The Best 5 Green Hotels and Inns in New England

Do you feel a bit jaded when you realize a hotel’s “environmental commitment” begins and ends with a little card asking guests to hang up their towels? If so, you’ll love the seriousness with which these New England inns and hotels take being green. Their owners made smart sustainability decisions long before eco-friendliness trended, and today each property, in subtle, even luxurious ways, can show you a gentler approach to travel.

Inn by the Sea

It all began back in 2001, when this beach resort’s head gardener, Derrick Daly, ripped out the landscaping to reintroduce native plants. The move didn’t just lower water use and lure wildlife but also proved wildly popular with guests. In the years since, every undertaking here—from light bulb replacement to major renovations—has considered the impact on the coastal surroundings. So, how does Maine’s first hotel to have dual-flush toilets, a LEED-certified spa, biofuel-powered heating, and a role in the New England cottontail’s rebound write its next green chapter? By educating—whether on a naturalist-led beach walk or at dinner at Sea Glass, where chef Andrew Chadwick is cooking whiting, pollock, and other abundant yet underutilized fish. Cape Elizabeth, ME. 207-799-3134; innbythesea.com

The Lenox

Stay at this eco-friendly downtown Boston hotel, and you won’t be sacrificing anything: LED chandeliers still sparkle, and cocktails mixed with honey from hives on the hotel roof still taste indulgently sweet. Harder at work than the colony’s bees is the team that’s made Saunders Hotel Group’s flagship property an undisputed green leader. In addition to aggressively slashing water and energy use, the Lenox purchases offsets to achieve carbon neutrality. And for a few extra dollars you can opt for the “Travel Lightly” package, which covers offsets for the pollution generated by your flight and ground transportation. A trip to Boston with zero impact on the planet—now that’s a revolutionary idea. Boston, MA. 617-536-5300; lenoxhotel.com

Maple Hill Farm Inn

Don’t feel the slightest guilty twinge when fresh towels appear daily in your room at this rural bed-and-breakfast inn and conference center. With its wind turbine, solar array, wood pellet boiler, and electric vehicle charging stations—not to mention the Tesla that innkeeper Scott Cowger uses for errands—the property has gone all in, seeing each step toward carbon neutrality as essential to preserving Maine’s character. But don’t be surprised if you’re most captivated by the low-tech green strategies: Sip Maine-roasted organic coffee from a reusable mug, meet the chickens that laid your breakfast, and watch the llamas graze (they’re emissions-free lawn-mowing dynamos). Hallowell, ME. 207-622-2708; maplebb.com

Saybrook Point Inn and Spa

While slipping into an 82-degree outdoor pool in chilly months may feel defiantly non-green, you won’t hear a tsk-tsk from Mother Nature at this hotel, spa, and marina, where the water is warmed by a system that captures and recycles heat that would otherwise dissipate into the ether. Saybrook Point’s nearly 30 years of innovation—inspired by its eco-sensitive location on the American Heritage–designated Connecticut River—has reduced its energy use by half. Noticeable initiatives include solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, and locally focused cuisine; ask for an eco-tour and discover the behind-the-scenes green magic. Old Saybrook, CT. 860-265-1792; saybrook.com

A Stone Wall Inn

When Bob Shannon bought 12 acres in Vermont in 1969, the Yale School of Architecture grad was passionately interested in a question few had yet pondered: How can a house best react to its environment to collect the energy it needs? Today, the first building in what is still his “laboratory” is a contemporary-styled, art-filled inn heated entirely by solar energy and wood stoves. Profits benefit the on-site Fourth Corner Foundation, which teaches architects and landscapers sustainable practices. Locavore breakfasts and glimpses of the latest experiments in garden re-scaping and green building await guests curious to see how sophisticated eco-conscious living can be. Reopens in mid-May. Windham, VT. 802-875-4238; astonewallinn.com