Oregon, California and Michigan lead Green Building movement

The green building movement is taking hold in the Midwest according to the Detroit News. Michigan ranks 3rd behind Oregon and California in the number of "Green" buildings as certified by the US Green Building Council.

As energy prices increase it is now becoming increasingly profitable for businesses, municipalities and homeowners to invest in energy efficiency.

Comparison of Carbon Offsets

Do you know what your carbon footprint is? It is the total of all of your activities that result in the production of CO2. This includes driving your car, taking a flight, using electricity supplied by coal or natural gas plants, and heating your home.

The Nature Conservancy has a good website to calculate your carbon footprint:
www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/

Now that you've figured out how much CO2 you are responsible for, what do you want to do about it? The first step is to try to reduce your impact as much as possible. Then, you can purchase carbon offsets to take care of the rest.

Carbon offsets come in a variety of different forms.
1) Some programs plant trees to essentially "soak up" CO2 from the atmosphere, which has the added benefit of creating animal habitat, however it takes decades for the CO2 to be removed.
2) Other programs reward companies for reducing their CO2 emissions through increased efficiency (similar to the European cap and trade systems that may be adopted here in the US).
3) Finally, the best option is to buy "green energy" through renewable sources such as wind and solar power. This works by consumers paying the premium for the difference in price between renewable and fossil fuel power generation.

Ecobusinesslinks.com compiled an excellent review of some current carbon offset programs that you can choose from to offset your own carbon footprint.

See:
www.ecobusinesslinks.com/carbon_offset_wind_credits_carbon_reduction.htm

ALT Hotels go green using Earth power (geothermal)

ALT Hotels in Canada is reducing the impacts of their guests on the environment by implementing a suite of cost-saving and energy-saving modifications. Geothermal heat pumps will both heat the hotels in the winter and cool them in the summer. The rooms will also be outfitted with a system to detect when guests are not in the room and subsequently turn off the lights and cut back the AC or heat until the guests return.

Their website is: http://althotels.ca

Leading Hotels of the World Committed to Carbon Neutral Experience

The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd., a prestigious luxury hospitality organization representing more than 430 of the world's finest hotels, resorts and spas, has made a financial commitment to offset guest's "carbon footprint" during their stay at any Leading Hotel.

Travel Green, launched in 2007 by Sustainable Travel International, calculates energy consumption to be around 50 cents per room, per Leading Hotels of the World's individual luxury resort sites. By donating that 50 cents per room (per night), Leading Hotels helps leisure travel become that much more carbon neutral. The money is invested in supporting clean, renewable energy resources. This 50 cent per guest investment goes directly towards solar and wind power. The overall quantity of greenhouse gases is reduced, once more energy efficient power sources are utilized. The Leading Hotels of the World is the first international luxury hotel brand to take part in this program.

What to Look for When Choosing a Green Hotel?

In the past 12 to 24 months, hotel's have started the shift towards the "Green" movement. The problem is no one exactly knows what that means...Some properties have just added recycle bins and slow drip soap dispensers while others, like the Crystal City Marriott in Washington D.C., have started green laundry programs that are going to save them roughly 3.5 million gallons of water per year.

There are several national and international green hotel certification programs right now all doing different things so it's hard to differentiate, rank or compare. Travel & Leisure did an interview that discussed some flagship green hotels including the Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco, The Lenox Hotel in Boston and The Ibis Porte de Clichy in Paris. As they say in the interview, Green hotels aren't just grass huts in island getaways anymore but mainstream hotels in major cities.

MSN.com furthering Green Movement

Kudo's to NBC on their "Green Week" before the Thanksgiving holiday. In case you missed it, nearly all of NBC's programing had a green bent on it, from the Today show to Scrubs. There was even a cameo by Al Gore on "30 Rock".

MSN.com, which has proudly displayed green advertising and green articles, now has a separate Green Page for all things related to the environment and climate change.

Check it out at:
http://green.msn.com/