PROXIMITY HOTEL
GREENSBORO, NC
Striving for the country's first LEED Platinum certification in a hotel, five-month-old Proximity features green tech that doubles as decadence: One hundred solar panels heat 60 percent of the hotel's water, and each of the hotel's 147 rooms comes with a seven-foot-square window to maximize natural light.

GREEN-O-METER: 5
Proximity is home to the first regenerative-drive elevator in North America, which captures electricity produced by brakes while the car descends. Doubles from $199; proximityhotel.com