Eco-friendly travel: Hotels and the green bandwagon

Peter GreenbergTODAY Travel Editor

In the past few years, it seems as if every hotel claims to be doing something to embrace the words “sustainable” and “green.”Many hotels now put tent cards on your bed suggesting you help in the fight to save the environment by asking the hotel not to wash your towels every day. Others boast that, in an effort to save water, they have installed flow restrictors in their shower heads.Skeptical guests (myself among them) suspect the towel-washing suggestions as nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt on the hotel’s part not to save the environment, but to save on soap and energy — and money. As for the shower heads, a simple inspection of local laws most often reveals that the hotels installed the flow restrictors because it’s already part of the municipal building code in their communities — they are already required to have them in place.So much for the “show” of environmental responsibility at many hotels. But there are other hotels that are going above and beyond what they are required to do, and are to be commended for their environmental contributions.Here are a few green, or at the very least, greener, hotels I’ve found:In New York, Kimpton’s The Muse hotel offers hybrid car incentives for those driving to the hotel, and even arranges pedicabs as eco-transportation alternatives. Some other innovations: