Guest blogger Terre Short has 24 years of hospitality management experience that includes the daily operations of five-star properties. Her current assignment is creating a new standard of eco-luxury at the sweeping Montana ranch, the Resort at Paws Up. The resort is on Andrew Harper's Top 20 List of US Hideaways and is in the registry of Preferred Boutique Hotels. Here's how the folks at Paws Up are working to green the resort.
This past summer, we began looking closely at our carbon “evil ways”at Paws Up Resort and we began to make adjustments. Perhaps the one that carried the biggest and unexpected punch was the purchase of a school bus.
We paid $5,000 for a bus in excellent shape and hired the most colorful and fun driver in all of Montana to transport employees and guests. From the very first day “Dale” made the bus fun, he had all 12 employees singing out the window as they pulled away from the Resort.
His ridership quickly grew to an average of 30 employees a day, though I suspect the singing waned and more iPods joined the commute. Dale picks up his riders in Missoula and drives them 35 miles to the Resort in Greenough–located in the heart of the Blackfoot Valley, Montana.
Not only do all of the riders save on gas, but we only pay $50 a day in diesel, plus Dale’s time and the collective footprint of the resort is reduced greatly. This is just one of many efforts the Resort is making to contribute to the “Greening of
Greenough.”
If you'd like to share a story of how you're greening your travel, lodging, or home, write to me--you can be a guest blogger on this site which gets as many as 1,000 readers a day.
