As of last week, Great Wolf Resorts claims to be the only national hotel chain with all 11 of its properties certified by Green Seal, a Washington, DC-based non-profit group that promotes sustainability. Additionally, the Great Wolf Resort in Niagara Falls, ON received a Green Leaf Eco Rating from a Canadian green group.

In the last year, Great Wolf has worked hard to go beyond Green Seal’s three-dozen-or-so criteria for certification. The result was last week’s unveiling of Project Green Wolf, a sweeping environmental program that covers both Great Wolf’s lodging operations and its signature indoor waterparks (Green Seal only certifies the hotel portion of the properties).

“It’s been a six- to 12-month process, and it continues to evolve,” said Matt Lawrence, general manager of the Great Wolf in Sandusky, OH. “A big part of the effort has been education of both our staff and our guests, and so far the response has been very positive.”

The project started with operational audits at each property, which range in size from 300 to 600 rooms and include 40,000 to 100,000 square feet of indoor waterpark and other recreational space. Once new standards were set, procedures manuals were rewritten for every department, from housekeeping to the waterparks to food and beverage and more.

Project Green Wolf focuses on five major areas:

Water reclamation. Indoor waterparks use a lot of water, but new filtration systems enable Great Wolf to recycle nearly all of the water in its parks. Humidity and evaporation control is accomplished by keeping the water temperature (84 degrees) a little cooler than the air (87 degrees) in the parks. Through in-room signage and pamphlets, management encourages guests to shower before going to the waterpark as a way to control levels of chlorine in the pools.

Water recycling is also in place in properties’ laundries and guestrooms. Installation of low-flow plumbing fixtures will save about eight million gallons of water per year at each resort.

Waste minimization. Recycling bins are available in all public areas, guestrooms and employee areas. Food composting is another major environmental initiative. The Sandusky property, for example, collects food scraps and other compostable materials, such as paper products and ships it to a local nursery for composting and eventual conversion into various types of landscaping soils. So far, the hotel has reduced its landfill waste by 21 percent.

Energy efficiency. In guestrooms, lamps use highly efficient CFL bulbs; housekeepers clean HVAC filters daily and bed linens are only changed at the request of guests and at checkout. Cloth table linens are used in restaurants and laundered on-site. Appliances have been replaced with Energy Star-approved models as needed.

And Greg Kaufman, director of chef and beverage at the Sandusky Great Wolf, says his crew no longer uses warm running water to thaw foods. Rather, it employs a slack thawing method that entails moving frozen foods from freezers to coolers several days ahead of when it’s needed.

“It takes more planning and cooler space to make this happen, but it saves a lot of energy and manpower,” said Kaufman.
 
Environmentally and socially sensitive purchasing. Each property works with vendors chosen at least in part for their green practices. Paper products are post-consumer recycled, dishwashing and laundry detergents are biodegradable and paint is low VOC.

Guest education. The resorts focus their green awareness efforts on young guests. The Cub Club facilities include environmental learning programs through a partnership with National Geographic Kids. Further, a Green Wolf TV channel and interactive web content reinforce the message.

“Programs like Green Seal allow for a lot of flexibility,” says GM Lawrence, “so any hotel can become more green if it devotes the time and resources. Primarily, it’s a cultural thing.”

Web resources: www.projectgreenwolf.com, www.greenseal.org