BEYOND PAPER STRAWS
By now, guests are used to signs recommending they reuse towels and forgo bedsheet changes. Today, hotels are adding to these basic sustainability initiatives and taking on more responsibility. Globally, more than 20,000 participate in the Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index to rank their carbon, energy, and water efficiencies. The latest Cornell report, issued in 2021, shows an almost 10 percent reduction in overall carbon emissions from 2017 to 2019.
Reusing towels is still a good idea, but in New Haven, Connecticut, a repurposed brutalist Marcel Breuer landmark that uses solar power throughout the building, down to the laundry room and the restaurant that serves locally sourced dishes. Plus, guests with electric vehicles can park at one of 24 charging stations.
