Top Eco-Friendly Hotels in New York City for 2016
Green is good! The hotel industry is finally getting up to speed on making hotels more eco-friendly because they are realizing (1) its better for their bottom line, but also (2) because consumers are starting to care more about sustainable travel.
After much research and personal experience, below are my recommendations of the top Eco-Friendly Hotels in New York City for 2016! As a recent New Yorker (okay...Brooklynite), I love checking out hotels in this massive city.
Element Hotel Times Square West:
Starwood's very own eco-friendly brand, Element does a great job maintaining sustainability in all
aspects. I practically lived out of an Element this year for my consulting days (I stayed 50 nights at the Element in four months) and was always impressed with the details around sustainability. The hotel has a keycard for electricity, low flush toilets, recycled design, and reusable cups. Looks like the brand keeps getting bigger too so I wouldn't be surprised if you one in your city soon.
The "Make A Green Choice" (MAGC) for Starwood is an amazing decision for frequent travelers. By denying housekeeping, the MAGC program gives you 500 Starpoints in exchange. If you save up to 10,000 points, that's a free hotel night!
Ink48 Hell's Kitchen:
Located in Hells Kitchen, Ink48 is part of Kimpton's boutique hotel collection (which is now actually owned by IHG!). Kimpton always does an awesome job of creating eccentric and quirky hotel offerings.
I rate this as one of the most eco-friendly hotels because the hotel group as a whole spends a lot of effort making sure the company is sustainable in all aspects. The hotel uses nontoxic cleaning supplies, recycles, serves organic coffee, and provides bikes to hotel guests (note: biking in the city is way less stressful than one would think).
Kimpton Hotels has partnered with "The Trust for Public Land", an organization that is committed to creating and protecting open space in America so that everyone has access to parks. I bet you didn't know that $10 of your daily room rate goes to the organization, which is quite amazing!!
My favorite amenity of this hotel is that they give guests yoga mats for their hotel room, should they ask!
1Hotel Central Park:
Another Starwood brand, 1Hotel Central Park was created on the basis of how humans are all connected and all impact our world. Located in iconic Central Park, with another hotel expected to open in Spring 2017 by the Brooklyn Bridge, the CEO of Starwood Capital Group, Barry Sternlicht, expects the brand to grow to 20+ hotels in its lifetime!
While I personally haven't stayed at this property, I love the simplicity and beautiful design of their website (so that means it has to be a nice hotel, right?). As is the popular trend nowadays, this hotel has a farm to table restaurant conceived by famous NYC chef Jonathan Waxman.
Even the lobby has what they call a "lobby farm" where they sell produce from local farms.
A unique feature of this hotel is the up-cycling of their decor! The hotel uses reclaimed local barn wood and antique bricks, which definitely gives the hotel a rustic / original feel.