Celebrating One Year of Surfrider's Ocean Friendly Hotels Program
September 10th marks one year since Surfrider launched the Ocean Friendly Hotels Program, an expansion of Surfrider's nationally-recognized Ocean Friendly Restaurants Program. The Ocean Friendly Hotels Program celebrates lodging establishments that are going above and beyond to reduce their use of unnecessary single-use plastic and make more sustainable choices for the ocean.
The larger we grow our network of Ocean Friendly business leaders, the more mainstream the concept of single-use plastic-free becomes.
Program Impact
Since launching one year ago, we have:
- 30 Ocean Friendly Hotels participating in the program
- 7 states including Alaska, New York, California, Washington, Florida, Oregon, Hawai'i, and even the U.S. Virgin Islands have Ocean Friendly Hotels
- 1.2 million plastic bottles are saved from hotels annually
- 1.8 million mini plastic toiletry bottles are saved from hotels annually
Meet Our Ocean Friendly Hotels
Our Ocean Friendly Hotels represent a wide range of lodging establishments, including resorts, boutique hotels, luxury hotels, bed and breakfasts, a lodge, and a campground! Meet some of our participating locations by clicking the image:
What Makes a Hotel Ocean Friendly?
Each participating hotel must follow a set guidelines that focuses on single-use plastic reduction, water conservation, energy efficiency, reducing light pollution, and more. The result of this program is a community of hotels our chapters can promote, support, and lift up as successful examples to influence greater adoption of ocean-friendly business practices and even more single-use plastic reduction legislation.
Supporting Plastic Reduction Policy
Chapters in Hawai'i campaigned to pass HB348 and SB670 which would've phased-out mini personal care plastic packaging (shampoos, conditions, lotions, and soaps) at hotels and other lodging establishments. Instead, hotels would have to install bulk dispensers or use non-plastic packaging for their personal care products. Surfrider Hawai'i pointed to the Ocean Friendly Hotels Program in their testimony as this bill directly aligns with the program criteria. This bill did not pass, but we plan to continue working on it.
Stay at an Ocean Friendly Hotel
Looking for somewhere to stay on your next vacation? Explore our map of Ocean Friendly Hotels to ensure that where you're staying is making better choices for the health of our ocean. Make sure to tell them you appreciate their ocean-friendly status!
What's Next
Surfrider has a goal to add 100 hotels by 2029. This will eliminate over 4 million plastic water bottles and 6 million mini toiletry bottles annually from our landfills and polluting our ocean! We also strive to work with our Ocean Friendly Hotels to pass more policies that reduce single-use plastic in the hospitality industry.
Help us reach our goal. If you know of a hotel that would be a great fit for the program, urge them to sign up and join the movement to end single-use plastics!
Want to help Surfrider stop plastic pollution at the source? Consider donating today!