Name: Peter Cooke
Title: Pollution Prevention Program Manager
Organization: Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Years in current position: Nine years
My primary responsibilities: “I manage the green certification program for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and that includes lodging businesses, restaurants, and grocery stores.”
Most significant environment-related accomplishment so far: “We are really pleased with how many states have wanted to replicate our program. Also, earlier this year, the governor chose our program to highlight during his Earth Day celebration.”
Organization’s most significant environment-related challenge: “The biggest challenge is to come up with more ways to measure reductions [in energy, water, waste, etc].”
PORTLAND, MAINE—If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, Peter Cooke has good reason to be pleased with his work with Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection. In creating their own state green lodging certification programs, at least seven states and two cities have borrowed from the Maine Green Lodging Certification Program that Cooke runs.
What makes Maine’s program attractive is its simplicity—it is points based—and the fact that so much research has gone into developing the criteria for inclusion. Maine, thanks to Cooke’s hard work, is also the only state green lodging certification program in the United States to actually measure yearly savings and reductions in environmental impact connected to program participation.
“We want to know what the reductions are,” Cooke says. “The lodging sector is an easy one to make reductions in. It does take time. A lot of state programs have a difficult time to do this because they don’t have the budget. Without the measurement part of the program, it would seem like an arbitrary task.”
Participants in Maine’s Green Lodging Certification Program, which average 33 rooms in size, benefit with annual electricity savings of about $10,600. As a group, participating businesses are reducing water consumption by 17.4 million gallons, food waste by 1.14 million pounds, and solid waste by 1.4 million pounds annually. They also are not using more than 5,500 pounds of hazardous cleaning chemicals each year.
'Green Screener' for Purchasing
Cooke’s daily duties include providing technical assistance to businesses throughout Maine that are interested in reducing their environmental impact. Managing the state’s Green Lodging Certification Program takes up about 33 percent of his time. There are currently 114 lodging establishments, 30 restaurants, and 16 grocery stores participating in state level green certification programs. Cooke is also the “green screener” for products that are purchased by Maine’s state government.
“We try to provide as much free assistance to as many regulated and non-regulated businesses as possible,” Cooke says.
Maine’s Green Lodging Certification Program includes a random on-site visit component. Because of that, Cooke has visited 61 of the 114 participating lodging establishments. He tries to visit 12 locations each year.
“Site visits are essential to do,” Cooke says. “A targeted number of randomly selected site visits should be done at a very minimum.” During an on-site visit, he says it is common for him to find points that a property was not counting. On rare occasions, he comes across properties that actually have fewer points than they reported. In those instances, they are given a grace period of three months to get the points.
“The participants in the program really like how the program works,” Cooke says. “We do lose some businesses during the recertification process. Twelve businesses have unfortunately not been able to stay in the program.”
Not an Awards Program
Cooke emphasizes that his state’s program is a certification program and not an awards program. “There is a subtle difference,” he says. Participates do benefit by being able to market their certification; this often results in new business for the property.
The energetic program manager says he participates in a conference call every two months with those who run certification programs in nearby states. This gives them all an opportunity to share ideas and best practices.
“I have been trying to help other states,” Cooke says. “I would like to help other states out more.”
Cooke, who holds a Masters of Science degree in Resource Management from Antioch University, where he is also an adjunct faculty member teaching Materials and Energy Sustainability, says he has had an interest in the environment since he was in high school. His specific interest at that time was in tracking ivory poaching and its related problems.
What he says he enjoys most about his job is being able to have a positive impact on the environment by helping businesses reduce their overall impact on it.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.