Green Efforts in Innkeeping

Living in a lake community we're always aware of environmental concerns, especially those that affect the water. When we first opened the Inn four years ago we knew we wanted to do everything possible to conserve resources and to do business in a sustainable way.

Over the last couple of years we've done a significant amount of landscaping and maintain a lot of flowers around the Inn and down by our waterfront. For watering we bucket it out of the lake. Aside from being practical, the plants benefit from the nutrient rich lake water.

Most of the cleaning supplies that we use are naturally derived. Our ammenities (soap, shampoo etc) are packaged in recycled materials. In fact guests have become quite fond of our soap. Its unique design (with a hole in the middle) not only helps you get a better grip, but it saves on the amount of soap that's usually wasted.

The new initiative this year is composting. In the kitchen we're using all the vegetable and fruit scraps, egg shells, coffee grids and tea bags to make great garden soil. Now that our peak season is in full swing I'm amazed by the amount of scraps we produce. At home the worms are at work breaking it down and I'm glad that we can reduce the volume of waste going in the garbage. So far the results have been great. From what I've been reading, worm compost is five times more nutrient dense than average garden soil. Next spring we"ll have all the soil that we need for the landscaping around the Inn.