"Eco" is in with the inn crowd; hotels roll out the green carpet - slowly.

Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, the international eco-hip chain of personalcare shops, makes a relatively simple request when checking into a hotel: Don't change the sheets every day. "They're always thrown for a loop," she says of hotel staff. "They ask, 'Are you trying to get a discount?' I say, 'No, I'll pay you more if you leave the sheets on!' It's not for me. It's for the environment."

Roddick may be several shades greener than the average business traveler, but her request--and the hotels' typical responses--are telling. A small but growing corps of hotel guests want accommodations that allow them to be as eco-conscious on the road as they are at home. And the hospitality industry is finding that this means more than putting green mints on their pillows each night. Slowly, they are beginning to respond, laying out the green carpet for travelers like Roddick.

But slowly is the operative word here. While there are some exemplary hotels, the largest chains are just starting out. Don't look for Earth flags flying over your local Days Inn, Motel 6 or Econo-Lodge any time soon. The greenest hotels seem to be a handful of independents as well as some pricier establishments: the Inter-Continentals, Hyatt Regencies and Canadian Pacific hotels, for example.

One particularly exemplary establishment, the Boston Park Plaza, has installed a water-filtration system that helps reuse 6.5 million of the 10 million gallons of the water used to launder linens each year. Also, each of the 977 guest rooms features soap and lotion dispensers instead of the usual miniature giveaways, saving some two million containers a year from the trash heap. The Hyatt Regency in Chicago hand-sorts all hotel trash at their recycling center and makes as much as $100,000 a year by selling cans, bottles and other recyclables. At Canadian Pacific, each of the chain's 11,000 rooms in 27 hotels has a "blue box"--the same recycling container found in most Canadian homes.

There's more: ITT Sheraton has replaced all their fire extinguishers with ones that don't contain ozone-destroying ingredients. And managers at Inter-Continental Hotels around the world have been issued a 300-page environmental manual, including a 134-point checklist for reducing waste, water and energy use, and recycling everything from furniture to food.

Many of these things are done behind the scenes, usually invisible to guests. Indeed, only the Boston Park Plaza bothers to explain and promote its efforts. "We believe that there's an opportunity for the hospitality industry to send people home with a positive message about the environment," says Tedd Saunders, the hotel's executive vice president. Saunders also heads Eco-Logical Solutions, a business he started which offers environmental consulting to other hotels. "We work hard to educate gently, with a sophisticated tone. And people respond very favorably." The Plaza has received national publicity for its efforts, including a 1991 President's Environmental and Conservation Challenge Award, which helped spur $1.5 million in additional business this year.

Few other hotels boast about their environmental efforts, probably because few have taken Saunders' comprehensive view of the ecology of their operations. More often, environmental efforts among the inn crowd are restricted to simple recycling and energy-conservation measures--the hardly-revolutionary things most of us do at home anyway. In a growing number of cities, hotels are among the businesses required to recycle. And local building codes increasingly mandate the installation of such items as low-flow shower heads, low-flush toilests and faucet aerators during construction or renovation. The truly committed hotels go beyond these basics to find other opportunities to cut waste --and in some cases increase profits. Occasionally, that means tinkering with some of the industry's most sacred cows.

Take those little amenities... please. Major hotel chains have been known to compete with one another solely on the basis of who's got the most, or best, giveaways. These tiny plastic bottles of shampoo and conditioner can be prized possessions, trophies of sorts for inveterate travelers who slog from registration desk to registration desk almost nightly. High-priced consultants strategize over which new amenity will give their clients the competitive edge. Will it be hand lotion? Mouthwash? Although doing away with giveaways in favor of refillables is considered just short of heresy, Tedd Saunders found that he could easily replace giveaways with specially designed dispensers advertising the spa-quality line of all-natural, aloe vera-based, nonanimal-tested personal care products. "We feel it's really important to allow guests to feel good about that without impinging on their enjoyment," says Saunders. "They're not coming to stay in an environmental hotel.

Not many hotels have followed suit. "You have to balance what you're doing with what the customer will accept," says Dan Darrow, of Walt Disney World in Florida, who chairs the Environmental Committee of the American Hotel and Motel Association (AHMA). "Guests are more sensitive to quality and specific needs than ever before--and they'll seek out the kind of accommodations they like." That means any changes have to be handled gingerly, lest finicky guests pack up their bags and go elsewhere. Education--what the folks at Disney call "environmentality"--is key. Darrow agrees with Saunders that hotels have a responsibility to educate guests about their environmental initiatives, helping them through such agonizing changes as doing without the little bottles of shampoo.

Meanwhile, many European hotels give their guests the option of not having daily linen and towel changes. One leaflet propped up in the bathrooms of the little Augustin Hotel in Bergen, Norway, asks guests to use their towels for at least two days. No hunting, tree cutting or pesticides are allowed on the 800 rainforested acres comprising Rainbow Adventures Lodge in Costa Rica. And Harmony Resort on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands operates on solar power and is built largely of recycled materials.

The leading edge of environmentalism in the industry may well come from such smaller establishments. Here in the U.S., proprietors John and Cathie Imes purchased an 1853 historic stone landmark in Madison, Wisconsin with the aim of turning it into an environmental showcase called Arbor House. "We want to provide the art of hospitality in a way that's ecologically sound--in terms of the landscaping, the furnishings, the textures, the aromas, the sounds and the way the food is prepared--and still be profitable," says John Imes, a seven-year Hyatt Hotel veteran.

Such establishments point up the opportunities the hospitality industry has, not just to improve their own efficiency, but to help affect large-scale change. According to the AHMA, on any given night about two million people are staying in one of the nation's 44,800 hotels and motels. That's two million opportunities to communicate environmental messages to a relatively literate, educated audience.

The messages hotels now communicate often fly in the face of green thinking. Take a look around the next time you set foot in a hotel room: a dozen towels, just asking to be used once and tossed aside. Lights left on to welcome you; the heat or air conditioning cranked up to ensure your immediate comfort. How long have they been left on? Would they have remained on all night if you hadn't shown up? Until more hotels catch on, it's up to travelers to encourage hotels to green up. Some suggestions:

* Look for the "Ecotel" designation, awarded to properties which have demonstrated, via on-site audits, a high level of environmental sensitivity.

* At check-in, ask to not have your towels and sheets changed every day. Besides saving water and energy, it will also reduce the use of detergent and bleach. Or simply hang your "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door--and leave it there.

* In the room, be as energy smart as you are at home. Turn off the lights, heat or AC and TV when you're not there.

* Ask the restaurant manager how the hotel deals with leftovers. Encourage them to donate food to a homeless shelter or soup kitchen.

* Express your feelings--good and bad--about practices you observe during you stay. Those odd little suggestion cards are one convenient, effective way of doing so. They're usually routed directly to top managers.

You can make a difference. In the highly competitive hospitality world, hotel owners listen to what their customers want. Remember when just a few years ago, smoke-free rooms were offered only by a few establishments? Then droves of people began to request them; now they're available almost everywhere.

Getting hotels to care for the outside environment could be just as easy. And you might sleep better, too.

Helpful Resources:

* American Motel and Hotel Association, 1201 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005/[phone].

* Boston Park Plaza/Eco-Logical Solutions, Boston Park Plaza, 64 Arlington St., Ste 314, Boston, MA 02117/[phone].

* Ecotel, Hospitality Valuation Services, 372 Willis Avenue, Mineola, NY 11501/[phone].