It's not easy being staying green while you're on the go. Traveling to and from M (or any other destination) and staying eco-friendly at the same time requires a bit of planning. But don't worry; we're here to help with tips for traveling and helping the environment at the same time.

Staying green during travel starts with how you travel to your destination. Whether you're getting to there by train, plane or car there are always green alternatives.

• When taking a road trip, opt for driving a hybrid car. If you don't own one yourself, you can rent one. Driving a hybrid will save you money on gas so it's good for your wallet and the environment at the same time.
• If you're going by air, you can reduce your carbon footprint in the skies by choosing a larger plane. On average, larger planes consume less fuel than smaller aircrafts. Plus it's similar to car pooling, the more passengers on larger planes the fewer smaller planes in the air.
• While taking a train may seem a bit old-fashioned, trains emit fewer pollutants per passenger than the equivalent amount of cars. You'll also be able to kick back and enjoy the scenery during your ride.

Aside from your mode of transportation, there are other factors to take into consideration while you travel to help reduce the footprint you leave behind.

• If you're traveling green, you should stay green too. Look for accommodations (like ours) that practice environmentally-friendly initiatives. You can read about how we go green at our own resort.
• Lighten up your load. Packing lighter helps you save gas during car travel. All of those 50 lb. suitcases add up so this also helps when traveling by plane or train.
• Power your devices with the sun. Chances are you're traveling with a cell phone, camera, mp3 player and other electronic devices. Invest in a solar charger for your digital electronics and keep them electricity free.

Incorporating any or all of these tips will help you start on the path to green travel. Do you have any good travel tips for going green? Share them with us below!

Blue on the outside, green on the inside.

Here at M, we strive to provide you with the best amenities available and to do so while striving to help the environment at the same time. As part of our duty to help protect the environment, we implement a number of initiatives to keep our resort environmentally-friendly.

To make "going green" easier for our guests and to help you save some green during your stay at our resort, we offer all our hotel guests the choice to forgo housekeeping service for the day. If guests decline service for the day, we give them a $5 resort coupon good for any M Resort owned bar, restaurant or spa. It's one of those little ways we say thank you for helping us be environmentally-friendly.

There are a few other ways we're environmentally-conscious too:

Guests' rooms are fitted with separate walk-in showers to encourage guests to take showers instead of baths (big water saver) and specialized keycards are used to control the lighting so if you're not in the room the lights automatically turn off. How many times have you forgotten to turn off the lights when leaving a room? That doesn't happen here!

Though our building may be blue on the outside, we're green on the inside. Our property was built from top to bottom with energy efficiency in mind. We use natural lighting whenever possible to brighten things up without wasting electricity; the lighting fixtures that we have are all energy efficient and our property is not flood lit, which reduces light pollution and saves a ton of energy.

Our roofing material's light color was chosen to reduce heat gain and our pool uses heat exchangers for the pool and spa equipment to further reduce energy consumption. The giant marquee that greets you on the way into our resort uses LED lights, which uses 85% less energy than traditional incandescent signage.

If you're dining with us, you'll notice that our restaurants have linen napkins rather than disposable ones cutting down on waste. With the waste that we do have, we recycle. Recycling bins are all over our back-of-house areas encouraging our employees to help our cause.

Our Security Team's Ford Escape Hybrid.

You may have heard that we offer shuttle service for all our guests, which helps with air quality throughout the city. Even our security department does its part; our security vehicle was recently replaced with a Ford Escape Hybrid, which gets about 34-miles per gallon.

We try to reduce energy consumption at our resort as part of our duty to protect the environment. We encourage our partners to do the same and motivate our team members to assist wherever possible in implementing ways to keep our resort as environmentally-friendly as possible.