Nature's Green Remedy

This article is the second segment in the three-part “green living” and traveling series covering lodging and your green living lifestyle.

Maintaining Your Green Living Lifestyle at Your Destination Lodging

Once you have reached at your destination and checked into your lodging facilities, there are several more tips you can use to insure you are living as green as possible while away from home!  In today’s world, more and more lodging facilities have waste reduction and energy conservation programs.

Even during the preparation phase you should be checking facilities meeting your requirements for these programs as well. If your selected facility doesn’t have a program, you could always suggest one

After you’ve checked in consider these seven green living lifestyle tips as you get settled in for your stay:

• Be an active participant in the hotel/motel or other facility’s recycling program.  If they do not have a program, ask where the closet recycling facility is and remember to suggest the facility start one;
• Remember to turn off all electrical devices (TVs, radios, lights, chargers!) and heating/cooling system (or at least adjust it to conserve energy) when leaving the unit for extended periods of time.
• Make appropriate use of curtains and blind systems to help keep the room cool during the heat of the day or warmer at night by drawing them closed.
• If you are staying in the same unit for a week or more, work with the facility to reduce the frequency of changing linens to once every few days rather than once per day.  We used this practice last summer when renting a cabin with housekeeping for several weeks while vacationing in New England.  The extra privacy was nice and the proprietor appreciated the cost savings!
• Recycle any unwanted periodical reading material (pamphlets, newspapers, magazines).
• Take opened containers of shampoo, soaps and other useable complimentary items with you when departing but remember to leave the un-opened items behind for the next guest.
• Use the electronic check-out system (usually available through the communications or media system) to reduce the need to generate excess paper.

A Real Green Hotel

And remember when traveling during the summer it’s to time to get away from the normal daily grind but doesn’t mean there has to be a reduction in your green lifestyle.  Using any combination of the seven tips above once you arrive at your lodging facility will definitely allow you to keep living your green lifestyle.