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Heidi,

You raise many good points in your article. But I feel you are misleading and harsh in your comments about standards. Not all of the certification programs you mention follow up on the properties that they certify. I have been to some "ungreen" green-certified hotels.

And you imply that EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com is a certification program. It by no means certifies hotels. It's a resource for travelers who want green hotels in their travels and can't find them easily. It's not easy, for many of the reasons you comment on, to find green hotels. We search high and low for them, and accept submissions from travelers, so people can find what they are looking for. We rate the hotels based on the number of green actions we can discern they take, but that's not certifying them.

I wonder if you'll be as brave to publish this comment as you were to post your un-researched comments (at least you didn't enter into an open dialog with us). I hope so. People deserve to know the difference between a certification site and program and a public resource.

And I do agree with you that staying in green hotels doesn't solve the world's environmental problems, but it goes a long way in keeping them from getting worse.

-Kit

EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com is a fabulous resource -- if you take just a SECOND to look to see what they're about. From their "About Us" page:

"We have collected as many environmentally friendly hotels, B&Bs, inns, lodges, and resorts as we could find that proclaim one way or another that they are 'green'." Note that does NOT say "We have certified them as green." They CLEARLY define their terms and let you search on ANY parameter.

EFH is the ONLY place I've found that lets ME decide what matters to me. (For me, that's fresh air and a sensitivity to chemical allergies.)

The site isn't a be-all, end-all, but it allows me to get some candidate properties to stay in when I travel. The rest is up to me: I call ahead and ask questions. Without EFH, I'd have no idea whatever who to call. And that's a problem for you ...why?

Your title, "Does green travel offset emissions.... or just your guilt?" completely misses the point.

I travel for business (and am in a hotel right now). Should I feel "guilty" for making a living? Nope. Should I make at least some effort to reduce my impact on the planet? You bet. You've pointed me to a terrific resource with your backhanded compliment. Environmentally Friendly Hotels will help me make a little difference. No, that won't "offset emissions", but it will reduce my impact. And isn't that what it's all about?

Climb off your ridiculous high horse and give some praise for those who are trying. Your sneering isn't a help, but rather should indeed produce "guilt"! I'll take a little bit of green over your brown smear any day.

I totally agree with you that greenwashing from hotels can be a problem, as it can with any business wanting/trying to ride the green movement. I also know there are no easy answers or solutions to the environmental issues facing us today. And nobody can agree about which issues are more important!

But I disagree that this website you introduced me to contributes to the greenwashing problem. I think the site makes it clear what it's trying to accomplish -- and that's to be a resource for travelers so they can choose their own environmental issues as a gauge for whether that's the hotel for them. There is a wonderful range of issues covered here, though not as many as I personally might like. One green-acting hotel can't make up for all the sins of the actions of others in the area, but it can minimize its own sins.

I love the wide range of hotel types and locations on this site. Some I clearly would have to travel long and far to get to, but some are "just around the corner" from me or where I'd be traveling anyway. I hope I don't have to quit traveling to be a good environmental citizen, an implication of some of your complaints here. I hope I can do my best to minimize my environmental impacts at home and on the road and have that be good enough. I hope others will do the same. And besides, not all remote resort access requires jet fuel; my up-coming sailing trip won't use any, for example.

Keep up the good work of spotting greenwashing. I hope you'll try to be a critical enough thinker to understand the efforts behind some green actions though, so you won't call what seems to me to be a noble effort like Environmentally Friendly Hotels a greenwash effort.

I knew these comments would raise concerns. First of all, I want to say I am thankful EFH is doing something to try to identify green hotels. I know that it is a Herculean task to identify what measures hotels are taking to green themselves because they don't reveal much of what they do. I am also fully supportive of any and all lodging efforts, recognizing that that change falls on a continuum.

The term “guilt” was merely used to spark discussion which it certainly did!
The discussion started with an article about flying to remote locations to stay in ecolodges and whether we want to admit it or not, flying long distances does in fact raise climate change issues, period.

What concerned me about the site is that it may be unintentionally misleading. The definitions used on the site may permit hotels to claim they are making progress in certain areas when in fact they are not. An example is the use of cleaning chemicals which is an enormously complex area where rigorous standards are the only credible route to go. From years of working with industrial chemical manufacturers in a legal capacity I know there are no "environmentally friendly chemicals" although some do have a better profile than others. Perhaps if the site had cross referenced some standard by which scientists/policy folks/researchers use (GreenSeal certified products) that would be helpful.

Also, for reviewers of hotels, there may be things they noticed like towel-linen programs but how would they know about things like engineering improvements or back of the house lighting, or investments in renewable energy? How would a guest know anything about the cleaning chemicals a hotel uses? Guests don't see that.

I think it's great that people can pick and choose what attributes they want to focus on and I fully support that approach. However, when I looked up hotels in the city I live in, I couldn't help but note that the findings were not reflective of what hotels are doing here- in some cases, progress was overstated and in others, understated. The only reason I know this is because I work with the engineers and water programs that work with these hotels. It is somewhat dangerous footing to rely on a company’s web site to assess what it is, or impliedly, not doing.

I work with both consumers and hotels on a regular basis and one of the biggest challenges they face is in identifying sources of information that are vetted -- not necessarily audited. I apologize if my comments seemed harsh as they were not intended to be. I also did not refer to EFH as a greenwashing effort -- I did say that it may be unintentionally misleading or complete and that is different than making a blanket greenwashing claim.

Please understand this is a blog- we are not journalists. It would have been helpful to call the companies and people we collectively write about in advance but this may not always be possible. It is inevitable our observations and opinions will meet with adverse reactions and that’s one enduring aspect of a democracy -- being able to engage civilly in an open discussion.

I found Heidi’s blog on hotels as well as the comments posted to be thought provoking. As a frequent traveler, I fly and I stay in hotels and the Environmentally Friendly Hotels site is interesting. I commend them for this effort. I think their definitions page is excellent.

Where I have great disagreement with EFH is their statement on their home page that states, “We have collected as many environmentally friendly hotels, B&Bs, inns, lodges, and resorts as we could find that proclaim one way or another that they are "green." While commendable, the information the site garners from other sites or from the hotels themselves is suspect. Where are the data? Have there been on-site inspections of the hotels? How do we know what they say is accurate?

EFH states about linen and towel change programs, for example, “When housekeeping complies with the ‘rule’ it saves on resources, time, and wear and tear on the sheets.” So that can mean that there is no consistency (which is too often true) and that we should just “hope” that the sheets and towels are actually changed when we ask them to do so. Why would I want to stay in a hotel that doesn’t do what it offers to do? Why would EFH offer such a possibility to its readers?

The site also makes another interesting statement: “There is no guarantee that the property is taking green action just because they are a member of a green association, but we hope their membership is an indication of some green action.” Hope? Once again, what they say is true. But why recommend them if all you can do is hope?

If I am going to stay in a green hotel, which is my preference, I want to know it is really green. The only way I know of to do that is by on-site inspections by neutral experts. Hotels don’t have to do it all at once. Begin, make improvements, and continue to get better and better. Just prove to me that the actions and results are true and be honest about progress on the path to a green(er) hotel.

When I fill up at the gas pump, I expect to get 87 octane in the gas I buy. I have confidence that I am getting what is advertised because it is inspected by a state agency. When I buy fair trade coffee, I can have confidence that it is what is advertised because a non-profit, Fairtrade Labeling Organizations (FLO) International and Transfair, inspects the coffee plantations and then certifies the beans as fair trade.

Would I rely on a retailer or roaster? No, I want outside verification.

So too with hotels. Inspections need not be annual or even regular since that is expensive and difficult (although some are doing that). I suggest that at minimum, EFH implement a process of unannounced random spot checks. That, at least, would add some credibility to what they offer. I also think that their ratings categories should be weighted. Not all green activities are equal in their impact and I do not see anything on the site that shows that. I think they have work to do to be taken seriously, at least by me.

Carbon Emissions are extremely complicated and quite frankly they are slightly worrisome since they charge different amounts and the programs they fund don't necessarily accomplish any goals. We recently wrote about 12 Things Every Traveler Should Know About Carbon Emissions.
http://gogreentravelgreen.com/green-travel-101/12-things-you-need-to-know-about-carbon-offsets-25-days-to-green-travel-day-11/