Gaia Napa Valley [LEED-Gold] • 07.29.08
The 130-ish room [self-proclaimed] “greenest hotel in the US, ” Gaia Nappa Valley by Wen-I Chang (Butterfly Effect Hotels / Atman Hospitality Group) includes a… restaurant. The menu emphasizes locally-grown food.
There are a good number of reviews, and many of them describe the big plans for the Gaia brand, but even with coverage in bohemian.com, cnet, and USA Today details on sustainability features of the food service operation at Gaia are pretty sparse.
The backstory on Gaia’s development apparently starts in a restaurant – where an effort to save water caught Mr. Chang’s attention. 8 years and $20 million later, a hotel was born – and now there are more (in Anderson, CA and soon, Merced, CA).
Incidentally, Gaia Nappa Valley won the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) 2007 award of excellence for commercial canopies for Rainier Industries. Congratulations.
