Eco + Green Travel
08.26.09
This one's for the ladies only, guys. Sweet, recently launched by gay travel guru Shannon Wentworth, is a new tour operator for lesbians who care about the world they live in (which is most of you, right?). Wentworth teamed up with CarbonFund.org to figure out exactly how her trips could be carbon neutral (answer: by helping to reforest a large area along the Tensas River in Louisiana). Wentworth also plans to incorporate humanitarian projects into each of her trips.
Read More
08.07.09
My mission was simple: for my husband and me to get some desperately needed time out of New York City among trees, fresh air and wildlife, and open space for our active toddler boy to run, climb and explore. Also important: finding a reasonably priced place to stay for the weekend near Woodstock, NY, where our friends were getting married.
After much research into different inns and B&Bs (many of which do not allow children), we decided to stay at The Retreat at TreeGap, an eco- and family-friendly B&B about a mile outside town with a focus on organic food (and big breakfasts!) and sustainable living.
Read More
04.28.09
I love hotel remodels—the gleaming bathroom fixtures, the springy pillow-top mattresses that feel improbably cushier than any I’ve owned. But as someone who gets guilty throwing out a paperclip when it could be reused, I've always wondered: What happens to the original (perfectly good) furniture when a property decides to revamp?Are the superfluous fittings recycled, or tossed in a landfill where they’ll form en suite mounds of trash?
According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, there are nearly five million hotel rooms in the U.S., and most have their mattresses and couches updated every 6-8 years (it’s every 12-13 years for less worn-and-torn “casegoods,” like headboards and dressers). When they do get replaced, the majority of hoteliers sell their old furniture to liquidators, who then hawk it to the general public (In the market?Try Hotel Surplus Outlet near Los Angeles for glass-paneled armoires from the Beverly Hills Hotel & Bungalows, and Chicago’s Fort Pitt Hotel Furniture Liquidators for Four Seasons headboards).
Thankfully, though, more and more properties are combining décor overhauls with philanthropy. Recently the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa in Groton, Connecticut, remodeled and gave holdover furniture to local charities. They donated over 300 beds, 285 sofas and chairs, and 500 floor and table lamps to people living without them. Now, doesn’t that help everybody rest easy?
Kathryn O'Shea-Evans is a freelance editorial assistant at Travel + Leisure.
01.16.09
On January 7, a Continental 737 took a two-hour test flight from Houston, burning a 50-50 blend of petroleum-based jet fuel and an oil made from algae and a scrubby weed. Similar tests have been conducted in New Zealand and England, and another is planned in Japan later this month.
The tests, sponsored by Boeing, were initiated in response to rising petroleum prices, but also address aviation industry goals to reduce carbon emissions before a 2012 European Union deadline.
Though current aircraft design requires some petroleum in the fuel blend to ensure that engine seals work properly, the most efficient and beneficial mix of bio- to fossil fuel has not yet been determined. Chemists continue to experiment with the blend and with the plant feedstocks being used in the biofuel portion in hopes of reducing the greenhouse gases created by flight and a Boeing spokesperson hopes that biofuels play a "significant part of the commercial fuel supply by 2015."
- Scientific American
