According to Cowger, surveys suggest that 20 percent of the inn’s visitors chose Maple Hill Farm in part because of its green reputation.
Thriving tourism is crucial to Maine’s economic prosperity, especially in rural Maine. With the long decline in traditional resource-based industries, tourism now contributes more jobs and more to gross state product than agriculture, fisheries and forestry combined.
Responding to changing visitor demographics and demands, while ensuring environmental sustainability, is a great challenge for Maine tourism.
In response, Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection launched Environmental Leader, its lodging certification program, in 2006.
Environmental Leader spreads best environmental practices in the hospitality sector through incentives and technical assistance. DEP has since granted EL certification to 106 lodging establishments and 25 restaurants.
Environmental Leader awards points for environmentally sound practices in areas like energy systems, kitchen and food preparation, and waste management. Certification requires a 100-point threshold. It’s a learning-by-doing process; applicants scoring below 100 points can receive provisional EL certification, with three months to reach the 100-point standard. Exemplary participants, such as Maple Hill Farm and Meadowmere Inn in Ogunquit, have surpassed 200 points.
A workbook guides applicants through the self-certification process with on-site technical assistance available upon request. DEP makes on-site visits to audit a sample of participants’ point totals and offer advice.
The program also encourages continuous improvement, requiring 130 points for re-certification after two years.
EL-certified businesses receive an Environmental Leader flag, a certificate suitable for framing, and EL decals. They are included in brochures distributed at visitor centers statewide and are posted on DEP’s Environmental Leader Web page as well as the Office of Tourism’s Visit Maine site and trade association Web sites.
Environmental Leader is a win-win opportunity: Participants cut costs by becoming more environmentally friendly while also attracting customers who prefer green business practices.
And the environmental benefits are substantial. On average, EL lodgings saved 104,862 kW of power in 2008 and cut their energy bills by $10,537. Additional benefits to Maine’s environment include reducing:
•17.5 million gallons of water by installing low flow fixtures and encouraging re-use of towels and linens.
•14.7 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions by installing compact fluorescent lighting.
•2.6 million pounds of landfill through solid waste recycling and composting kitchen wastes.
•5,552 pounds of toxic or hazardous cleaning chemicals.
The U.S. EPA has recognized EL’s success, awarding the program grants to support its innovative approach. At last count, six other states have modeled their own programs on EL.
With Environmental Leader’s technical standards as a base, some rural tourism stakeholders are considering the creation of a distinctive regional ecotourism quality label. This quality label may also embody broader ecotourism principles, such as local hiring and purchasing, promoting regional culture and heritage, and fostering tourists’ joy of discovery.
Some of rural Maine’s best practice tourism businesses already exemplify these principles, including the Appalachian Mountain Club, New England Outdoor Center, Maine Huts and Trails, Maine Wilderness Guides, and Maine Association of Sea Kayak Guides & Instructors.
The Maine Woods Consortium, a private-public-nonprofit alliance, is planning a stakeholder retreat this fall to gauge business interest in establishing a quality label. The consortium envisions a bottom-up process, where participants — especially businesses — would develop principles, certification standards, technical assistance and marketing strategies.
The “Great Recession” hit Maine tourism hard. Some tourism businesses have not survived and many others remain in survival mode. But as the economy recovers, a great opportunity exists to create and promote the Northeast’s first certified ecotourism brand and keep Maine the Environmental Leader in tourism.
Peter Cooke directs the Environmental Leader initiative as program manager for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s Pollution Prevention Program. David Vail teaches economics and environmental studies at Bowdoin College. He serves as advisor to Environmental Leader, the University of Maine’s Center for Tourism Research and Outreach, and the New England Governors’ Commission on Land Conservation. He is currently working on a report on investments in tourism amenities for the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
