Sustainablog

If life’s a journey, Journey Inn — an eco-inn and retreat that’s designed with nature completely in mind, spirit and body – serves as a guide.

Located in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, about an hour from St. Paul-Minneapolis, this Travel Green Wisconsin and Green Routes certified enterprise launched by John Huffaker and Charlene Torchia in 2006 artistically crafts a peaceful refuge to enhance our experiences with nature and allow our inner beings to breathe. Journey Inn is part restoration enterprise and part center for recreating our human soul in more meaningful ways.

I had the opportunity to stay at Journey Inn for a couple days this past September with my family, since we prefer ecotravel-oriented accommodation options. We hiked some of the abundant hiking trails on their sixty-six acre property that includes a spectacularly restored prairie and garden labyrinth. We sipped tea while relaxing in their gardens. We even shared a few of our cucumbers and tomatoes from Inn Serendipity with a couple celebrating their honeymoon there.

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Imagine that: Walking through a network of trails from our Wissahickon Farms Country Inn, a rustic private cabin nestled in the woods, to grab dinner in town more than a mile away where the restaurant, Indian Creek Orchard Winery and Grille, features mostly local ingredients to prepare their Elk burgers and homemade sauces and soups. We started our hike on the 98-mile Gandy Dancer State Recreational Trail which passes through an edge of the 30-acre Country Inn property, a property certified by Travel Green Wisconsin.

Given the bears in the area, my son and I had quite the adventure: he made a “bear stick” to defend ourselves on the rare chance we might encounter one. After dinner, we wandered down to Overlook Park, featuring the River Spirit sculpture, before continuing along the riverfront on yet another trail to the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway Visitors Center – spotting a bald eagle soaring overhead along the way.  Ecopreneurial enterprises filled up many of the storefronts we peaked into downtown.

Getting around town without touching a car is completely possible in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, rightfully earning its moniker, “the city of trails.” While some places aspire to be something they’re clearly not, nor ever have been, St. Croix Falls is a place that features what they have in abundance: their network of walking, jogging, biking and hiking trails – and nature.

In St. Croix Falls’ historic downtown area, you can park the car and spend the rest of the time on foot or bike as you discover a segment of the 1,000-mile Ice Age National Scenic Trail or the more than 10 miles of hiking trails in the Interstate State Park. Thanks to the spectacular St. Croix River, stunning coulees and “dalles” (ancient rock outcroppings), the community has emerged from its extractive history as a logging town and fur trading post to one of the premier places in the Midwest for the enjoyment of the outdoors, on foot, bike or in a kayak on the river.

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I’m coming to the conclusion pretty fast that just about every hotel will eventually be walking the talk when it comes to going green – though some are walking slowly while others are galloping as if there isn’t a minute to waste. While ecotourism continues to grow internationally, more American companies are grasping that going green can save some green too, which is also a point I make in ECOpreneuring.

A recent trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin (to enter a few food items in our Wisconsin State Fair) found my family and I bedding down at the Hotel Metro, a boutique, high-rise luxury 63 room hotel that features numerous green aspects, from energy efficient lighting to a rooftop hot tub spa kept clean by using a salt-water system, rather than chlorine. Metro Hotel is the first Milwaukee hotel to be certified by Travel Green Wisconsin, racking up 67 points in total.

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GreenTalk Radio Host Sean Daily discusses simple living, anthropology, and lessons from the Maya culture with Dr. Eric Gibson, author of Nine Lords of the Night

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It’s not that Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the Lower 48, needs any more publicity. After all, about 30,000 hikers annually make the trek up to the thin air of 14, 496 feet. People who secure even a day use wilderness permit (not much fun making the ascent in one day) through the Mt. Whitney lottery system often feel better than if they had won a state run lottery where they actually win money.

On a recent (this past week) stroll up into the thin air of Mt. Whitney my hiking buddies and I discovered some things. While most hikers have courtesy and smarts to be as conscious as possible toward environmental stewardship it always happens where a few conventionally grown apples ruin it for everyone else. Case in point being at the last reliable water source (High Camp Tarn) before the final push up the 99 switchbacks to reach the summit what did we spy? A dazzling reflection of the various peaks? Yes. A plethora of discarded Mountain House packages resting on the floor of the tarn. You bet. Not only did these packages tarnish the beauty of the scenic watering hole but even forgetting esthetics, who wants to drink water from a polluted lake before a major climb?
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Great Wolf Resorts, Inc., the largest chain of family-oriented indoor waterpark resorts is now the only national hotel chain to achieve Green Seal Certification for the lodging portion of its operations. Great Wolf Resorts, with 12 locations throughout the U.S., focuses on family vacation destinations the generally feature 300 – 600 rooms and a large indoor entertainment area measuring 40,000 – 100,000 square feet.

“We believe green tourism is the most important travel trend of our lifetime, and we wanted to do the right thing by taking a leadership position on this,” said Kim Schaefer, chief executive officer of Great Wolf Resorts. “It’s nice to be recognized as the first national hotel chain to achieve Green Seal Certification, yet more importantly, it’s gratifying to know we’re doing our part to create a sustainable tourism product for lots of families and generations to come.”

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In a previous post, I listed five of the best things I think you can do in order to live a sustainable lifestyle — #6-10. Now, here is the top five list.

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When they caution people about sitting in the “splash zone” at SeaWorld San Diego, believe it.  Really.  They should call it the soak zone.  It’s a great way to cool off on a hot day, but it can ruin any electronic device you own not placed in a watertight case.

My family and I had an opportunity to visit SeaWorld San Diego this past January.  Among the most popular attractions in San Diego, SeaWorld San Diego welcomes over 4 million visitors a year with their sea animal performances, aquariums and a few amusement rides.  SeaWorld San Diego’s aquariums feature more than 5,700 fishes representing 434 species.

While SeaWorld San Diego has a long way to go to earn the distinction of being an ecotourism attraction, the park uses revenues from its admissions to actively implement conservation and animal rescue initiatives, even if they’re only softly mentioned throughout the park in signs and during announcements before animal performances.  After all, we can’t start caring about nature if we don’t have an opportunity to interact with it.  And for that, SeaWorld has honed its craft to capture the imagination of young and old alike and rekindled for many an awe and wonder that many of the avid conservationists and naturalists enjoy daily.

Instead of volunteer docents associated with living history museums providing interpretive programs, highly trained communicators and performers narrate the story of Shamu and friends as well as other exhibits throughout the park.  In a world where a connection to nature couldn’t be more important, SeaWorld can jump start a greater appreciation of it, even if our understanding comes with splashes and tricks.  Like they say at the Shamu Show: “We belong to the same family…”

There’s a lot to fascinate a small child or family at SeaWorld San Diego.  But I was more amazed by what most visitors never witness, at least not directly, in the park:  the SeaWorld Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Program and a water filtration system that actually makes the water cleaner than when it first enters the park.

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This week’s post is by Edward Burgess, coauthor of Environmental Defense Fund’s new report Reinventing Transit.

Last week, Congressman James Oberstar, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was slated to speak at the launch of EDF’s new report Reinventing Transit — but he got stuck in traffic! The irony was not lost on one commenter in the StarTribune.com blog who noted, “You couldn’t ask for a better footnote to the report.”

Watch our report video showing how people across the country are getting on board these innovative transit systems.

Editor’s note: Yep, that video’s changed places. Our embedding system is acting up, so here’s the video on YouTube.

Oberstar’s absence was a clear illustration of how traffic congestion is sapping time and productivity across the country. Cars stuck in traffic don’t just waste time, but they also waste fuel.  This has consequences for the environment in terms of health and global warming. In fact, about a quarter of our country’s greenhouse gas emissions come from cars and trucks (see graph of breakdown of transportation sector).

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Showcasing the most environmentally-friendly hotels in the world, Eco Hotels of the World is a leading global online guide for the ultimate in green travel accommodations, from sustainably designed new hotels or resorts to once-in-a-lifetime ecotravel experiences like staying in an igloo in Switzerland.  Each accommodation is evaluated based on a five star rating system that examines energy, water, waste disposal, eco-activity (communication), and ecological protection.

Based in England, Eco Hotels of the World searches the globe for leading examples of hotels that appeal to the eco-adventurer in us all.  Who doesn’t want to bivouac in style on the Dark Continent with elephants passing near by at a safe distance — and where the money paid to the hotel helps conserve the habitat, support the local community, and protect the elephants?  There’s a dizzying range of size, scope and degree of comforts and amenities for hotels included in Eco Hotels of the World, so you’re not just getting a listing of the ultra-swank-eco-hotels that will break your bank (even if some of the funds do, in fact, go to helping preserve the environment or benefits the local community).  It’s all about choice with a conscience, and Eco Hotels of the World is a great place to plan your green getaway.

The 131 hotels now featured in Eco Hotels of the World have been personally selected by the website’s editors to ensure that they meet the standards required to be considered an eco-friendly hotel, including stewardship of the natural environment, ecological sustainability, proven contribution to conservation, provision of environmental training programs, incorporation of cultural considerations and provision of an economic return to the local community.   A departure from most other eco-hotel review processes, hotels cannot pay for inclusion in the listing, nor does Eco Hotels of the World accept commissions on bookings in order to remain independent and objective.

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