As Earth Day (April 22—what are you planning?) approaches each year, it is common to hear from folks wanting to highlight the best practices of the properties they represent. Here then is a sample of just some of the properties I recently learned about through the help of Delfina Guemes, Founder of DGBR Studio, and Katherine Han, Founder, Katherine Han PR. Feel free to adopt these practices at your properties or share some of your own with me at greenlodgingnews@gmail.com.
A Stay That Gives Back to the Landscape: At the center is Bloom Back Bonaire, an initiative at Delfins Beach Resort developed in partnership with Tera Barra Foundation. Each time guests opt out of daily housekeeping, a native tree is planted on the island—linking everyday decisions to long-term reforestation efforts. In 2024 alone, the program funded nearly 1,500 trees across Bonaire, contributing to biodiversity restoration and natural cooling across the island’s arid terrain.
Turning Guest Participation into Conservation: Guests at Delfins Beach Resort are invited to take part in hands-on initiatives, including an annual post–New Year’s “clean-up dive” organized with onsite dive partner Dive Friends Bonaire, where divers and snorkelers help remove debris from surrounding reefs. Monthly beach clean-ups in collaboration with The Beach Boost and broader island-wide efforts further reinforce a shared responsibility between visitor and destination.
Closing the Loop on Resources: Behind the scenes, the resort integrates circular practices that reduce waste and dependency on imports—critical on a remote island. Solar panels contribute to energy efficiency, while magnesium-based pools eliminate the need for chlorine. In the kitchens, food waste is repurposed through local farming partnerships, and collaborations with producers like Bon Tera support the sourcing of locally grown fruits and vegetables—an ongoing effort to strengthen island self-sufficiency.
Rethinking Water and Waste: On an island where resources are finite, Delfins Beach Resort actively promotes the consumption of high-quality local tap water, reducing reliance on bottled imports and single-use plastics. Existing plastics are fully recyclable, and reducing unnecessary shipping remains a key priority across operations.
Solmar Hotels & Resorts: Designing with the Landscape, Not Against It
In Los Cabos, Solmar Hotels & Resorts offers a model of sustainability shaped by the natural rhythms of the Pacific coast—where terrain, climate, and ecosystem guide both design and experience.
Eating from the Ecosystem: Dining at restaurant venues across the portfolio reflects the realities of the surrounding landscape, with seafood sourced entirely from regional waters. This commitment to 100 percent local fish, alongside seasonal ingredients, allows guests to experience the destination through taste—where coastal currents, arid soils, and shifting weather patterns subtly shape what arrives at the table.
Understanding Wildlife Along the Baja Coast: Whale migration patterns and sea turtle protection initiatives—including Solmar Hotels & Resorts’ participation in Los Cabos’ Municipal Sea Turtle Conservation Program—are increasingly shaping coastal excursions, bringing greater awareness to the peninsula’s fragile marine environments. Across its properties, Solmar Hotels & Resorts also supports the conservation and relocation of native pollinators, the care of injured birds, and local stray cat adoptions.
Encountering the Desert Terrain: More than 100 acres of preserved desert landscape surround Grand Solmar Pacific Dunes, sustaining native flora and wildlife within a coastal setting marked by arid conditions. Walking paths and open spaces allow guests to observe this ecosystem firsthand—from cactus and bougainvillea to roadrunners, jackrabbits and other desert-adapted species that inhabit the dunes.
Exploring Golf Shaped by Nature: At Solmar Golf Links, golf is played across natural dunes and dry waterways on a course recognized as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. Native vegetation, reduced irrigation zones and habitat protection efforts contribute to an eco-conscious design that follows the contours of the land rather than reshaping them.
Experiencing a Deeper Connection to the Land: Intentional moments across the resorts invite guests to engage more consciously with their surroundings—from sunrise meditations to traditional Temazcal rituals at Playa Grande Resort, one of the few resorts in Los Cabos to offer this experience. Held inside a stone lodge heated by volcanic rocks and infused with native herbs, the ceremony draws on pre-Hispanic tradition to foster a more grounded relationship with the landscape—an Earth Day–aligned expression of sustainability grounded in respect and reciprocity.
Supporting Sustainability Through Infrastructure: Behind the scenes, operational initiatives are reinforcing environmental goals at scale. Recent measures include a 49 percent reduction in gas consumption, investment in heat-recovery technology designed to improve efficiency, and the creation of internal Energy Committees that monitor resource use across properties. A phased transition plan is also underway toward a target of 70 percent LED lighting by the end of 2026, part of broader sustainability investments aligned with long-term performance and an estimated three-year return.
In Rhythm with Earth Hour: In alignment with Earth Hour on March 28, every year Grand Solmar Pacific Dunes transforms its evening programming through a fully candlelit dinner at Anica, where all non-essential lighting is turned off to create a more intimate, low-impact dining environment. Surrounding common areas, including Cabo’s largest saltwater lagoon, is softly illuminated with floating candles—shifting the atmosphere while meaningfully reducing energy use in real time.
The Dylan Amsterdam—The Netherlands
Located along the Keizersgracht canal in the heart of Amsterdam’s Nine Streets district, an area known for its independent boutiques, galleries and local makers, The Dylan Amsterdam occupies a group of seventeenth-century canal houses. Operating within Amsterdam’s protected canal belt means change happens carefully and gradually. The hotel follows a Sustainability Management Plan under Green Globe that focuses on practical steps and steady progress rather than broad claims. Energy, water and greenhouse gases are monitored monthly, lighting is gradually transitioning toward one hundred percent LED, and operational choices such as linen on request, separated recycling streams, and eco-labeled paper help reduce everyday impact. In 2024 one canal house transitioned completely from gas using a heat pump combined with façade and window insulation, a meaningful step within a historic structure.
Sustainability in Practice
Working within historic canal houses means improvement often begins with the building itself. A fabric-first approach guides upgrades such as Fineo high-performance insulation glass, interior façade insulation and heat-recovery ventilation to improve efficiency while preserving the historic exterior. A seasonal thermal energy storage project is underway to further reduce the carbon footprint of heating and cooling while improving indoor comfort and stability. Property-wide, existing materials are repaired, reused or repurposed wherever possible, reflecting a preference for longevity over replacement. Behind the scenes procurement prioritizes durable materials, refillable guest amenities and suppliers located as close as possible to Amsterdam unless craftsmanship or product quality calls for sourcing further afield. Guests can also explore the surrounding Nine Streets on the hotel’s bicycles created using recycled components from old Dutch bikes.
People & Place
At the hotel’s restaurants, sourcing prioritizes seasonal and responsibly produced ingredients, with close relationships with regional suppliers and artisans that reflect the restaurant’s focus on quality and provenance. A staff painter retrained as a certified beekeeper tends two rooftop colonies. The first season produced about 14 kilograms of hotel honey that appears at breakfast and in cocktails while supporting pollination along the canal belt. Bee pollination strengthens street trees, courtyard plantings and rooftop herbs, boosting biodiversity while shortening supply chains.
Ananda in the Himalayas—Uttarakhand, India
Ananda in the Himalayas turns Ayurveda’s five elements into measurable operations. The retreat runs zero wastewater discharge via a chemical-free MBBR plant that recycles greywater for landscaping, and automatic pop-up sprinklers save 3,600 kiloliters annually. Single use plastics are eliminated across guest services through refillable stainless dispensers and in-house glass bottled water.
Sustainability in Practice
Water results for 2024 show a 65 percent drop in tanker water, 60 percent lower natural draw, and 7 percent lower gross consumption across May to July year over year, with 1,658 kilograms of avoided carbon dioxide from removing tanker trips. Food systems stay local and circular through daily changing menus, seasonal produce from local farms, and diversion of edible scraps to nearby animal farms. Biodiversity includes bamboo feeders and hanging water pots that support native and migratory species; guided bird watching and seva offer a gentle path into stewardship.
People & Place
Building on 25 years of wellness leadership, Ananda is expanding community-led sustainability through education, livelihoods, and stewardship. The Ananda Skill Development Institute, relaunched with Ambuja Foundation, widens access to hospitality and wellness training for local youth. They are running approximately 12-week cohorts of 10 to 20 women from rural and underserved backgrounds, placing graduates with luxury hotels and wellness centers across India. This people-first approach extends across the grounds. Ananda partners with nearby farms and integrates indigenous grains and seasonal produce into its menus. Ayurvedic herbs are used by the kitchen and spa and reflect the retreat’s belief in caring for the land and giving back to it.
Seva, a Sanskrit word for selfless service, quietly guides these efforts. It shapes how the land is tended, how resources are used, and how community relationships are nurtured, reminding us that each action contributes to something greater. Guests encounter seva in small but meaningful ways: joining stewardship activities, supporting local students, engaging mindfully with wildlife, or sharing moments of stillness that honor interconnectedness. Amid the foothills of the Himalayas, where wellness and nature meet, these efforts reflect a mindful way of living that reduces the footprint on the land, preserves biodiversity, and supports the local ecology. At Ananda, seva and sustainability reinforce one another, forming a living practice of care for people, place, and the natural world.
Hotel Belmar—Monteverde, Costa Rica
Hotel Belmar is a family-owned cloud forest icon where regeneration is visible and measurable. Finca Madre Tierra, recognized as Costa Rica’s first carbon-neutral farm, supplies eggs, dairy, shade-grown coffee, sugarcane, and seasonal produce to the hotel. Guests join hands on visits to milk cows, learn cheese-making, pick coffee, and press sugarcane, deepening their connection with Monteverde’s agricultural traditions. On property, Belmar closes the loop through composting and a biodigester that turns organics into clean gas, making farm‑to‑table‑to‑farm a daily practice.
Sustainability in Practice
Belmar offers bio-intensive garden plots that feed regenerative dining, garden-to-glass mixology that replaces bottled inputs, a plastic-free bar program, environmentally preferable products, and an air‑dry laundry solarium that reduces energy consumption. Rooms and shared spaces rely on beautifully crafted furnishings, keeping value with regional makers while celebrating Monteverde’s woodworking heritage and its long tradition of forest-based craft. In the forest, SAVIA employs local forest mobility experts, uses tree-friendly anchoring with high-tension ropes and cables rather than bolts, and offers themed expeditions from dawn birding to nightfall canopy study, creating paid interpretive work while keeping impact light in a rare ecosystem known for exceptional biodiversity.
People & Place
At Cerveceria Belmar, the taproom brews with cloud forest spring water and spotlights local musicians, adding cultural gigs throughout the year. Programming like Monteverde Exploration with local guides and the farm to table to farm class routes fees to farmers, educators, and naturalists, and sends guests home with transferable skills, from composting to pickling and planning. Every stay helps to underwrite a year-round economy tied to food, music, ecology, and science, supporting both the local community and the surrounding forest. The hotel’s long-standing roots in Monteverde deepen this connection, with multigenerational ties to local farmers, craftspeople, guides, and musicians who help sustain the region’s distinctive culture. Many have collaborated with Belmar for years, creating a shared ecosystem of livelihoods that strengthens the surrounding community while helping to protect the cloud forest’s unique environment. The hotel’s Artist Residency Program further expands this cultural exchange, inviting artists to spend time on the property and develop new work inspired by the cloud forest. Their presence adds another layer of community connection, giving guests a deeper sense of Monteverde’s evolving creative landscape.
Imperial Hotel—Tokyo, Kamikochi, Osaka, Kyoto, Japan
Imperial Hotel aligns heritage with sustainability across Japan. Imperial Hotel, Tokyo holds Forbes Travel Guide’s VERIFIED Responsible Hospitality (2025), signaling measurable environmental and wellbeing standards. Tokyo, Kamikochi, and Osaka carry the highest rating of Sakura Quality—an ESG Practice international certification. Imperial Hotel, Osaka’s 30th anniversary reflects three decades of community-focused service shaped by evolving sustainability priorities.
Sustainability in Practice
In Tokyo, the hotel has reduced plastics by 87.7 percent versus 2019, avoiding about 13.9 tons by shifting amenities to bamboo, wood, and biomass and replacing PET with paper cartons. The property operates on 100 percent CO2-free electricity and advances circularity through recycling loops that turn coffee grounds into cattle feed and repurchase the resulting milk, while used cooking oil becomes Sustainable Aviation Fuel. The Osaka hotel reinforces circularity by turning kitchen waste into fertilizer and buying back vegetables grown with it and supports EV drivers with charging stations. In the Alps, Imperial Hotel, Kamikochi runs on net zero CO2 energy using regional hydropower and offsets, encourages refills with a lobby spring water fountain, and has reduced plastics by roughly 90 percent through amenity changes. Conservation work with the Kamikochi Beautification Assn. supports stewardship of the national park.
People & Place
Imperial Hotel, Kyoto opened March 5, 2026, inside the restored Yasaka Kaikan in Gion, preserving cultural fabric through adaptive reuse and reusing more than 16,000 tiles to reduce construction impact while sustaining local craftsmanship. The property channels guest spend to living culture through performances, and partnerships with Gion Kawakami for Japanese style breakfasts. Craft atelier visits, including an imperial doll workshop, ensure fees reach local artisans. Groupwide community engagement includes food education in schools, cleanup activities in Osaka and Kamikochi, and internships. Disaster support agreements in Tokyo and Osaka provide shelter for stranded residents and travelers.
Calabash Cove Resort & Spa—Saint Lucia
Set on a secluded hillside overlooking Bonaire Bay, Calabash Cove Resort & Spa integrates regenerative, low-impact operations into its boutique, adults‑only experience. The resort maintains a strict plastic-free policy, eliminating disposable containers and using recycled-material lunch boxes and biodegradable straws. All hot water is solar‑heated, lighting relies on LEDs, and an on-site water‑treatment plant recycles water for irrigation. Guests receive a free reusable aluminum bottle on arrival, with free still or sparkling water refills throughout their stay to eliminate disposable bottles. Local farms supply produce whenever possible, and seasonal vegetarian and vegan menus highlight Saint Lucia’s ingredients while reducing the footprint of higher‑impact foods. Kitchen oils are collected and repurposed to heat laundry water, further reducing external energy demand.
Sustainability in Practice
Closed‑loop practices underpin daily operations. Grass cuttings are mulched and composted, kitchen scraps are sent to a local pig farmer, and rainwater is collected for property use. Timers on pool pumps help reduce energy demand, and mosquito fogging has been discontinued to allow local birdlife to flourish. Marine stewardship includes reef and turtle‑protection training led by Saint Lucia’s Fisheries Department, where staff learn to identify nesting periods, safely relocate eggs, and tag previously untracked turtles to support long‑term conservation monitoring.
People & Place
Calabash Cove’s people‑centered approach reinforces its environmental ethos. Many structures, including the spa gazebo, are built with local materials and crafted by Saint Lucian artisans such as woodcarver Stanfield Dolcy, who creates signage, room numbers, menu covers, and custom pieces from indigenous woods like mahogany, white cedar, and Saman. Landscaping is maintained by on‑staff gardeners who prioritize native vegetation and habitats, supporting wildlife that thrives along the cove’s protected shoreline. The resort’s intimate 26‑room scale keeps impact low while enabling meaningful guest participation through beach cleanups, nature-positive activities, and plant-forward dining.
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