The Alpine House Lodge & Cottages Information

The Alpine House has made a commitment to raise the bar in their sustainability initiatives by undergoing the rigorous and comprehensive Eco-Certification process by Sustainable Travel International, a not-for-profit dedicated to leaving the world a better place by promoting sustainable tourism. Recognized as the 'Gold Standard' in sustainable travel certification, this process is guiding The Alpine House in its commitment to being a sustainable and responsible business with best practices that address Environmental, Economic and Social impacts guided by the philosophy of the "Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet, Profit," measuring our success not only by profitability, but also by how our actions impact our community and our environment. Through this process, The Alpine House has developed our Sustainability Policy. We welcome your input and feedback on our practices. Please send us your thoughts via our on-line comment card. For a comprehensive list of the criteria needed to qualify for certification, please visit www.sustainabletravel.org. What Is an Eco Lodge? We asked ourselves this very question, and researched it carefully, before deciding to call The Alpine House an Eco Lodge. We discovered that we actually were an eco lodge, even though we are in town and not in a jungle, and we don't have spiders. An eco lodge is simply a hotel that follows the philosophy of ecotourism, also referred to as sustainable tourism. Ideally, an eco lodge has a positive environmental impact, in contrast with conventional hotels, inns and spas, which often come with a high environmental price tag. An eco-lodge is often locally owned, and it is usually built in an environmentally-friendly way. Building materials may be recycled, as many of ours are at The Alpine House. The hotel may be powered with alternative energy or energy offsets, as we do with 100% of our electricity consumption with wind power. Like The Alpine House, most eco lodges have recycling programs, composts kitchen waste, and guests are encouraged to take small steps for the environment like reusing towels and sheets. Please read our green policy pages to learn all that we are doing.