Reusable containers are just one way to conserve during your next trip.

• Prepare your home before you go

o   Turn down your thermostat. It will save money on your electric bill and you’ll avoid wasting energy.

o   Unplug all nonessential electronics. Coffeemakers, computers, televisions and so on use electricity even when they’re not being used. Unplug these energy suckers and save energy while you’re away.

• Planning your itinerary

o   If you’re traveling by plane, try to book direct flights. Takeoffs and landings use a lot of fuel.

o   If you’re traveling by car, get a customized map with low gas prices along the route. Getting lost while driving in unfamiliar areas could lead to an expensive waste of gas. Check out GasBuddy.com to find the lowest gasoline prices between your home and your destination.

• Packing your suitcase

o   Include items like a reusable stainless steel bottle, rechargeable batteries, a few reusable shopping bags and maybe the nPower PEG (Personal Energy Generator) Kinetic Energy Charger by Tremont Electric.

o   Pack only the essentials. According to Audubon.org, just an extra 10 pounds per passenger requires an additional 350 million gallons of jet fuel annually, which is enough to fly a 747 continuously for a decade.

o   Pack your travel snacks in reusable containers.

• On vacation:

o   Instead of renting a car, check out public transportation at your destination.

o   Support local, sustainable businesses. Check out DineGreen.com for certified eco-restaurants and LocalHarvest.org for farmers markets.

Make it a priority to take your sustainable habits on the road. Reduce, reuse and recycle. Support local businesses. Treat the people and places you visit with the same respect you show when you’re in your own local community. You’ll have a great vacation and so will the planet!

Fairmont Royal Pavilion in Barbados. Photo courtesy of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts/© VFM Leonardo Inc.

So, you have the perfect spring break location in mind — now you need to determine where you’re going to crash at night. While staying at a friend’s or family member’s humble abode is ideal, it might not be an option. However, finding the most eco-friendly hotel might just be in your deck of cards.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts were named one of the top five eco-friendly hotel chains in 2009 by Greenzer, but how eco-friendly is this chain of about 75 hotels and resorts?

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has achieved many awards for its green stewardship, including Hotelier magazine’s Green Leadership Award in 2008, the Inaugural IMEX Green Supplier Award in 2008, Canada’s Most Earth-Friendly Employers in 2008 and many others since 2002. Receiving recognition for its efforts is an honorable achievement, and the chain has worked hard since 1990 to bring environmental responsibility into the forefront of its business plan.

In 1990, Fairmont pioneered the Green Partnership program, which was designed to reduce the company’s impact on the environment with the help of a sustainable guidebook outlining the best practices in its industry. From recycling to effectively dealing with organic waste, Fairmont’s mission is to “think globally and act locally,” which is why it also started Eco-Innovation signature projects. These projects encompass diverse conversation and awareness efforts, including educating about clear air in California and protecting coral reefs in Hawaii.

In addition, Fairmont improves its energy efficiency through the Energy Star program, which is remarkable considering the company has more than 23,000 hotel rooms to manage. With the help of the World Wildlife Fund, Fairmont has set a goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% below its 2006 levels by 2013. These efforts will help to offset 19,777 cars from the road every year!

Through these admirable green efforts, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is a role model for other hotel chains as well as an example for the community and its visitors.

When booking a room for your spring break vacation — Fairmont locations include hot spots like Acapulco, Barbados and Bermuda — consider a hotel that is committed to doing business in an eco-friendly way.

During preparation for this break, you might become clouded by visions of paradise, so it’s easy to forget that each gallon of gasoline you burn to get to your destination causes 19,564 pounds of carbon dioxide or the average two-hour flight burns 10,363 pounds of jet fuel.

Ignoring your carbon footprint to go on a grand and luxurious spring break isn’t responsible, but you don’t necessarily have to give up your plans.

Remember, almost everything you engage in has a carbon footprint attached. From the food you consume to the plane ride you take, there are consequences to these actions. Before you settle on your vacation plans, you can always calculate your greenhouse gas emissions and make adjustments where necessary, like rent a hybrid car, book a green hotel room, locate recycling centers for your waste, determine the shortest route to travel, etc.

In addition to living as environmentally aware as possible while lounging on the beach or skiing in the mountains, you can also purchase carbon offsets for your spring vacation.

There are many reputable organizations out there with carbon offsetting options. CarbonFund.org encourages people to “Reduce what you can; Offset what you can’t,” and it was awarded the Treehugger Readers’ Choice Best Carbon Offset Provider in 2010.

Support its Million Tree Challenge and plant a tree for every mile you travel — reforestation is necessary for absorbing carbon dioxide and improving air quality as well as supporting biodiversity. There are even preset carbon footprint options available to make the choice easier.

Taking a flight up to 6,000 miles? Purchase the offset for $11.33. These emission reductions are third-party verified, and your money goes toward renewable energy, energy efficiency, reforestation and forest conservation projects.

Some other carbon offset options online include TerraPass and Native Energy. Native Energy has a convenient lifestyle calculator as well as a travel calculator so you can enjoy your trip and treat the planet right as well.

According to Native Energy, “Travel sources comprise nearly 30% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and this number is increasing.” Feel free to go wild this spring break, but look out for the wild by purchasing a carbon offset for your vacation.

Located steps away from the world famous Trocadero and Eiffel Tower, the award-winning Hotel Gavarni is an eco-friendly facility and the first independent hotel in Paris to be certified green by the European Ecolabel.

1-800-RECYCLING’s monthly electronic newsletter, which is regularly packed with useful green tips, news and information, also provides details that make it easier for readers to recycle.

Bischoff subscribed to the newsletter and was entered into the competition automatically. She was then selected randomly from all eligible entries. When notified of her winning entry, she was audibly moved and surprised. “I feel overwhelmed and very excited,” she said. “I love it! I’ve been wanting to plan a trip like this for myself and my dear husband!”

“We chose to partner with the beautiful Hotel Gavarni in Paris for this unique opportunity for a number of reasons,” said John Shegerian, Chairman and CEO of Electronic Recyclers International (ERI), the nation’s leading recycler of electronics and e-waste, and parent company of 1-800-RECYCLING.com. “Mostly, we wanted to offer an exciting sweepstakes that one of our newsletter readers — in this case, Kimberly Bischoff — could win and enjoy, and perhaps learn from. What better way to encourage green living than to offer a stay in Paris in an amazing and environmentally responsible hotel?”

Shegerian added that Hotel Gavarni is involved with a Paris-based ecotourism project of sustainable development and environment protection and is 100% carbon balanced, 100% renewable energy, 100% eco-friendly detergents, organic and fair trade breakfasts and myriad other green initiatives. The Hotel Gavarni is the first independent hotel in Paris to be awarded the official European Ecolabel.

To hear a recent interview with Hotel Gavarni’s Xavier Moraga on the green radio show “Green is Good,” click here.

Since early January also coincides with new promises of personal betterment, why not combine this year’s annual resolutions, the need for a warm-weathered getaway and goals of achieving a more eco-friendly way of life? Don’t know where to start? No problem. ecoDestinations is a worldly tool to help even the most skeptical traveler discover, learn and book a travel experience that refreshes the body and mind and doesn’t harm the environment.

Started in 1989 “as the world’s first international non-profit dedicated to eco-tourism as a tool for conservation and sustainable development,” ecoDestinations works to promote a type of travel that results in the conservation of the environment and also improves the well-being of local populations. And don’t think that there are only a handful of locations to choose from, or that hugging trees is a mandatory part of the itinerary. ecoDestinations showcases an impressive array of sustainable travel choices: Estonia, Mexico, India, Peru, The Caribbean, Brazil, the Western U.S., the U.K. and Costa Rica are all viable eco-friendly adventures.

In fact, ecoDestinations even offers themes to choose from for your next escape from winter. If you can’t decide the exact place you’d most like to visit, perhaps it is easier choosing between “Mountain Destinations & Eco-Adventure Experiences” or “ Beaches, Marine & Coastal Ecotourism Experiences”. ecoDestinations appears to have a trip for every traveler type!

To learn more, visit ecotourism.org to plan this year’s travels now.

Employees feel that the hotel sets an example that “greening” a hotel after building it is indeed possible — Habitat started in the mid-’90s and has been an innovative green force to be reckoned with ever since. From ladybugs as natural replacements for pesky pesticides and a smoke-free environment by choice, to a waste management and recycle program, many of the efforts are considered innovative. From the saved energy to the lush garden, it is the emphasis on recycling everything from energy to office supplies that really stands out. Let’s take a closer look.

All-around recycling

It is easy for a resort to claim that a recycling bin counts as a program. But, at Habitat Suites, the suites, the community guesthouse and the offices are all a part of the bigger picture. The Waste Minimization and Recycling program focuses on recycling, reusing and conserving in all three areas.

In the suites

The most outstanding features include everything from eliminating individual packaging to reusing plastic containers for trash. Some highlights include:

• 100% recycled bathroom and facial tissue and paper towels
• Suite bathrooms use dispensers for personal care products to eliminate small, individual packaging.
• Housekeeping collects recycling from each suite’s recycling container; guests need not separate types of recyclables to participate in this program.
• Habitat Suites donates slightly used or soiled furnishings to nonprofit organizations rather than throwing them away.
• The hotel has trash audits to ensure maximum recycling and attention to minimal packaging, effectively reducing waste by 30%.
• Reuse of the same 5-gallon plastic containers for cleaning supplies. This saves 125,000 cubic yards of plastic annually.

In the guesthouse

You won’t find disposable tableware or fried foods; plastic and oil are not factors in this eco-friendly common space. Some cool facts in the name of sustainability follow:

• Eliminating individual packets of condiments, Styrofoam and plastic tableware
• Cloth napkins are displayed in the dining room, and when that doesn’t work, the default is 100% recycled paper towels.
• The hotel picks food vendors with minimal packaging and bulk selling options.
• When a mop gets dirty, housekeeping doesn’t throw it out; they thoroughly clean the mop.

In the administrative offices

Printing on two sides and sending emails — the solution sounds simple. Here are some more Habitat Suites staff practices that can be done at almost any office:

• Team members reduce the need for paper by communicating with each other through e-mail, whenever possible.
• Credit card processing and night audit work is paperless.
• Printing documents of two or more pages in length on two sides of each piece of paper
• Recycling paper, newspaper, cardboard, aluminum, metal, glass and plastics
• The waterless urinal saves approximately 50,000 gallons of water every year.

“Creating an environmentally sustainable future for all” is a phrase that Habitat Suites holds itself true to — and guests are encouraged to come to Austin and see the sustainability in the comfort of a big suite with a gorgeous garden full of flowers (without the chemicals). Talk about a breath of fresh air!