Usually they can't help it. People who stay at hotels demand laundered sheets and towels every day. They want fresh food and hot showers and plastic-wrapped everything. Hotels have to provide these things if they hope to make a profit.

But some hotels are different.

I found this out while I was on vacation in Barbados a couple of weeks ago. I was staying at the Casuarina Beach resort on the island's southwestern shore, and right away I noticed the recycling bins placed in my room and around the heavily planted grounds.

Then I saw the sign in the bathroom. It asked guests not to throw used towels on the floor unless they were absolutely sure they wanted them replaced.

This was all so atypical that I asked some questions at the front desk. It turned out the hotel's environmental programs had been winning international awards for years, including ones from the National Geographic Society and the Caribbean Hotel Association.

These hoteliers don't kid around and they don't miss anything.

In addition to separating paper, plastic and glass in the recycling bins, they make sure all waste water is reused.

If, for example, you wash the beach sand off your feet at the outdoor shower, the runoff is collected in a cistern below and subsequently irrigates the hotel's gardens.

The Cauarina management wrote letters to all their local suppliers to request that "goods be delivered in as little packaging as possible."

In the restaurant, butter, ketchup and other condiments are served in bowls instead of individually (and wastefully) wrapped packets. All used cooking oil is distributed to farmers for animal food.

Harsh cleaning products have been replaced with ionizing technology. Fertilizers are organic. Yard waste is composted. Toilets are the latest low-flow designs. The hotel even spends a lot of money to protect the nesting turtles that visit its beach.

While I was there I found none of this to be intrusive or particularly inconvenient. The Casuarina hoteliers have figured out how to be environmentally correct without pestering their guests.

By some standards, Barbados is still a "developing" nation that has yet to reach the standard of living we enjoy in America. Ecologically, however, at least one of its hotels is way ahead of everyone.

By: Hometownannapolis