9. ‬Stay in a green hotel

Singapore’s Parkroyal on Pickering hotel is a 16-storey tower – yet it contains as many square metres of greenery as the park across the street. Architects WOHA designed the hotel as a vertical garden infused with lush tropical vegetation. It’s an eye-catching approach to design, but the benefits are not just aesthetic. Thanks to its greenery, the hotel reduces its solar heat gain by 20 percent, cutting the amount of air-conditioning needed to cool guest rooms. Other green features include solar panels, rainwater recycling and the use of lightweight Cobiax slabs instead of energy-intensive concrete.

Since Parkroyal on Pickering opened in 2013, it has been joined by a host of eco-friendly accommodations across Asia. Chengdu’s Six Senses Qing Cheng Mountain resort uses low-impact construction materials, reusable glass bottles and electric Tesla Model S cars for airport transfers. There’s even an organic garden on-site that supplies the resort’s restaurant. In Hong Kong, Hotel ICON recycles its waste, donates excess food and uses a water-based cooling system that is 28 percent more efficient than traditional air-conditioning.