Home News & Features At Ojai Valley Inn, Kate Morrison’s Expanded Spa Role Includes Sustainability

At Ojai Valley Inn, Kate Morrison’s Expanded Spa Role Includes Sustainability

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Name: Kate Morrison
Title: Director of Sustainability and Wellness
Property: Ojai Valley Inn, Ojai, Calif.
Years with Ojai Valley Inn: 11+ years

OJAI, CALIF.—Spa Ojai, part of the Ojai Valley Inn (OVI), recently reopened along with the inn after a months-long, $5 million renovation across Spa Ojai. The renovation includes new Spa Penthouse Suites. Additionally, the spa introduced impactful therapies and sustainability initiatives from the hotel’s Director of Wellness & Sustainability, Kate Morrison. The initiatives are on top of the many green steps the inn’s owners have taken in recent years. Green Lodging News recently interviewed Kate Morrison. The following are the results of that interview in a Q&A format.

Kate Morrison

What do you consider to be your primary responsibilities? What is your typical day like? If there is such a thing?

My primary responsibilities at OVI are to oversee the Spa and Wellness departments at the property, and of course, to inspire passion for sustainably resort wide. I am responsible for a 25-treatment room luxury resort spa, gym, wellness programing, spiritual counselling and we have an Artist Cottage & Apothecary that offers creative programming. I’ve been in spa management for almost 20 years, so I was thrilled when the opportunity to expand my role presented itself.

A typical day for me? No, that doesn’t exist. That’s one of the things I love about my career, every day is full of the unexpected. But I enjoy the pace of my typical workday, sometimes swinging drastically from calm and serene to hectic and urgent problem solving when something goes wrong. I spend a great deal of time checking in with my team, offering support and listening. Many of the Spa’s green initiatives originated in the minds of passionate line-level associates. I try to lead with example and have enthusiasm for our work. I try to innovate and move our business forward, both in terms of financial success, reputation, and sustainability. And somewhere in my day, I also support the green initiatives that are being pursued in other areas of the hotel.

What do you consider to be the property’s most significant accomplishment so far in corporate responsibility?

Ojai Valley Inn continues to implement new technology and update staff education to enhance the property’s sustainability practices. From implementing a single-use plastic free initiative at Spa Ojai in 2017, using state-of-the-art watering systems to minimize water waste on the golf course, working with local farmers to supply fresh ingredients, implementing a linen reuse program to minimize water and energy waste, use of biodegradable cleaning products, and so much more. We are extremely proud of how far we’ve come in terms of corporate responsibility and are excited to continue developing our Green Initiative for years to come.

What do you consider to be your company’s most significant challenge moving forward in corporate responsibility?

Many businesses, especially in the hospitality sector, run into challenges with implementing new sustainability and other CSR practices. We’re lucky that Ojai Valley Inn’s owners prioritize CSR and invest in the tools needed to further enhance these practices.

It is just yourself on-staff with a full-time sustainability title?

Currently, yes. I am the only associate with “sustainability” in my title. But I am fortunate to be supported by an ownership group, executive team, department heads and overall culture that is committed to responsible luxury and prioritizing green practices as a key measurement of our success. My role exists to inspire passion to do more for the planet and to help support efforts for positive change. But it is truly the responsibility of every associate to participate in the process.

A little less than a year ago, Spa Ojai and the Spa Penthouse Suites reopened. What exactly is sustainable about them?

When we reopened Spa Ojai recently after our renovation, we did so with the new practices to further support our green efforts. We introduced a paperless arrival to the spa so all communication, including the arrival intake forms, confirmations and receipts are digital. We’ve moved from traditional printed spa menus to QR codes. Our personalized welcome notes are printed on flower seed paper and serve as a little gift for a guest to take home and plant lovely wildflowers from Ojai. If the guest leaves their card behind, we can use that card to make handcrafted recycled stationary at our Artist Cottage. We’ve worked hard to eliminate single-use or disposable items, beyond plastic, like paper towels and paper cups. And we’ve made a commitment to using high quality, clean products in all our treatments and partnering with like-minded brands at our Spa Boutique.

How many guestrooms does the Inn have? Number of employees?

Ojai Valley Inn has 303 rooms and suites. There are 200+ employees.

More than three years ago the Inn announced the arrival of an on-property apiary and launch of an immersive beekeeping experience for guests. Does the inn still have the apiary? If so, how many hives and bees? And it still offers guests the opportunity to learn about the bees and beekeeping?

Yes, the property still has an onsite, six-hive apiary and offers a Beekeeping & Honey Tasting experience Tuesday through Saturday by appointment—one of the most popular guest activities. Our resident beekeeper guides guests during the experience and allows them to feel what it is like to be inside an apiary, learn about the extraordinary life of the honeybee, and enjoy a honey tasting with both honey from the Ojai Valley Inn apiary (if available) and locally sourced honey.

Give me an example or two of how the Inn’s restaurants incorporate local goods. Why is that important? How else is the inn’s F&B operations sustainable?

Ojai Valley Inn works with local farmers and ranchers to supply the property’s restaurants with fresh, local ingredients. The Farmhouse, Ojai Valley Inn’s epicurean events venue, boasts an outdoor, organic herb and vegetable garden which is then incorporated into food and beverage items. In addition, the Spa Café has transitioned to using only eco-friendly and biodegradable take-out containers and utensils.

Ojai Valley Inn

What are the key steps the inn has taken to reduce energy and water consumption?

Ojai Valley Inn has taken steps to reduce energy consumption across the property. In guestrooms, we’ve changed over 13,000 lightbulbs to LED and implementing a linen reuse program to conserve water and energy. The resort pool was built to ensure its energy efficiency in many ways, such as Solatube day lighting in restrooms and kitchen areas eliminates electrical lighting during daylight hours, passive solar hot water heaters for restrooms and kitchen, dual flush toilets in all restrooms, occupancy sensors throughout facility, native plantings (where possible) were planted to reduce irrigation needs, and a retention pond to filter storm water run-off and an in-deck radiant heating system were installed to heat the pools. The golf course also uses a state-of-the-art watering system for the course and landscaping, which measures humidity, sunlight, grass density, moisture, and temperature prior to automatically watering to produce a minimal amount of waste and provide optimal results. Spa Ojai has also introduced water conservation efforts by offering a Waterless-Pedicure for both the signature Spa Pedicure and Mindful Pedicure, which are designed to revive and nourish skin, restore healthy circulation, and leave you feeling totally pampered while eliminating water waste.

What are the key steps the inn has taken to reduce material waste? I understand your inn eliminated single-use plastic from its spa about five years ago. How many bottled water refill stations are on property? What other plastic-reducing steps have been taken?

We are very proud to have eliminated all single-use plastics at the spa a few years ago, the biggest impact being the elimination of plastic water bottles. The success of that program was instrumental in the development of my expanded role and has inspired us to broaden the effort to the entire resort. At this time, we have installed four refillable stations across property and have plans to add more later this year. We are developing a co-branded refillable aluminum bottle that will be gifted to every guest arriving to property with a digital link to a property map outlining the location of the refill stations.

We have also recently entered a partnership with Oceanic Global, an international NGO that works as a third-party to help identify single-use plastics on property and source sustainable alternatives. Since our initial talks with Oceanic Global, our team internally began making positive change by ordering biodegradable food packaging rather than traditional plastics and eliminating all plastic straws.

Does your overall green initiative have a specific name?

The overall program is referred to as the Green Initiative, but the various tactics within the initiative have their own designation, including Spa Ojai Single-Use Plastic Free Initiative, Green Golf, Edible Ecosystem, Guestroom Conservation, Outdoor Education, Resort Pool Initiative, Clean the World Program, Vehicle Conservancy, etc.

Tell me a little bit about your partnership with the Ojai Raptor Center.

Ojai Valley Inn is pleased to partner with Ojai Raptor Center, a local nonprofit organization, to offer private experiences for guests to visit and meet the ambassadors. Guests will enjoy a short walk around the facility, located in the city of Ojai, to see the largest aviary for raptors in rehabilitation in California. As the tour progresses, guests will meet three Ojai Raptor Center ambassadors, receive an All About Owls presentation, and a fun six-page activity workbook for kids to take home with them. Proceeds from this experience help further the Ojai Raptor Center’s mission to rescue, rehabilitate, and release birds of prey and other wildlife. For more about The Ojai Raptor Center (ORC), it is a state and federally permitted 501(c)(3) nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation center dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of birds of prey and other wildlife, and to providing education programs about wildlife and our shared environment. Ojai Raptor Center receives over 1,000 sick, injured, and orphaned wild patients a year and has a small team of education ambassadors, or non-releasable birds, trained for education outreach.

What is the role of the Green Ambassadors team? How often does it meet? You lead that team?

For the initial concept around our Green Ambassador program, I asked for a representative from each department to join me in a quarterly meeting to discuss industry trends. I’d update the group on current green practices at the property and task each participant to take the information or action item back to their department. The primary focus of the group this past year was to educate and enforce best practices for waste management on property—improving diversion for recyclable materials and food waste.

This year, we have evolved the program to include every OVI associate. We have developed a “Green Ambassador Pledge” that asks OVI Associates to “pledge to apply the best environmental practices available to make a difference toward positive change” and support efforts to: Recycle, Compost, Limit Plastics, Reduce Water Usage, Conserve Energy, Save Paper, and Share Knowledge and passion for the planet.

We want sustainably to be at the core of our culture at OVI and we need very associate to join us to be successful in the long term.

In addition to the Thanksgiving race, does the inn participate in other activities to support the local community?

Spa Ojai has adopted a portion of the Ojai Valley Trail and we do regular trail cleanup and maintenance. Our thanksgiving give-back supports the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, a nonprofit that manages most of the wild space in Ojai (that we use for our hike program). This year, in addition to the financial support, the Spa Ojai team will also donate volunteer hours and partner with them on a project to maintain Oak restoration circles on one of the wilderness preserves.

Is the property/spa planning any new green initiatives for the remainder of 2022?

Spa Ojai and Artist Cottage & Apothecary

Absolutely. We are actively working on plans to reduce the amount of irrigated turf we have on property, and to landscape with drought tolerant native plant species. We have plans to design a pollinator garden and habitat to benefit the struggling monarch butterfly population and to support our efforts to engage our guests in immersive education. We are partnering with other organizations in the Ojai Valley to eradicate Arundo from our riverbed, an invasive reed that is disturbing the natural eco-system.

What do you enjoy most about your work? Is there an assignment of which you are most proud or one that has excited you the most? Is there a community initiative that you participated in that you enjoyed the most/of which you were most proud?

I really love what I do. The highlights are the people I work with—talented therapists and wellness professionals who are so thoughtful and caring at their core. Being in their company gives me energy and pride in our work. And our setting here in Ojai is awe-inspiring. I am reminded every day as I arrive to work how beautiful and precious the natural world and environment that surrounds us is.

I also really appreciate that by working for a family-owned business I am empowered to innovate and collaborate with others who are also doing good work. For example, we recently launched an organic CBD line called Acrely Farms. It is the first company we’ve worked with that packages all their professional products in recycled glass. They are completely plastic free, and I am thrilled to support that effort. And, we are exploring a partnership with Green Circles, a business that helps salons with zero-waste solutions for items that can’t be recycled. We plan to be one of their first resort spa partners, targeting these items in a spa setting and helping them expand the good work they do for our environment.

One moment that resonates with me—a couple years ago, for Valentine ’s Day I think, Spa Ojai donated a tree in honor of each Spa associate through WeForest, a group working to combat climate change by replanting in the Brazilian rainforest. It was such a small gesture really, but the response from the team was overwhelming gratitude. It was inspirational to see what a small, but good-intentioned gesture would do to bring our team together in a positive way.

How far back goes your interest in CSR/sustainability? Is there an individual or individuals who inspired you?

I grew up hiking, camping—spending time outside, exploring nature and wilderness, so I have to give my parents credit for instilling in me a love of the natural world at an early age. But in recent years, I’ve been most inspired by my industry peers in the GSN Planet organization. GSN Planet is a nonprofit group of wellness professionals who prioritize green practices in business. This year I joined the board of directors, and I have been honored to collaborate with passionate and like-minded individuals who are open to sharing best-practices, education and resources to benefit the greater good.

Glenn Hasek can be reached at greenlodgingnews@gmail.com.

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