• Cleaning Supplies: All rooms cleaned with environmentally-friendly cleaning products.
• Soy Inks: All corporate collateral is printed on recycled paper using soy based ink.
• Recycled Paper: Property-wide printing on recycled paper.
• Organic Beverages: All complimentary lobby coffee is organic, shade grown and/or fair trade.
• Towel/Linen Reuse: Guests have the opportunity to do their part to reduce energy and detergents required for daily washings.
• Recycling: Back of house recycling programs address glass, bottles, paper, cardboard, etc.
• Energy Conservation: Back of house lighting is retrofitted and audited to ensure energy efficient bulbs are in place.
• Water Conservation: Implementation and auditing of low flow systems for faucets, toilets, and showers.
• Best Practices: At any hotel you may find environmental activities such as recycling of coat hangers, elimination of Styrofoam cups, paperless check-ins/outs, organic flowers, and more.
• In-room designer recycling bins: Guests are encouraged to participate in reducing our environmental impact.
• Honor bar with organic food and beverage options: Honor bars include organic snacks and beverages.
• Donation programs: Instead of being thrown away, unused amenity bottles are donated and used by local charities.

So, what did we find during our stay at the Pacific Palisades?

Besides being a hotel with a lot of character, comfortable beds, friendly staff, a nice workout room, and everything else you would want from a place where you lay your head and plan your next adventure, the Pacific Palisades had several excellent green features:

• Recycling bins in room- I wish every hotel had these!
• Aveda toiletries
• Zin Restaurant & Lounge, the restaurant on the first floor of the hotel, has a cool vibe and uses local ingredients and sustainably fished fish (the resturant food and catering was also excellent)

Another plus to the Pacific Palisades is that it’s located downtown on Robson Street- which means your stay can be even greener since you won’t need no need to take cabs or drive.  Stanley Park is super close so you can jog or take a leisurely bike ride, and there are lots of bus lines within walking distance. Pacific Palisades provided a nice touch by leaving a Stanley Park jogging map in the room. And if you like to take your dog along on your green adventures, you’re in luck - Pacific Palisades is a pet-friendly hotel.

Of course, there were a few ways I thought the hotel up their level of eco-consciousness:

• The bottles of Aveda toiletries were quite large.  Perfect for 2 people on a 5 day stay, but any shorter and a lot would go to waste.
• Housekeeping took the hung towels (despite the sign saying they wouldn’t).  I guess next time I’ll need my trusty green hotel don’t change my towels sign!
• Like almost all hotels, the stairs were dingy and closed off.  I can’t wait for the hotel with a staircase that invites me to walk up or down countless flights.

Some of the rooms also have full-size fridges, which are great for storing leftovers, but waste electricity if you’re not using them. We used them, though, so I can’t complain.

Overall, we definitely enjoyed our stay at the Pacific Palisades and would stay there again next time we’re in Vancouver.  They strive to be a green hotel and in my opinion, succeed.