Sustainable luxury is an automatic word search adjective when looking for anything now-a-days. Especially for travel, as mass tourism is one of the most unsustainable industries next to fashion. But unlike fashion, there isn’t much we need to do to make it better.

Hospitality owners are under a lot more scrutiny than fashion designers to make their business model more sustainable if they want to keep the property. But if you want to be more conscious there are so many new (and less new but unheard of) luxury resort destinations that chose sustainable practices from the very beginning.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” — -Buckminster Fuller

Take for example Forest Hills in India. Tucked amidst the Sahyadri hills, Forest Hills is an eco-luxury retreat set up in the Tala district of Raigad, Maharashtra. The resort is a 4-hour drive from Mumbai and is the ideal location for those who want to escape the city without losing big city comforts.

One of the most luxurious properties on the resort is The Glass House. As the name suggests, this villa is enclosed with glass on all sides. It features locally sourced wooden furnishings in a minimalist style, it’s divided into two levels with a private en-suite bedroom on each level and a kitchen with a formal living and dining room on the top. The space is complete luxe and boasts breathtaking views of the valley and the nature surrounding it.

In addition to six other properties, a swimming pool, campground sites, and mud houses, the resort has a shared communal dining space where all of its food is produced and grown within the property. And according to the Business Traveller, Forest Hills aims at promoting Tala as the next destination for sustainable living.

The resort works with the local community to help build sustainable projects and also generate employment. A case in point is how they supply prawns to local markets of Mumbai, Pune, Goa and also export to the Gulf Area through their prawn farming that is run by local farmers at Tala. They also have sustainable farming and animal husbandry at the resort.

For excursion seekers there are the Kuda Caves that were excavated in the first century B.C., situated on the property and for spa lovers Forest Hills is a full treatment resort with premium natural-luxe amenities.

You cannot go wrong here.