The CityFlatsHotel in downtown Holland, Michigan offers guests an eco-friendly experience without compromising style or luxury.

As the first hotel in the Midwest to receive LEED Gold Certification, the CityFlatsHotel in Holland, Michigan boasts sweeping views of downtown and Lake Macatawa, a small body of water that leads to the magnificent beaches of Lake Michigan. No two rooms are alike at CityFlatsHotel, making each of the 56 eco-friendly suites a unique experience.

The CityFlatsHotel was designed and manufactured with carefully selected green materials and technologies. For example, to save energy, curtains are lined with a black-out fabric, the countertops are made from recycled glass and concrete, and instead of carpeting, cork flooring tiles are used. Additionally, large windows throughout the hotel maximize natural lighting, while master switches turn off all lighting when a guest leaves the guestroom. Occupancy sensors power down the heating and cooling system when it is not needed.

CityVū Bistro on the fifth floor keeps it local, as it’s considered among the best among foodies here. Fresh locally-sourced ingredients contribute to a creative and healthy menu (fryers and frozen foods won’t be found anywhere near their kitchen).

If you go: Take note of the locally made CityDrem mattresses as well as the sheets, blankets, towels and duvet covers. They’ve been so popular that guests can now buy them for their own homes. Rates start at $149USD per night.

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

Raze the roof for green.

I’ll let you in on one of my secret eco-dreams: to tear down dilapidated buildings and allow nature to recover the land. As it turns out, this just might be a new municipal strategy in combating urban blight.

The first site of this radical experiment? Flint, Michigan: a sprawling and impoverished, underpopulated city. At 34 square miles, Flint requires a lot of maintenance and upkeep (think: garbage trucks, road repair, electricity lines).

So, how to maintain a city’s integrity without the taxpayer base to support it? Just tear down the buildings and parts of town that are already on the decline. It’s “pruning the deadwood,” to put it in gardening terms. The idea is to raze decrepit buildings and replant them with trees or allow natural meadows to grow on the land.

According to Dan Kildee, the brains behind this project, nobody is being forced to move and people are being offered better homes in more maintained parts of town. The ones who choose to stay will simply have more natural areas surrounding their homes.

The U.S. government and various charities have approached Mr. Kildee and asked him for advice on how to proceed with this idea in other declining cities around the United States. Seems like “less is more” and “back to nature” may come together on a grand and tangible scale.

Image: Saquan Stimpson