The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) recognizes the important contributions its members make to create a greener, more environmentally friendly world, and announced the names of six of its members who develop and carry out major green initiatives. Part 2:
4. Wyndham Vacation Ownership (WVO) supports the Arbor Day Foundation by implementing a variety of initiatives at its resorts, including serving Arbor Day Coffee, which is organically grown under the canopy of the rainforest. Each cup preserves one of our most precious resources and ensures indigenous farmers earn a fair wage and have access to healthcare and education.
To date, Wyndham Vacation Ownership has purchased 280,000 pounds of Arbor Day Coffee for use at its resorts, saving more than 28 million square feet of rainforest.
In addition WVO has launched the Wyndham Million Trees Project, an initiative to plant one million trees throughout U.S. national forests in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, to help replace the devastation created by this summer’s forest fires across the nation.
WVO also switched all personal amenity products to the Eartherapy brand, an environmentally responsible company that uses biodegradable and fully recyclable packaging. The packaging contains an organic-based additive, allowing the containers to fully biodegrade into water and dust when in contact with soil for three to five years, taking less than four percent of the time to degrade than traditional plastic packaging.
Currently you can stay in a Wyndham Pagosa Springs Resort timeshare rental in the beautiful San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado for just $86/night.
5. Orange Lake Resort in Orlando, FL, the Holiday Inn Club Vacations flagship, recently implemented a resort-wide recycling program—a huge undertaking for the 2,478-unit, 1,450-acre property. The program was piloted in one area of the resort in 2011 and introduced resort-wide in June 2012. It’s a simple, easy-to-follow program: green bags in villas designate where guests can place paper, plastic, metal, and glass to be recycled.
According to Orange Lake’s partners at Waste Management, the recycling program has already saved 208 cubic yards of landfill space per quarter.
Other milestones the resort has reached include saving 258,576 kW-hours of electricity, 357,000 gallons of water, and 1,224 gallons of gasoline per quarter. To further communicate the property’s recycling program, the resort created a recycling video for their guests that demonstrates the positive impacts of recycling.
Currently stay at an Orange Lake Resort timeshare rental for just $71/night.
6. Interval International’s Singapore staff recently participated in the 21st International Coastal Cleanup Day on Tanah Merah Beach on Singapore’s East Coast. Despite sweltering heat, the volunteer team gathered 614 pounds of discarded items, clearing a mile stretch of the coastline.
The International Coastal Cleanup is an annual event conducted in more than 70 countries, coordinated by The Ocean Conservancy, a U.S.-based non-profit organization. The program aims to collect data on and remove debris from the shorelines, waterways, and beaches of the world’s lakes, rivers, and oceans.