Visitors to LA can hire an electric car, stay in a green boutique hotel, eat locally grown produce at sustainable restaurants and even drown their ecological sorrows in an eco night-club. A million trees being planted over the next few years will result in a visibly greener city. The USA may be bringing up the rear in the fight against global warming, but Los Angeles offers a glimmer of hope. Its citizens are pioneers in going green, and use 30% less energy than their fellow Americans.
Good to Go
Driving around wealthy parts of LA, it can seem as if every other car is a Toyota Prius. These electric/petrol hybrids are the most fuel-efficient car on the road today and drivers of hybrid vehicles park for free at all meters in the city. Such vehicles are probably the best hope for the city with the highest per-capita car ownership in the world; LA may boast one of the US’s largest fleets of natural gas buses, but hardly anybody uses them.
The Green Carpet
Never one to ignore the latest trend, Hollywood has jumped on the environmental bandwagon with (sometimes misguided) enthusiasm. A joke circulating about one particular starlet has her gushing: ‘I love those Prius cars and I really want to save the environment… so I bought two’. Julia Roberts, a spokesperson on environmental issues, made much of installing solar powered panels on her home. Unfortunately, the house was an unnecessary, enormous new build that cancelled out the benefit of a thousand such panels. But film stars like Jennifer Aniston and George Clooney are turning away from gas-guzzling stretch limos and instead rolling up to LA’s Oscars in less-ostentatious hybrid ‘town cars’.
Eating to Save the Planet
Forget lactose-intolerant herbivores, the latest food fad to hit LA are ‘locavores’ – people who only consume food produced within a 100-mile radius. While you might not want to go that far, don’t miss sampling delicious Californian produce from farmers markets and gourmet restaurants throughout the city. At Lobster, diners can save two birds with one stone, tucking into Californian seafood and seasonal produce while sitting under a solar-panelled roof.
Eco Chic
Saving the planet no longer means wearing a hair shirt and no one knows this better than the glamorous Angelinos. In LA, green is very much the new black. Guests of the exquisite Venice Beach Eco Cottages can relax in non-toxic, sustainable luxury, and even an energy efficient hot tub made of plastic milk jugs, and congratulate themselves on the tiny carbon footprint resulting from their stay.
Drink to the Future
On sustainable wine-tours, you can travel in a biodiesal van, visiting vineyards that use organic and biodynamic techniques to grow their grapes. And, at the end of the day, you can make a paperless reservation for Ecco Ultra Lounge, the country’s first energy-efficient nightclub. Here, hedonists with a head for the environment dance in front of an eco amp and relieve themselves of the organic cocktails at the club’s waterless urinals.
This article appeared in the Spiral guide to Los Angeles
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