating. As more and more hotels get the EPA Energy Star Label, the more it makes a positive difference not just in the hotel industry but to our environment.

GSTC/ Global Sustainable Tourism Council Criteria

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) is an international multi-coalition tourism organization under the UN – that brings governments, non-government entities, communities, academia, individuals, as well as businesses together to engage in achieving a world-wide sustainable tourism for all. The GSTC membership council serves to promote awareness of the importance of environmental sustainability, and pushes towards adaptation of universal sustainable tourism principles as summarized by the GSTC Criteria. The GSTC Criteria is a set of global guiding principles that propose the minimum requirements for hotels or tourism businesses to reach in order to protect and sustain cultures and the environment. Hotels and accommodations that meet the GSTC Criteria are considered to have the highest standards in meeting and maintaining eco-tourism practices.

Sustainable Tourism Eco-certification Program (STEP)

Hotels that have earned the Sustainable Tourism Eco-Certification are certified to embrace green socio-culturally responsible practices. Hotels that have undergo STEP or the Sustainable Tourism Eco-certification Program are certified for keeping up with the best measures of lowering their properties' impact as much as possible to the social, environmental, and cultural aspects of their tourism business. STEP Certification is awarded by committee members and the awardees' level of commitment is rated from one star to five stars.

Green Seal

Green Seal is another pro-eco-tourism organization implementing a program to certify green hotels worldwide. Their green hotel certification is offered in three levels from bronze, silver, to gold. Hotels that have a Green Seal Certification are proven to have successfully demonstrated highly-effective green practices such as implementing waste reduction and recycling programs, energy efficiency and energy conservation methods, sustainable water management, minimal use of hazardous substances, and environmentally-responsible business purchases.

Green Globe

The Green Globe certification program also recognizes a number of environment-related factors to classify and grant hotels or other tourism properties a green certification. These include energy efficiency, waste management, conservation of natural resources, effective land use, and high employee involvement and commitment to green-tourism efforts. Certification is also offered in 3 levels, the highest being gold, then silver, then bronze level.

Now will these certifications help you now in finding green hotels?

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