Who will be the greenest of us all?

Earth hour. Earth day. Earth week. In April, we had them all. Green power has become all-pervasive. Here are some sample news items that came across my desk this month.

Tourism Montreal goes green. Greening travel and tourism offices. Calgary Stampede goes local. Hotel Grand Pacific joins Ocean Wise. Howard Johnson joins HAC Eco Rating. And favourite —Women lead way in green travel. 

Here are some more green stories that I encountered this month.

A luxury Yukon eco-spa with a zero environmental impact, “no trace” policy. The resort consists of teepees that will be taken down at the end of the summer. I quizzed owner Mike Mueller, who calls himself ‘the Organic Cowboy’ asking, “How do you handle garbage at the resort?”

“We unpack as much packaging as possible prior to flying goods in,” he replied. “We transferabout 90 per cent into wood boxes and glass conctainers. What does have to come in packaged gets removed and flown out and recycled at our home ranch outside of Whitehorse.”

Hotels both large and small going greener. The Alberta Hotel and Lodging Association annual conference featured an environmental panel with Jackie Bludgell, environmental systems manager for the Chateau Lake Louise representing large hotels, and Michal Wasuita of Pine Bungalows in Jasper representing smaller properties. In both cases, each detail of hotel operations has been dissected and analyzed so that the properties can implement more ecologically sound procedures.

Take Wasuita’s approach to discarded linens. “When our linens get thin, some of them are used in our staff accommodations, some are bagged and taken to garages and bicycle shops in town for rags. Others are taken to a woman’s shelter along with used furniture and kitchen supplies. Even old bedspreads and mattress pads are taken to the local veterinary clinic to line the animal cages! You would be amazed what is brought into our local vet.”

Manufacturer’s epiphany. Here’s another idea from an AHLA conference—this time from Ray Anderson, founder of Interface, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of carpet tiles, who had an environmental epiphany 13 ½ years ago. He gave the following example of how his company changed its environmental practices and made money too.

This example took a lesson from nature. Anderson asked his design team to go out into the forest to see how nature designs her floor coverings. They realized that in nature there is total diversity – that no two things are alike. They decided to design their carpet so that no two tiles are alike. They introduced it to the market and within a year and a half, it had moved to the top.

“There was almost no waste, no defects. You could lay the tiles randomly; it’s easy to replace damaged areas; dye lots were no longer an issue which solves the inventory problem. We gravitate to nature for our ultimate comfort zone. Nature is not uniformly perfect but it is very effective,” Anderson said.

So… maybe we’re moving beyond Earth Day, Earth Hour and Earth Week into a world where environmental practices will be top of mind all year long.

—Colleen Isherwood, Editor