| Green Travel News |
America’s newest environmentally sustainable hotel is now open near the campus of Syracuse University in upstate New York. Hotel Skyler is only the third hotel in the United 
States to seek Platinum certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) from the U.S. Green Building Council. The 58-room boutique hotel is the former Temple Adath Yeshurun, constructed in 1921.
Among its most advanced green design elements is a geothermal heating and cooling system. Other features employed to meet LEED Platinum standards, recognized nationally as the highest certification of eco-friendliness and energy efficiency, include an energy-saving key card system that powers guestrooms down when they are unoccupied, extensive use of regionally produced and reclaimed materials in the interior design of the hotel and green housekeeping practices.
“This hotel is about as green as you can get,” said owner Norm Swanson. “It’s also a high-styled luxury hotel that will be a joy to stay in. We’ve reused an almost 100-year-old building, so the rooms aren’t your typical hotel rectangle—many of them have very interesting shapes, with French-style attic windows and other features you will only find at Hotel Skyler.”
In a nod to the Treehouse patient activity space at the neighboring Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital, the hotel also features two loft-style Treehouse suites. Half the revenues generated by these suites will be donated to the hospital for cancer care and research.
