| Opulent Eco Travel |
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Page 7 of 7 GREEN EGGS AND HAM IN THE GALÁPAGOS ALONE, Lindblad Expeditions, pioneer of small-boat cruises, has funded more than $4 million in conservation projects. So it’s hardly surprising that this September the 29-year-old company debuted Chefs-at-Sea. This expedition series brings esteemed organic chefs, such as Michel Nischan, of the Dressing Room in Westport, Connecticut, onboard to teach the virtues of sustainable foods, demonstrate cooking techniques, and lead market excursions. “Have the courage to go different places and enter into real, meaningful conversations with the people who produce those foods,” says Nischan. “You’ll learn more about that culture than you will going on any guided tour or reading any book.” From $4,320 per person; expeditions.com Go North In 1993, meteorologist Dan Dobrowolski and his wife scrapped their Chicago lives to purchase 280 rugged acres in northwestern Wisconsin. Today the estate is known as Canoe Bay and is one of the few eco-chic Relais & Châteaux inns. The 17 stone-and-cedar cottages and six suites with private whirlpools were built to take advantage of passive-solar heating and recycled materials, but the dining is the most notable green feature. Through the new foraging program, chefs teach guests about sustainable dining; how to pick wild mushrooms, leeks, and elderberries; and how to select lemongrass, rosemary, and other herbs from the organic garden. The finishing touch: a custom dinner with the day’s harvest. In June, Canoe Bay opened four new cottages with, naturally, recycled insulation and reclaimed wood. From $350; canoebay.com The Greening of America 
Salem Krieger
What might first catch your eye are the lobby’s cantilevered front desk, 28-foot-long mohair sofa, and 22-foot-high windows overlooking lush gardens. You may also notice the delicate flavor of the grilled tuna Provençal with lemon-braised fennel, arugula, and olive tapenade at the Print Works Bistro, or the original art and custom-designed furniture in the 147 guest rooms. What you might not notice is the hotel’s impeccably green attributes: One hundred rooftop solar panels heat 60 percent of the water, most of the ingredients in your meal are local, the elevator recirculates energy back into the building (a first in the country), and the hotel restored 700 feet of a nearby stream as part of its building plan. All of this is precisely the point, however. “Proximity is able to use up to 37 percent less energy and 30 percent less water than a conventional hotel, without sacrificing luxury—in fact, usually enhancing it,” says Dennis Quaintance, CEO and chief design officer. If all goes to plan, Proximity will be the first U.S. hotel to garner the highest green certification from the U.S. Green Building Council—LEED Platinum—leading the vanguard that is making artful green design the norm. Proximity will hold annual sustainability conferences, but on any given day visitors amuse themselves with the diversions at hand: Amble the gallery district, borrow a bicycle for a spin on the Greenway, or tour the wineries of the nearby Yadkin Valley. From $229; proximityhotel.com Eco-Chic LUXURY, STYLE, AND REAL-DEAL ecological awareness seldom collide in the resort world. But Six Senses, the brainchild of a Swedish model and an Indian oil-industry mogul, Eva and Sonu Shivdasani, has built a brand on just that mix. Their 13 resorts in Vietnam, Thailand, and the Maldives braid local traditions and leading-edge design to cultivate barefoot elegance. The Six Senses Hideaway on Koh Yao Noi, off the west coast of Thailand, exemplifies the company’s green ethic. At the five-star villa property, which consists of bungalows on stilts, water is heated via Quantum heat-recovery units, lessening the energy impact. There is also a gray-water system and a state-of-the-art sewage-treatment system that utilizes broken dishes and secondary filtration through constructed wetlands. The eco-luxury model has been a huge success, and next year Six Senses will open five new properties, including locations in Spain and Jordan. Thanks to their sustainability pledge, however, the company’s success will never be a resource drain. sixsenses.com Comments (0)
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