The most sustainable luxury hotels in Orlando

A luxury eco hotel Orlando is best-known for is the Walt Disney World Resort. As one of the biggest, most powerful brands in the world, Disney has taken responsibility for its power and aims to deliver a positive environmental legacy for future generations, including lowering the impact of its Walt Disney World attractions and resorts.  

Here are some of the eco-friendly steps Walt Disney World Resort has taken:

• Teamed with local utility partners to develop state-of-the-art solar facilities, due to start generating power in 2023. These facilities will mean around 40% of the resort’s electricity consumption comes from renewable energy. 
• Banned single-use plastic straws and stirrers at all hotels, restaurants, and bars – that’s a cutback of around 175 million straws a year!
• All organic waste is sent to a composting facility and turned into a soil-enricher that’s used to fertilize onsite plants.

There are a total of 32 hotels and resorts in Walt Disney World, all of which play their part in Disney’s environmental responsibility. Here at Winged Boots, we have our top picks for Orlando experiences, including the magnificently opulent Grand Floridian Resort & Spa and the charming nautical-themed Yacht Club Resort. Take your pick.

Don’t be fooled by its high-end five-star vibes, The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes is among the luxury eco hotels in Orlando with its unique environmental responsibility strategy. The Ritz-Carlton brand takes sustainability very seriously and has curated a set of initiatives and practices that are in place across its 111 hotels around the world, including The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes. Want to play your part? Book a stay here.

Here are some of the eco-friendly steps the resort has taken:

•  Collaborates with national waste and recycling partners to minimize the amount of waste that goes to landfills. 
•  Collaborates with Clean the World, a non-profit organization that collects used hygiene products and recycles them in the production of fibre-optic cable.
•  Sources ingredients from local organic partners, including local farmers and seafood purveyors.
•  Empowers hotel partners to build more green eco-conscious hotels.
•  Inspire and educate employees and guests on the resort’s conservation efforts.
•  The Ritz Kids programme hosts all sorts of exciting eco-friendly activities. 

Another Orlando luxury eco resort that’s big on both sustainability and luxury is JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes. Here you can relax poolside in the glorious Floridian sunshine or unwind in your deluxe suite with champagne room service – yep, you’ll get all those usual little luxuries associated with a top-end hotel stayover. However, this resort also offers a variety of unexpected eco-friendly experiences that eco-conscious travellers will appreciate. 

Here are some of the activities you can take part in at JW Marriott Orlando, Grand Lakes:

•  Take a trip to Whisper Creek Farm, a 7,000-square-foot garden that grows a variety of ingredients used in the food served at the resort’s restaurants – and even in spa treatments. 
•  Go on a kayak eco-tour that explores the resort’s incredible surroundings of Grande Lakes. It’s a two-hour guided tour led by a knowledgeable local naturalist.
•  Catch fish on the resort’s private lakes and ponds. An instructor will teach any amateurs the fundamentals. 
This resort proves it’s not all about expensive things, sometimes the finest things in life are free.

We couldn’t write about Orlando’s luxury eco resorts without mentioning Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Centre. As you enter the resort’s grand glass atriums, you’ll step into a world of lush greenery and paradise worthy palm trees. With its gorgeous tropical environment, you’d be forgiven to think there’s no way this hotel is situated just off Orlando’s International Drive. But it is. 

Best of all, this is a resort that takes sustainability seriously. In 2008, Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Centre became a certified green hotel, which means it makes outstanding commitments to green practices such as water conservation and recycling initiatives.

Here are some of the eco-friendly steps the resort has taken:

•  All hotel lighting fixtures are fitted with eco-friendly fluorescence bulbs.
•  All guest rooms feature a ‘comfort-management’ system that automatically adjusts room temperature when guests are undetected and out of the room. 
•  Cardboard recycling programmes are in place, with over 100 tonnes of cardboard already recycled, which is equivalent to around 900 cubic yards of landfill space.
•  The resort restaurants source ingredients from local organic farmers.
•  Gone paperless whenever and wherever possible. 
 

With more and more people travelling the world every year, it’s important we take issue with the devastating impacts of climate change and recognise that our travel behaviours and habits play their part. 

Thankfully sustainable tourism options are growing and it’s down to us to find a balance between seeing the world and protecting the environments we travel so far to see. It’s the little decisions like choosing to stay at Orlando’s luxury eco hotels that will make a difference in minimising the travel industry’s negative impacts on the planet’s vulnerable environment. 

All of Orlando’s luxury eco hotels featured on this list have taken substantial steps to operate as sustainable tourism providers. However, here at Winged Boots we’re most impressed with the efforts from Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Centre. 

On top of providing eco-conscious guest experiences, the resort is also a business hub that plays host to hundreds of corporate events every year (meetings, conventions, banquets, etc.). Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Centre now works closely with meeting planners who incorporate a green way of thinking into the corporate events hosted in the convention spaces. 

Prefer villas? Check out our favourite villa accommodation in Orlando.