MACKINAC ISLAND, MICH.—The Grand Hotel is in the approval phase of being designated a green hotel by Green Lodging Michigan. The process was started in the fall of 2007 and should be complete by the end of the 2008 season. Behind the scenes of Grand Hotel and Mackinac Island’s ageless “Somewhere in Time” ambiance are aggressive programs to seek out and implement the latest technology to protect the island’s pristine environment.
These efforts include:
• The water-based air-conditioning system Grand Hotel designed and installed in its most classic rooms;
• An island program that composts all biodegradable waste on the island;
• State-of-the-art water and wastewater treatment systems used on the island;
• Changing over to energy-efficient light bulbs throughout the hotel;
• Offering guests an option with regards to the frequency of linen exchange;
• Limiting the amount of paper waste by centralizing some information instead of delivering to all guestrooms; and
• A specially designed composting system that produces all the compost Grand Hotel uses for its signature flowerbeds.
“Anything you see on the grounds is dirt that we made ourselves,” said Grand Hotel’s superintendent of grounds Mary Stancik. “None of it is from anywhere else. Every single grass clipping, every weed, every flower that is taken from the ground when the growing season is over goes into the compost pile.”
The only other ingredient added to the pile, she said, is coffee grounds collected from the hotel. “It adds a lot of acid to the soil that we otherwise would lack,” she said.
Three Compost Piles in Progress
Stancik said it takes about a year and a half to use a compost pile and the hotel has three piles going at any one time. Work on the piles and on the hotel’s gardens starts in the middle of April each year and goes through the middle of November. Each fall the hotel plants a ton of bulbs, including 25,000 tulips and 15,000 daffodils.
The hotel’s composting program is but one example of the attention to detail that goes into protecting the environment on Mackinac Island.
“Being on an island that attracts more than a million visitors a year presents unique challenges when it comes to handling the refuse those visitors produce while maintaining the ambiance that brings people here in the first place,” says Grand Hotel chairman R. D. Musser II. “Fortunately, the community here has been committed to taking the steps that need to be taken to achieve that.”
As a result, half of the waste material generated at the hotel and on the island is processed through very aggressive programs to compost the biodegradable waste—including the horse manure produced by the island’s main form of transportation—and to recycle paper, plastics, glass and other recyclable materials. The attention to detail is such that all scrap wood from the hotel’s maintenance department with no paint on it is ground up and used as part of the island’s composting operation, rather than going to a landfill.
Program Pays for Itself
“The recycling program actually pays its own way,” said Mackinac Island Public Works director Bruce Zimmerman. “In comparison to what it would cost to landfill those materials it is a tremendous winner. We compost anything that will break down organically and use every bit of it on the island.”
The island closed and capped its landfill in 1991 and all non-recyclable waste is hauled to a state-approved landfill on the mainland.
Musser has been a long-time advocate of protecting the island’s unique environment, including serving more than 30 years as chair of the island’s Public Works Commission. Under his guidance, the island has built a state-of-the-art water supply system that uses a cutting edge microfiltration process and an equally modern wastewater treatment plant that meets or exceeds all federal guidelines.
The positive environmental impact even extends to the electricity used on the island, which is generated by hydroelectric stations operated by Edison Sault Electric Co.
For Grand Hotel and Mackinac Island, all of these initiatives are part of a continuing effort to provide modern conveniences to visitors while protecting the environment and maintaining the 19th century charm for which both are known around the world.
Go to the Grand Hotel.
