LEAVENWORTH, WASH.—Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat was recently presented with the 2006 Governor’s Award for Pollution Prevention and Sustainable Practices. Governor Christine Gregoire recently presented the award to Sleeping Lady, along with four other businesses and a not-for-profit group, in Olympia.
The 2006 award marks the second Governor’s Award for Sleeping Lady, with their first win in 2001. This year’s honor was the Continuing Excellence award, which recognizes the retreat’s continued commitment to the high standards that garnered it the award five years ago.
“We are obviously honored, and are grateful that this award exists, to help get the word out about sustainable business practices,” says Paula Helsel, general manager of Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat. “We have continued to work hard at consistently improving our environmentally responsible practices, while creating a uniquely enjoyable experience for our guests.”
Since being awarded in 2005, Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat, a hotel and conference center near Leavenworth, Wash., has enacted several new steps to add to its list of environmental features. Electricity has been reduced significantly through the installation of LEDs, which replaced the traditional path lights. Ground source heat pumps have been added to heat water and heat and cool most of the guestrooms.
Sleeping Lady has also reduced the need for electricity through the use of solar panels to warm the site’s woodland pools. Additionally, Sleeping Lady incorporated recycled plastic and wood chips when building the decking for the retreat center, avoiding the stains required for wood decks. The retreat center has also adopted the use of recycled plastic pool furniture and is using non-toxic cleaning products and plant-based, cruelty free shampoos, cleaners and lotions in guestrooms.
The pool at Sleeping Lady has also been upgraded to reduce environmental impacts, with the addition of an electrolytic process that cycles salt into chlorine and back, allowing for the reuse of the material when sanitizing the pool. Other steps include composting leftover food and using recycled building materials in such things as tabletops and bar counters.
