(WHAS11) - Everyone loves to go on vacation. Now one hotel chain has found a way for you to enjoy your time away, while helping the environment at the same time.
With the summer travel season in high gear, many folks are making big trip plans. Now you can merge that summer fun with helping out the earth. The general manager of the Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, Ohio, explained how they are going green.
"We were proud to announce just a few weeks ago, before Earth Day, that we are the first national hotel company to have all of our lodges be green seal certified. It was about a year and a half process to get there, and we have to follow green seal's standards of excellence in order to get that certification. That all 13 of our lodges have gotten that is huge for us as a company," said General Manager Patrick Alvarez.
Not only trash reclamation, but water usage, chemical usage, the kind of paints that are used, and electricity usage are ways the lodge is going green. The first thing folks are going to notice is the educational pieces. There are educational pieces not only in the rooms, but throughout the property, that tell people not only what was done, but also, how you can help.
The second thing is the recycle trash cans throughout the property. They are clearly marked with what you can and can't put in them, and that gives them an opportunity to participate as well.
Once you get in the room, there are low flow shower heads, low flow toilets that have been installed. Also, they have replaced all of the old incandescent bulbs with new fluorescent, low voltage, long lasting bulbs, probably the biggest piece that saved the most money.
The filtration systems are state of the art. They allow use of the fewest chemicals possible and still stay within the national guidelines. It is a chemical-free filtration system that really all of the industry is going to as a whole now.
