It's easy staying green

By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 9, 2008

Also worth noting is the WALLINGFORD VICTORIAN, a B&B in southern Connecticut where rooms run between $129 and $169 per night. The inn promotes public transportation with a special offer that takes advantage of its proximity to New York City — if New Yorkers leave their cars at home and take the train from the city to the Wallingford station (located about five blocks from the inn), they get 10 percent off a two-night stay; Wallingford is also Amtrak accessible (with a regional connection) from Boston and Providence.

Maine
— 80 "Environmental Leaders" in the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's Green Lodging Certification Program.

Since it launched in 2005, Maine's eco-lodging program has saved 11 million gallons of water, reduced solid waste by 550,000 pounds, and eliminated 8 million pounds of greenhouse gases, says Peter Cooke of the state's Department of Environmental Protection. Eighty businesses participate, and some of them do so in truly unique ways. Take the BERRY MANOR INN, the LIMEROCK INN, and the CAPTAIN LINDSEY HOUSE INN, all located in Rockland. The beautifully appointed rooms start around $159 per night; each of the historic inns offers its own unique characteristics. Operating as a consortium, the B&Bs implemented many green changes, including installing solar lighting and launching a public-education campaign by offering each guest his or her own compact fluorescent light bulb.

When the Cape Elizabeth INN BY THE SEA re-opened this season, its rooms and spa may have gotten a bit swankier, but its commitment to the environment remained the same. They still have dual-flush toilets (which use more or less water depending on what you're flushing down) and nesting boxes for indigenous birds; they still offset their carbon-dioxide emissions through Carbonfund’s reforestation projects and heat entirely with biofuel; and they still offer tours of their native-plant-filled gardens and eco-courses for guests and their children. And yes, the room rates (which hover at $350 and up) still reflect this amount of care and effort.

It's safe to say that the green-certified FROST MOUNTAIN YURTS in Brownfield are as far from a resort as you can get. But you can't get much closer to nature (and still be inside) than when you're sleeping in a lattice-framed, clear-domed yurt ($85 per night for two people; $15 more for every extra person), cooking over an outdoor fire pit, and using the adjacent porta-potty.

Massachusetts
— 21 Energy Star establishments
— No official green-tourism initiative, though Boston Green Tourism promotes eco-lodging and dining in greater metro area

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