Great Bear rainforest accommodation, luxury lodge, Canada

Dealing with the carbon footprint of tourism operations is a complex undertaking at the best of times. When someone takes the lead, a significant amount of corporate soul-searching has been invested before arriving at a solution, especially if the steps taken cut deeply into the bottom line. One of those industry leaders is this operation.

Moored in the shelter of Barnard Harbour on Princess Royal Island (south of Prince Rupert), it offers every luxury one could hope for in a wilderness setting. It is accessible only by float plane, and in close proximity to the Great Bear Rainforest, the largest intact temperate rainforest left on Earth. Imagine how strongly a place like this should feel about its carbon footprint!

The lodge recently announced plans to reduce its carbon footprint by half over the next five years. It has committed to offsetting the carbon emissions of all lodge operations and employee travel, while also offsetting guests’ air travel to and from the lodge – creating a truly carbon neutral vacation.

It is really about an evolution in attitude that we are fostering, about hiring people who think in a similar vein; about associating with companies and creating a network of partners that are like minded, you spread the notion of the need to reduce your carbon footprint and it influences your approach to social and environmental responsibility, even your perception of what are equitable practices.

We sent a letter to every one of our suppliers telling them what we were going to do, and the letters we got back were incredible. Here are these companies that for years had been taking these small steps, unbeknownst to us. Yes, it is true that we are a small company offsetting our carbon – it is not like reducing emissions at a coal fired power plant on the shores of Lake Ontario. It really is more about harnessing our collective actions.

The lodge teamed up with Ecotrust Canada, an organization which focuses on building what it calls the “conservation economy” while raising and brokering capital among communities and businesses to achieve this. Ecotrust connects conservation entrepreneurs to each other.

This operation was the first and possibly the only one to go the First Nations community of Hartley Bay in a gesture of social commitment and to provide it with a financial contribution equal to the amount it pays the government for its shore lease, unsolicited. It was a recognition that the lodge was operating in the Gitga’at territory and the Great Bear Rainforest. This has led to the first working protocol agreement that was signed between a wilderness lodge operation and a First Nations community at Cornwall Inlet in the ceremonial long house. An agreement signed by the lodge owner, its president, Robert Kennedy, David Suzuki and the chiefs of Hartley Bay. It has set a precedent that set forth the lodge’s commitment to sustainable tourism, which includes offering employment opportunities to the local population in different areas of the operation.