The Best Luxury Eco-Lodges in the World

A Sustainability Ranking in partnership with ETIC Hotels

You’re planning a trip to an Eco-Lodge and you’re trying to be as ethical and sustainable as possible? niood lists you the 10 most sustainable Eco-Hotels in the world:

1. Copal Tree Lodge, a Muy’Ono Resort
Punta Gorda, Belize

From $200 per night
ETIC Hotels Green Score: 9.5/10

What makes Copal Tree Lodge sustainable?
From the preservation of an intact 12,000 acre nature reserve to the implementation of daily practices that reduce the Lodge’s carbon footprint, Copal Tree Lodge is committed to conservation and local economic development.

• Roughly 70% of the food we serve in our restaurant is organically produced on our farm.

• We use sustainable, line-caught fish and seasonal seafood purchased directly from local day boat fishermen.

2. MahaRaja Eco Dive Lodge
Raja Ampat, Indonesia

From $170 per night
ETIC Hotels Green Score: 9.5/10

What makes MahaRaja Eco Dive Lodge sustainable?
The MahaRaja Eco Dive Lodge is a dive resort situated in remote West Papua, Indonesia that lands firmly in the latter category. Located on its own Island in Raja Ampat, a rugged and jungle covered archipelago on the far western tip of West Papua, it operates with explicit social and environmental ideals in mind.

For the start, the vast majority of the staff at MahaRaja, including the dive guides, are local Papuans, and not just that, but individuals drawn largely from the villages of Arefi and Yensawai, the two settlements in the most immediate vicinity of the resort. Through its dive school, the resort trains its local staff as certified dive masters, teaches them English and conducts classes on ecology, renewable energy and sustainability. This gives its employees past and present access to new opportunities, whether they ultimately stay in Raja Ampat or move further afield.

Through its dive school, the resort trains its local staff as certified dive masters, teaches them English and conducts classes on ecology, renewable energy and sustainability. This gives its employees past and present access to new opportunities, whether they ultimately stay in Raja Ampat or move further afield.

3. Three Camel Lodge
Mongolia

From $250 per night
ETIC Hotels Green Score: 9.5/10

What makes Three Camel Lodge sustainable?
Our unwavering commitment is guided by the United Nations Development Programme’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and each guest stay directly supports efforts to conserve our natural resources, protect our cultural traditions and improve the quality of life for Gobi residents.

– We are proud to be the first lodge in Mongolia to successfully eliminate all single-use plastic water bottles, and we provide our guests with a stylish reusable metal bottle that can be refilled throughout the property at our purified water stations. Every day, we pursue our goal of becoming completely plastic-free.

– Nearly 100% of the lodge lighting, including all the lighting in our guest gers, is solar-powered, and we use only LED lights.

– Providing full-time employment and professional capacity building to local community members is fundamental to our company’s sustainability mission, and we are proud to employ a 100% Mongolian staff. We currently employ 20+ staff year-round, in contrast to most Mongolian lodges, which only hire for the three-month tourism season.

– Past and present live as one in the Gobi, which is why we are committed to protecting the region’s priceless dinosaur fossils from illegal extraction in nearby paleontological sites, while supporting scientific inquiry.

4. Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve and Wellness Retreat
South Africa

From $600 per night
ETIC Hotels Green Score: 9.5/10

What makes Bushmans Kloof sustainable?
We continue to reduce most unnecessary single-use plastics within our hotels and we work with Winnow Solutions to reduce our food waste and measure and manage our energy use. We proudly work with Clean Conscience to recycle leftover toiletries, and stock Belu water throughout our hotels.

We work closely with The TreadRight Foundation, particularly in Africa. Our sustainable initiatives are at the heart of everything we do, from sending organic waste to communities local to Xigera for their garden projects, to protecting a herd of Cape Mountain Zebras and ancient rock art sites, both at Bushmans Kloof.

We have partnered with Leitha CleanCoat™, an effective and sustainable self-disinfection solution that makes our hotel surfaces self-disinfecting.

5. Mashpi Lodge
Ecuador

From $900 per night
ETIC Hotels Green Score: 9.5/10

What makes Mashpi Lodge sustainable?
Mashpi Lodge was built using the latest techniques in sustainable construction, with much of the structure having been preassembled in Quito. It is designed to blend in perfectly with its natural environment, its glass walls making it virtually invisible at times. Stunningly contemporary and featuring modernist design and décor that mixes warm earth tones, steel, stone and glass in striking perspectives, Mashpi Lodge makes for a true cocoon of luxury in the middle of the forest.

6. Pacuare Lodge
Turrialba, Bajo Tigre, Costa Rica

From $1,100 per night
ETIC Hotels Green Score: 9.5/10

What makes Pacuare Lodge sustainable?
The lodge’s bathrooms are equipped with biodegradable soap and shampoo and the water for their showers is solar heated. All the lodge’s wastewater flows into state-of-the-art septic systems to avoid pollution of the nearby river.

Bungalows are illuminated with lanterns and candles and what little electricity used at the lodge is clean energy generated by a turbine in a nearby stream.

All Pacuare Lodge staff is from nearby communities and 95% of our rafting guides are from Turrialba, the closest city to the lodge.

The Pacuare Lodge was built with minimal impact on the surrounding forest and river. No trees were cut to accommodate the bungalows and main lodge; our buildings use lumber from a reforestation project run by small farmers. The thatch roofs were made by local Cabécar Indians in their traditional style using palm leaves collected in our forest reserve.

7. Tiamo Resort
Kemps Bay, Bahamas

From $700 per night
ETIC Hotels Green Score: 9.5/10

What makes Tiamo Resort sustainable?
They have trained their staff members in environmental conservation and encourage them to live by that philosophy in their homes.

The resort donates staff time, vehicles and fuel to local community clean-up projects. Construction of the resort was done by hand to minimize the impact on the environment, and all scraps were used for furniture and other items. All buildings are raised on columns to leave a small footprint and are designed with maximum airflow for cooling.

Electricity is generated by solar panels. Although most of Tiamo Resorts’ waste is composted or reused, there is no plastic recycling on the island, which forced the Hartmans to get creative. Every guest receives a neatly bundled plastic cube about the size of a book to be recycled at home.

8. Campi ya Kanzi
Mtito Andei, Kenya

From $1,500 per night
ETIC Hotels Green Score: 9.5/10

What makes Campi ya Kanzi sustainable?
The business was built using only sustainable materials collected locally. The business employs locally (90% are local Maasai), pays tourism revenues to the community and supports a community trust.

The camp fulfills all water needs through rain cropping and storing it in PVC bladders and only uses renewable energies; photovoltaic panels for electricity and solar boilers for hot water. It was also the first lodge in the 90’s to use UNEP approved eco-friendly charcoal to cook all the food.

9. Secret Bay
Tibay, Portsmouth, Dominica

From $1,100 per night
ETIC Hotels Green Score: 9.5/10

What makes Secret Bay Dominica sustainable?
Designed by famed architect Fruto Vivas, Secret Bay is composed entirely of sustainably-sourced Guyanese hardwood. Even more impressive, perhaps, is the fact that no heavy machinery was involved in construction; Secret Bay was assembled meticulously by hand. The villas and bungalows were conscientiously placed in specific locations so as minimal clear-cutting would take place, while the bedroom furniture is largely composed of locally-sourced Red Cedar. Thus, as an eco-luxury resort, Secret Bay exists in a beautiful equilibrium between a responsibility to the environment and a commitment to the guests’ comfort. Secret Bay offers a luxurious experience in harmony with nature; the ability to revel in ethical luxury.

While working with local organizations is an act of sustainability, so is educating those who visit the “Nature Island.” Tourists, much like those who call Dominica home, are responsible for maintaining the land and community. Secret Bay thus offers its guests classes about local animals, plants, and flora. Additionally, the resort’s 2017 project is to eliminate all plastic water bottles so the guests, too, will live and learn to act sustainably. There is a shared understanding among the people of Dominica to maintain the purity of their home, which tourists likewise uphold once they’ve witnessed the natural splendor of the island.

One of the most acclaimed and tasteful methods of sustainability, for both Dominicans and tourists alike, is Secret Bay’s commitment to using locally-sourced products. Chef Eric’s kitchen consists of nearly 80% local produce, seafood, herbs, and liquors, all of which enhance the inherent flavor of each dish. When using fresh fruits like papaya or mango, or just-caught fish like red snapper and mahi mahi, the ingredients speak for themselves. On the Secret Bay property, Chef Eric utilizes wild herbs to season his dishes and prepare healing herbal teas. By supporting local businesses and using the freshest ingredients, both the producers and consumers reap the benefit.

10. Kachi Lodge
Jirira, Bolivia

From $1,750 per night
ETIC Hotels Green Score: 9.5/10

What makes Kachi Lodge sustainable?
Apart from the privileged relationship with the community, the preservation of the environment has been at the heart of our concerns since the beginning of the project. Before settling on the Salar, we wanted to be sure that we could deploy a building with the least possible impact. We have therefore invested in cutting-edge technologies in both water and energy management systems.

Although Kachi Lodge is a permanent structure, it remains mobile. The whole lodge is secured on a wooden floor whose pillars are simply standing on the Salar. No anchoring or drilling was done in the salt crust. The entire lodge is designed to operate on solar energy. The panels are being installed and are already heating the entire water supply. Studies are underway to complete the energy supply with a wind turbine. For water management, a complex system of pumps brings the greywater back into a dirty water tank that is eventually connected to a unique closed-loop filtering system (using reverse osmosis. The system already prevents any discharge of wastewater into the environment and ultimately minimizes water consumption.

Kachi Lodge aims at a 0% plastic policy. No plastic bottles or packaging.  Waste sorting is the rule and we hope to be able to set up our own waste treatment structure in the near future.

For the construction and operation of Kachi Lodge, we focus on Bolivian companies and buy as much as possible locally. The wood used for the Kachi Lodge platform is a Bolivian wood with FSC certification.