10 of America's greenest hotels

The lengths Mühle’s hotels go to are impressive: In addition to using citrus-based cleaning agents, everything is washable (as opposed to Scotchguarding or dry cleaning), right down to the upholstery on the furniture.

Kimpton is another chain that’s going to great lengths. Every room in all 40 of their U.S. properties has recycle bins, water-efficient faucets and toilets, and energy-efficient lighting. They clean the rooms with non-toxic cleaners. And your bill? It comes on recycled paper using soy ink. The chain’s Hotel Triton (yes, also in San Francisco) started the ball rolling, and while eco-practices run throughout the hotel, its 7th floor eco-rooms have especially stringent rules. Its efforts have been so impressive that the state of California identified the Triton as the model hotel for the entire lodging industry.

And from urban centers to rural areas, hotels are trying live up to the model. Alpine House, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, gets all of its energy from wind power plants. The Crowne Plaza Cabana in Palo Alto is California’s only solar-powered hotel. The Habitat Suites Hotel in Austin powers both its electricity and water with solar energy. And the luxe El Monte Sagrado in Taos, New Mexico can filter waste water into pure drinking water without harmful chlorination.

And finding green hotels is getting easier as booking engines are getting into the game. Last October, for example, the online hotel discounter Quikbook.com launched a filter to search for green hotels.

Green practices can be confusing to casual customers, though. The Vancouver Hilton, for example, brags about how its windows can open, helping fresh air circulate. But the Orchard Garden boasts the opposite: sealed windows that allow for total climate control. And while some features are very visible, such as the Vancouver Hilton’s alternative fueling stations for electric cars; others go unseen, such as the Orchard Garden’s fly-ash-in-concrete infrastructure.

But even if you’re not booking your own hotel room, there are ways you can be environmentally friendly wherever you go. “The number one thing you can do anywhere you go,” said Patricia Griffin, a spokeswoman for the Green Hotels Association, “is call housekeeping and let them know you don’t need new towels and sheets every day. Closing the drapes keeps it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. And, if you use a little soap or a little shampoo, take the rest home with you and use it until it’s finished; because it’s just going to get thrown away.”

So we tucked a flower behind our ear, put on our white gloves, and scoured the country for hotels that will keep you green long after Earth Day is over.

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