GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST, B.C.—King Pacific Lodge, A Rosewood Resort has announced a plan to reduce its carbon footprint by half and offset the carbon emissions of all lodge operations and employee travel. The resort also plans to offset guests’ air travel to and from the lodge—creating a truly carbon-neutral vacation.
“We are the first hotel in Canada, and perhaps anywhere, to offset the carbon emissions of guests’ round-trip air travel,” says Michael Uehara, president of King Pacific Lodge. “We believe this is a very important step, but it is only the first step in a multifaceted plan to reduce the lodge’s carbon footprint by 50 percent over the next five years.”
The air travel being offset by the lodge is from the guest’s point of origin anywhere in the world to Vancouver on any airline, and from Vancouver to the lodge via the lodge’s private air and seaplane charters. Among the other key elements of the lodge’s carbon-footprint-reduction plan are installing a river-hydro plant and solar panels for the lodge’s power needs and using suppliers who conduct their own program of carbon reduction.
“At King Pacific Lodge, it has always been our mission to do everything we can to minimize our imprint on the land,” Uehara says. “With the additional steps we are now taking, however, notably the offsetting of guests’ air travel, we are raising the bar on ecological responsibility and hope to stimulate more efforts in the hospitality world to protect the environment.”
Comprehensive Environmental Commitment
Uehara and owner Hideo (Joe) Morita, international businessperson and son of Sony co-founder Akio Morita, founded the lodge with a commitment to creating a viable and sustainable model of eco-friendly tourism, including leaving the lightest imprint possible on the local land and sea, strong support of conservancy efforts, and developing a supportive relationship with the indigenous people.
Uehara has been a tireless activist for protecting the regional environment, including playing an important role in bringing the long-sought dream of establishing the Great Bear Rainforest to fruition. In 2006, British Columbia gave protected status to 4.4 million acres of pristine wilderness, an ecological treasure that incorporates the largest remaining tract of temperate rainforest in the world. King Pacific Lodge is located in the heart of this Great Bear Rainforest.
King Pacific is a floating luxury lodge that is towed to uninhabited Princess Royal Island from Prince Rupert for the May to September season. The lodge was the first tourism business in British Columbia to sign a working protocol with an indigenous people, the Gitga’at. A close working and mentoring relationship has been developed with the Gitga’at, who have adopted Uehara and Morita as a sign of a mutual respect and fondness that has evolved over the years. The lodge has been a leader, establishing a number of firsts, in non-retention fishing.
Go to King Pacific Lodge.
