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June 12, 2006

Traveling light | B&B owner Scott Cowger discusses the costs and benefits of the state's green lodging certification program

By Whit Richardson
Scott Cowger has run the Maple Hill Farm Bed and Breakfast Inn in Hallowell as an environmentally friendly establishment since buying the property at a foreclosure auction in 1992. For starters, he outbid would-be developers to preserve an old farm and 130 acres of open space. Over the years, he and his partner, Vincent Hannan, who joined the inn in 1995, invested thousands of dollars ˆ— including the installation of a wind turbine on the property ˆ— to incorporate more environmentally sustainable practices.

Still, Cowger says he only recently had a marketing hook to highlight the inn's environmental commitment. In November, Maple Hill Farm became the first B&B in the state to be certified as an environmental leader in the hospitality industry by the Department of Environmental Protection's green lodging designation program. Since its inception late last year, the program ˆ— the brainchild of the DEP's Pollution Prevention Program Manager Peter Cooke ˆ— has certified 16 inns, motels, hotels, B&Bs and sporting camps around the state.

To be recognized as an environmental leader, an establishment must meet a list of criteria designed by Cooke. Each category carries a point total, such as three points for using biodegradable cleaning products in guest rooms, and an inn or hotel must achieve at least 100 points of a possible 300. In return, certified environmental leaders like Maple Hill Farm earn the right to use the program's logo on their websites and in marketing materials, and are included in a brochure circulated in tourist information centers around the state. Mainebiz recently spoke with Cowger, who also serves in the Maine Legislature, about his inn and the what he expects from the DEP's green lodging designation program. An edited transcript of the interview follows.

How did you first hear about the green lodging designation program?

Well, I actually worked with Peter Cooke to make suggestions when he developed the program. Both The Colony Hotel [in Kennebunkport] and I were involved in helping develop his criteria, making suggestions and telling him whether it made sense or not. We got the Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence in 2004 because we really had stepped out in front before the environmental leader certification program existed for lodging, and because we made a major commitment to renewable energy by putting up a large wind turbine here. That's how we got involved in developing the program.

When did development of the DEP's program begin?

Spring 2005. I met a couple times with Peter to give some suggestions. He had a very good handle on it, and he had looked at what other states had done. In contrast to a lot of other states, where [certification] is very difficult and you may even have to pay a fee, Maine's program is easy to achieve. [The program] in Maine was designed to be readily achievable to get a lot of people involved, and then over time to continue to raise the bar and encourage more [environmentally friendly] practices in the establishments in the program. We tried to keep the list very broad so that people could pick different options.

Is Maple Hill Farm the ideal type of inn for this program?

No, because there are a number of items on the list that we don't do, but that a lot of larger hotels do, such as not changing towels every day. That's been an ongoing thing in the large hotel industry for a long time, because you save a lot of money if you don't have to launder everybody's towels every day. That's not something we have done yet, but I think I'm getting ready to because the cost of energy is going up so much. When I vacation, quite frankly, I like to have a fresh towel every day. We've not been doing that for our guests so we make up for our points in other areas.

Tell me about the process needed to meet the 100-point requirement.

Well, you get the list ˆ— it's a self-assessment initially ˆ— and you just go through it and see if you get a hundred points. If you get more than 100 so much the better, but if you reach 100 points you qualify, and Peter Cooke typically tries to verify on-site with each property. But I had an awful lot of points so it was an easy qualification. Using alternative energy is a big deal. He gave a lot of points for [the wind turbine].

Did you have 100 points right off the bat, or did you have to make any changes to make the cut?

We actually didn't have to make any changes, although we have made some changes to get additional points. One option is creating an environmental education bulletin board. We haven't done that yet, but I have it ready to go up. I thought it was a great idea to have some information in the hallway somewhere. Guests are very interested in that stuff.

What were you already doing at your inn that earned you points?

We do a lot of stuff in terms of energy. We use high-efficiency light bulbs in all our public areas, and we're slowly starting to use them in our guest rooms as well. We use a lot of natural light in our conference areas and common spaces. In the guest rooms, we use these little dispensers that mount on a wall in the shower for shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. You can pump out as much or as little as you want, and that saves an awful lot of waste, in terms of the packaging, the bottles and also the products themselves.

We also use local food as much as possible. We have some wonderful herbal teas that are grown in Winslow, and our coffee is locally roasted. In our gardens we don't use any chemicals or herbicides at all, and we don't use any chemical fertilizers ˆ— we just use stuff from our compost pile. And we do a lot of bulk buying. We buy concentrated Windex and dilute it in our laundry room, but you have to train your staff to do it. Once in a while we used to find staff using full-strength Windex or something, which is a terrible waste. So there's a major commitment to be able to do that.

The program seems to stress energy conservation. Do inns and hotels waste a lot of energy?

It's amazing the amount of energy used in the hospitality industry, especially if you have food service. A commercial kitchen is a huge energy user. But we spent extra money to buy high-efficiency appliances where possible, specifically the air conditioning units and in our laundry. All of those qualify us for rebates through the Efficiency Maine program, which made it a little more economically viable. And after a period of years that initial investment pays off, and then you're saving money in the future.

What other energy-saving investments have you made?

We have designed a large solar system to use on the roof of our conference center. We've applied for a federal grant for a small part of it and hope to hear sometime in July if we receive that grant. We built a large south-facing roof in part to plan for a future solar system on the roof, but we need to get the payback within a reasonable period of time. The payback for the wind turbine is probably something on the order of 30 years in our particular location, so that was not a very good business decision, but it was something that we really wanted to do to make a statement about who we are.

How much has it cost to make all these changes?

Oh, it's enormous. The wind turbine alone was about a $70,000 investment, but it's a large turbine and we get somewhere between 10% and 25% of our entire electrical demand out of it. It's certainly helping, but it's a long payback period. Setting that aside, the rest of our investments have a fairly quick payback. The higher efficiency equipment we bought ˆ— air conditioners, laundry stuff ˆ— should payback within five years. And the other expenses, like the shampoo dispensers and the compact fluorescent light bulbs, those things payback within a year. So it makes sense to do this stuff, not only for the environment, but also from an economic perspective.

So what is the benefit of having these efforts recognized by the certified environmental leader designation?

You have the acknowledgment that you're in the program. You can put a logo on your website. They give you stickers for your doors and a nice flag that says "environmental leader." And it's the same logo that the DEP uses for other [pollution prevention] programs like the gas station [environmental leader] program. So it'll hopefully be a logo that people recognize within various industry sectors over time.

Do you think it will influence consumers' lodging choices?

I think the traveling public is really developing an understanding of the impact of tourism, and if they want to have a low-impact vacation I believe they're going to start to seek out places where they're going to feel good about their stay. Are they going to be conserving water and energy? Supporting local economy? Those are all elements of what's called sustainable tourism. I think when people travel they appreciate that, and so I think there's an economic boost for those establishments that participate in the program. Instead of just finding the cheapest place off the highway, maybe [tourists] will look at other criteria as well.

I went to Costa Rica last winter and was very impressed how the whole country understands ecotourism. People care about their country and they make sure there's no littering or waste and are always pointing out their wildlife and how their country has been kept as a beautiful place because of the commitment of all the businesses as well as the citizens there.

What barriers prevent Maine from adopting a similarly widespread ecotourism approach?

In our industry we live year to year, especially in Maine. If you have a good season in the summer and early fall, maybe you can survive the rest of the year. Often, our industry does not have a long-term outlook in terms of investments, so to put money into something knowing that it's not going to pay back for more than a couple years takes a philosophical change.

The other part of it is that I don't know how much of the traveling public is actually seeking out this information yet. I think they will, as more properties get involved and start pushing [environmental sustainability], but when the economy is tough travelers look at cost.

Your busy season is beginning. Have you seen a response from the program so far?

I don't know if I've got anything directly from the program per se. I haven't had a guest come in with a brochure in their hand yet saying "I saw you in the information center so I want to stay here." But I suspect I will by the time summer season gets under way. I know I've had guests come because we have a wind turbine, so they come for the bigger reasons like the wind turbine and then maybe they can appreciate the smaller practices we do.

Green Lodging Certification Program

Created: November 2005

Details: Designed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to encourage the hospitality industry to incorporate environmentally friendly practices through a voluntary, point-based certification system

Number of establishments certified: 16

Contact: Peter Cooke, DEP Pollution Prevention Program Manager, 791-8101;
www.maine.gov/dep/oia/p2/criteria.htm

Maple Hill Farm Bed and Breakfast Inn and Conference Center

11 Inn Rd., Hallowell 04347

Founded: 1992

Owners: Scott Cowger and Vincent Hannan

Number of guest rooms: eight

Number of function rooms: four

Conference capacity: 200

Environmentally friendly practices: Wind turbine; energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs; food waste composting; use of locally grown food; timers on outdoor lights; bulk purchase of cleaning products

Annual revenue: $500,000

Contact: 622-2708

www.maplebb.com

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