Green Travel? That's Rich

At 1 Hotels, you can limit your carbon footprint while living high on the hog

I didn’t notice it at first: a miniature hourglass tucked into a small wooden disc in the shower stall. It was the kind we used to call an egg timer. When I flipped it the sand started falling from the top bulb to the bottom.

It was nudging me, gently, to take note that my shower should not last indefinitely. 

That’s just one of many such touches you come across when you stay in a 1 Hotel -- small but sometimes sweet reminders to be kind to the planet even as you bathe in luxury.

The international chain of 13 boutique properties has made a name for itself by delivering a luxurious yet sustainable guest experience. Or maybe it’s a sustainable yet luxurious guest experience.

At 1 Hotels you leave a humbler environmental footprint than you would at most luxe properties but are exposed to none of the creature discomforts of a full-on eco-resort (three flights of stairs; no flushing). You're cosseted in elegance but spared the guilt-inducing overindulgences of a full-on, one-percenter cocoon (bottled water from an Icelandic fjord; a personal butler oozing carbon dioxide). 

In other words, at 1 Hotels you get a humongous walk-in rainfall shower -- but it’s strictly low-flow, and you’re gently elbowed to get out in five minutes. And feeling pretty darn virtuous.   

Strokes, Not Pokes

1 Hotels was launched in 2015 by Barry Sternlicht, former CEO of Starwood Hotels, who in previous adventures launched the high-style urban W Hotels and the super-high-end St. Regis Group (which, as it happens, does have personal butlers who ooze carbon dioxide). 

The view of the Bay Bridge from our 1 Hotels San Francisco room. They give journalists good rooms. Photo by Craig Stoltz

He launched 1 Hotels with the express intention of blending luxury with environmental responsibility. “We have an impact on nature,” he once intoned for a news release, “and nature has an impact on us.” 

My wife and I recently stayed in 1 Hotels in West Hollywood and San Francisco. Based on our visits, I can say it appears Sternlicht is hitting some of the right notes -- and, significantly, doing so by using gentle nudges rather than naggy pokes.    

Livin’ Large in Hollywood with a Small Carbon Footprint 

In West Hollywood the guest welcome desk is made from a burnished section of a massive fallen tree (a 1 Hotel design signature). It’s gorgeous, attention-getting, and very much of the earth, without clubbing you over the head with a plant-a-tree-to-save-the-planet schtick. 

There’s a little area by the cafe where “imperfect” produce like dates and tangerines are free for the taking, along with ice water scented with slices of local citrus. All decor is made from wood, fabrics, pottery, and other natural materials -- nothing created with acrylic (plastic) or oil (fossil fuel) paints. Earnest, yes. But it all looks great, creates a soothing aesthetic, and dials down at least a tiny bit its impact on the planet. 

The big open lobby is wild with potted and hanging plants, many drawn from the Southern California landscape, which feed the place with oxygen, though frankly in low-natural-light areas the greenery shows signs of struggle to thrive.

At the top of a flight of stairs leading to event space a live moss wall depicts the famous Hollywood sign -- as seen from behind, so the letters read backwards, a lovably quirky touch. (Arty moss walls are another 1 Hotels signature.)

The rooms are what you expect at the $400-and-up price point: soothing earth-toned design, luxurious sustainably sourced fabrics, high-touch furnishings, some from domestic makers (to limit the carbon spew of international transport), subtly scented soaps and bath products (none in throw-away containers). Window coverings both offer slick beauty and provide insulation.    

A Good-Looking Crowd

The crowd at West Hollywood, as at most of the chain’s hotels, skews Gen X and Gen Y, and is pretty slick. Good haircuts, nice shoes. The bodies around the tiny rooftop pool showed evidence of Pilates and such. (Maybe they had used the hotel’s Peloton machines, which sit on a gym flooring made of 80 percent recycled plastic material.)

At the bar downstairs one evening I was nursing a Lula’s Heart, a cocktail put together by a bartender trained in waste reduction. Its ingredients include falernum derived from an avocado pit that would otherwise have gone into the compost bin. Not a bad drink, truth told. 

This being Hollywood, director Spike Lee of all people happened to pull up next to me. He was getting takeout. I’ll bet he had no idea that the kitchen that prepared his food and packed it in compostable containers diverts over 90 percent of its waste away from landfills.  

I was going to tell him that, but instead I just gave him The Nod. He nodded back. That’s how cool people are at 1 Hotel West Hollywood.

At 1 with San Francisco Bay

When my wife and I stayed at the 1 Hotel San Francisco, our favorite amenity wasn’t the spectacular view of the Embarcadero and the Bay Bridge crossing over to Oakland, although we liked that plenty. It was the little water fountain out in the hallway. This and an elegant green beaker and three glasses made of recycled wine bottles are provided in lieu of bottled water. I enjoyed padding out into the hallway for a refill of the filtered water, even though this made me have to get up and pee at night. I felt just as quietly virtuous as I did as when I took a five-minute shower.

The building was constructed as a 200-room boutique hotel in 2005, purchased by the group that owns 1 Hotels in 2018 and fully renovated, reopening in 2022. Two years after that it achieved LEED Gold status, the industry’s second-highest level of greenness. (Numbers are hard to come by, but in 2022 there were reportedly just 365 LEED Gold hotels in the U.S.) 

All 1 Hotels have some level of LEED status, or have certification pending. The San Francisco building had to be fully re-plumbed so everything was low-flow. Recycling systems had to be established, hyper-efficient HVAC systems installed. The windows are double-glazed, and some windows in each room open, reducing need for heating and A/C. All lighting is low-voltage LED. When rooms are vacant, electrical, heating, and air conditioning systems automatically go dormant.

The roof was covered with a recycled green turf-like material so it didn’t absorb solar heat and it could host events and such. Still, it looks tacky. There’s a small herb garden and apiary up there, used by the kitchen. There are also two really cool outdoor stone tubs used by the spa, allowing you to bask in minerals right in the midst of San Francisco’s famous fog. (Aromatic Bath Salt Soak, $220 for 50 minutes)  

There’s also plenty of functional re-use going on at the 1 Hotel San Francisco: The floor of the lobby is built with 7,000 square feet of lumber salvaged from historic barns, and each elevator landing is faced with redwood planks that once were part of the Old San Francisco Bay Bridge, the predecessor of the one visible just outside the guest room windows. Yes, there was a time when they cut down magnificent California redwoods to build bridges. To its credit, 1 Hotels is giving that sadly mis-used lumber a second life. 

And speaking of redwoods, many of the indoor plants are species you find in the micro-ecosystems in Muir Woods, one of the most popular places near San Francisco to take in the ancient giant trees. The scent piped into the lobby, all from natural essences including eucalyptus, is called “Kindling.”

Eating Green at 1 Hotels

I got a chance to talk to Scott Koranda, executive chef at Terrene, the farm-to-table restaurant at 1 Hotel San Francisco. He told me that getting to 90 percent waste diversion -- meaning keeping 90 percent of what comes out of the kitchen out of landfills -- wasn’t that hard, between eliminating single-use plastics and instituting a strong composting program. Plate scrapings are handled by a company that converts that amalgamated organic matter into … well, he was a bit vague about the details of what that company might actually do with the stuff.

The next few percentage points get harder, he said. He tried out a plastic film made of recycled material, for instance, but the cooks inevitably kept using the old one made of virgin plastic because it performed better. 

He’s having better luck at making the kitchen greener with a new cooking oil, one derived from the leaves of sugar cane, essentially finding value in an industrial byproduct that currently goes to waste. It’s far more sustainable than growing a crop, like soy or canola, to produce frying or sauteing oil. 

The night before I talked to Koranda I’d had a wonderful meal at Terrene, the plates loaded with produce grown within 50 miles of the restaurant, he said, sweetened with honey from the apiary up on the roof, and garnished with herbs you can see from those awesome stone tubs outside the spa. (Amazing carrots. Seriously.) Had I eaten anything using that sugar-cane-leaf oil, I asked?

The scallops were seared in it, he told me. 

They were cooked perfectly. 

And, consistent with the 1 Hotels approach, I had no idea I was participating in a leading-edge green initiative. I was just enjoying the food.  

It’s the Little Things 

Throughout our stay, I kept coming back to those small touches that made our cushy visit so full of tiny green moments. 

The rooms have no reusable plastic and virtually no paper. Instead of a notepad and pen, there’s a slate and chalk. (Cute, but I had nothing to write.) The door key is made out of wood. (I have no idea how they do that.) Instead of a mini-bar price list, there’s an app. (The 1 Hotel app does everything. You can adjust the room’s temperature with it. Or use it as your room key. Or reserve one of its Rad-Power e-bikes.) 

And there’s no “Do not disturb” door-hanger. There’s just a rock that on one side reads “Not now.” The other side reads “Now.” You leave it on a little shelf along the vertical living wall of greenery just outside your door. 

This “Now” rock comes in handy, since the only time you get service at 1 Hotels is when you ask for it. This is by design, another way to avoid wasted resources. 

But when we did want service, I’ve got to say, it was there, and fast. Frankly, picking up the phone was easier. Room service came promptly. Our check-out question was answered immediately. 1 Hotel San Francisco has earned a Michelin Key. 

1 Hotels’ Barry Steinlicht said we have an impact on nature, and nature has an impact on us. I came away from our visits feeling pampered, yes, but good about having had a small impact on nature. And I think 1 Hotels may have had an impact on me.

I actually was thinking about getting one of those little egg timers for my shower at home. I found one on Amazon for $6.99. But it’s plastic, and made in China. Way too big of a carbon footprint.

Eat This Tip

There are 1 Hotels in 11 locations, including Brooklyn, South Beach, Nashville, Hawaii, and other domestic destinations. International places include Mayfair, London; Melbourne, Australia; and Sanya, China. They’re expensive, usually $400 to $1,000. The best deals: Nashville, where you may be able to snag a standard room for $250.