One of the nice things about living in Rhode Island is that the world is at your doorstep. A four hour drive can get you to any one of ten different states. Make that 11 -- if you split New York into the "Upstate New York" and "New York City". We took a tour to New York to visit friends and explore Manhattan, staying as the guests of a boutique hotel called the Hotel Benjamin.

The Benjaman is an interesting combination of luxury and environmental concern. Behind the marble-clad lobby and the luxury expected from a four-star hotel, lies a special commitment to the environment. Special recycling and education programs ensure that this Manhattan hotel is environmentally friendly. In fact, there are only four certified five-globe Ecotels in the world – the Benjamin is the only one in the US.

In 1927, the hotel began as a creation of Emery Roth, the architect whose firm went on to design the original World Trade Center towers along with dozens of other Manhattan buildings. For seventy years the hotel was known as the Beverly, and quietly went about business a stone’s throw away from larger and larger hotels. What was once a jazz era landmark became run down and ready for renovation. In 1997, the hotel changed hands and began a $30 million renovation.

From the early stages of renovation, energy efficiency, water conservation, and waste reduction were important influences on the design specifications and equipment and product purchasing decisions. To meet these criteria, the Benjamin’s architects and engineers designed and selected plumbing fixtures, showerheads, computerized controls for air conditioning and heating systems, and even a custom-designed waste chute and compactor system to handle high-tech recycling machinery.

In many ways, this conservation adds to the feeling of luxury rather than detracting from it. Making the each room’s air-conditioning and heating systems individually controlled and programmable makes the room temperature actually match what the visitor desires rather than overheating some rooms because other rooms are too cool. When it came time to choose clock radios for the room, the Benjamin chose Bose Wave radios in order to ensure luxury in addition to energy savings.

Since every room has its own fully-equipped “galley”, guests frequently prepare some of their own meals. This would ordinarily mean increased waste from the rooms. But not only are there recycling bins in each galley, the housekeeping staff is trained to sort the trash for recycling, especially the two-inch-thick Sunday edition of The New York Times.

This training extends throughout the hotel, from the kitchen to the spa, with recyclables for the entire hotel brought to the basement for compressing and bundling. It’s a win-win situation for the hotel, with energy, water, and waste expenses 30% below budget in addition to reducing the hotel’s impact on the environment and offering visitors an environmentally friendly option when staying in Manhattan.

Of course, much of what makes the four-star Benjamin luxurious is unrelated to being ecologically friendly. The hotel offers 11 different types of pillows, down-filled duvets, spa treatments, and morning newspapers. Staff are friendly and helpful, and the spa and restaurant are exactly what traveling executives demand.

For business travelers, each room also comes with high-speed internet access, a fax/printer/copier with a dedicated fax number, three telephones (including one in the bathroom), an oversized executive desk to spread out on, an ergonomic desk chair, voicemail, and a convenient desktop power strip for plugging in laptops. There are even personal computers available upon request. Being a “boutique hotel”, the Benjamin has not dedicated a huge amount of space to ballrooms, but they do boast a 12-person executive boardroom with dataports built into the table. There are also dataports in the 110-person conference room and throughout the second-floor lounge.

And since no hotel is an island, even if it is on an island, there is Manhattan outside. With the Benjamin at 50th and Lexington, the bustling business and shopping districts of midtown Manhattan, along with being a stone’s throw from Broadway and the United Nations, meaning that you can walk to your midtown meetings and entertainment, saving fuel and further helping the environment.

To visit the Benjamin, call them at 212/715-2500 or find them online at www.thebenjamin.com

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