Eco-Friendly in New York: Which Hotels are Greenest?

It’s Earth Day, which means it’s time for our annual honor roll of New York City’s green hotels.

As always, the greenest of the green are those with LEED certification — third party proof of adherence to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council. Once again, California leads the national pack with 25 LEED certified hotels, but New York comes in second with 12, one more than last year.

While the vaunted Platinum level remains elusive, five New York hotels own Gold level status — Conrad New York, the Crosby Street Hotel, Element New York Times Square west, the Intercontinental New York Times Square and NoMad.

Snapping up Silver level status are Andaz 5th Avenue and Andaz Wall Street.

But green comes in many shades, as proven by the growing ranks of hotels adopting environmental initiatives. Into this mixed (biodegradable) bag go the recycling of paper, cardboard, ink cartridges and aluminum, biodegradable room keys, energy purchased from renewable sources, roof gardens and sedum plantings to regulate building temperatures, duo-flush toilets that conserve water and soap recycling programs that collect used soap to be sanitized and sent to nations that need it. And that’s just a sampling.

Our informal list of hotels participating in some or all of the above includes Aloft Harlem, the Benjamin, Carlton, Courtyard New York/Chelsea, The Greenwich, the High Line, Ink48, Marriott New York/Downtown, the Muse, the New York Hilton/Midtown, the New York Palace, the Refinery, Park Central, 70 Park Avenue, Sheraton New York Times Square, the Waldorf Astoria, Westin New York Grand Central and Westin New York Times Square. 

If we’ve missed a property, give a shout.

 

 

 

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