11 Sustainable Hotels to Celebrate Earth Day Year-Round

Monday, April 22 is Earth Day and while there are many ways in which you can participate in eco-friendly travel 365 days a year, staying in a sustainable hotel or resort is one of the easiest ways that travelers can reduce their impact on the planet. Here are 11 properties guests can feel good about checking into on Earth Day and every day.

Located on one of the world's 10 best beaches, Barcelo Hotel Group's Barcelo Bavaro Grand Resort is doing its part to give back to the Earth. The sprawling all-inclusive resort complex has been embracing green initiatives for years, upgrading with new energy-saving technologies and organizing annual recycling competitions, among other efforts.

Guests staying at Grand Canyon Lodges from Xanterra Travel Collection can feel good about their reduced impact on the planet. The lodges go so far as to feed their mules with healthy fruit and vegetable compost collected from guest rooms and dining areas. That's not all though. The Grand Canyon Railroad's steam locomotive is fueled with the help of recycled vegetable oil collected from local kitchens.

Although Club Med Miches Playa Esmeralda in the Dominican Republic won't open until December 2019, bookings are currently open. The eco-friendly luxury resort will be the very first in the soon-to-be-developed region of Miches and will allow guests to appreciate Mother Nature up close, whether simply relaxing in a pristine natural setting or whale watching in Samana Bay.

Yellowstone National Park's Canyon Lodge is expected to consume nearly one-third less energy compared to a conventionally built structure and save an estimated 3.5 million gallons of water annually. Other sustainable elements include countertops and windowsills made from fly ash-a byproduct of coal combustion-mixed with glass shards recycled from Yellowstone.

Scheduled to open this coming fall, the Hall Arts Hotel and Residences-the residences will open next year-in Dallas will be a symbol of sustainability as HKS Architects is diverting three-fourths of its construction waste to recycling plants and reuse shops. What's more, low-emitting VOC (volatile organic compounds) products will reduce indoor air contamination while a state-of-the-art circadian lighting program with built-in controls will change the temperature of light based on how the body relates, helping to ease guests into the time zone following a long-haul flight.

Anguilla's Zemi Beach House reuses rainwater collected from its roof to irrigate the landscape and utilizes propane torches along the beach to protect nesting sea turtles. The luxury hotel and spa at Shoal Bay East relies on super-efficient energy management systems and the best environmental practices to preserve the island's nearly three dozen white sand beaches.

MGM National Harbor's 700,000-gallon cistern used to collect, store, treat and reuse rainwater captured from its roof structures is just one example of its efforts to preserve the environment. The resort has also designed and built one of the largest privately operated CHP Energy Plants in the Washington D.C. region, helping to achieve a predicted energy cost reduction of 31.7 percent compared to a code-compliant building.

This 228-room lifestyle hotel located in beautiful Beverly Hills, California provides bicycle valet service to guests and visitors alike while underground parking allows for an expansive 27,338-square-foot garden, which is the first public green space in the area. Plus, the Montage Beverly Hills' landscape and irrigation design strategies reduce potable water consumption by 54 percent.

Another Texas property designed by HKS Architects, Downtown Austin's JW Marriott Convention Center Hotel is massive (1,012 keys) but environmentally-friendly in a number of areas. For example, the hotel harvests rainwater, utilizes regional materials and recycles at least 75 percent of onsite construction waste. The property is also composting food waste as part of its comprehensive recycling program and uses low-emitting materials to improve indoor air quality for guests and visitors.

The nearly 800,000-square-foot Omni Hotel Nashville is the second-largest hotel in Tennessee but it's working hard to reduce its environmental footprint by implementing a variety of green strategies such as low-flow plumbing fixtures that cut water consumption by almost 30 percent, utilizing sustainably harvested wood and a mostly glass (90 percent) facade that allows the property to both block heat and transmit sunlight.

Montage Deer Valley in Park City, Utah was developed in partnership with the EPA, establishing a conservation easement of more than 2,800 acres on land that was once part of the historic ore mining and processing site of the Daly West Mine. Meanwhile, a shuttle system helps cut back on vehicle emissions while an energy efficient heat enthalpy recovery system and stacked boiler system contribute to a 19 percent energy reduction. Montage Deer Valley also treats stormwater runoff by removing 80 percent of the total suspended solids.