The PineCrest Bed and Breakfast Inn has always been green. Even when green was still just a color. Even when being green was only a song by Kermit the frog. Even when it wasn't cool or in style to announce your "greenness".
From the beginning we used biodegradable detergent. From the beginning we recycled our plastics and metals. From the beginning we mulched our grass clippings and landscape cuttings. From the beginning was asked guests to re-use towels for more than one day and to turn the heat down in rooms when they left for the day or turn the a/c temperature up when leaving for the day. Even when no one knew what a CFL was.
But it wasn't until this year that we began to look officially at what the PineCrest Bed and Breakfast could do to shed some dependency on oil when we realized that there is something more important than the depth of your greenness.
While exploring ways to reduce our energy consumption I discovered that going green should not be the focus but rather going local. Going local was almost in fact going green. What began as an exercise to find alternative ways to heat the Inn began a mission to fully change our philosophy. We now purchase more food from locally grown and raised sources than from imported produce. We refrain from any product not with a US origin. We met with local farms to see what was being grown and raised. We changed our dinner menu to reflect what we was available.
Our energy work has lead us to wood and corn fired boilers for heat and solar panels for domestic hot water. The final conversion may take us up to a year to complete but will be worth it. If each person takes one extra step on responsibility we will see measurable results coast to coast.
Each guest room comes with additional blankets, complementary bottled water from Maine water springs, environmentally sensitive amenities such as soap, shampoo and conditional bottled using recycled plastics and biodegradable packaging. We supply one newspaper for all guests to share. We suggest activities that are either free or very low cost to vacationers. We offer discounts for multi night stays since it costs us less for someone to stay several nights that it does to stay one night.
We offer a little marketplace with all snacks and drinks under $1 and the movies are on us. Guests borrow from our personal 300 DVD collection. The taps in our bar pour local beer. Our garden has tomatoes, peppers, sweet basil, Thai basil, mint, parsley, shallots, chives, edible marigolds and more.
When exploring your vacationing options consider the value and responsability of your trip. See us here at
http://www.pinecrestmaine.com/ where you can relax for reasonable rates right in the center of the top four destination locations of Southern Maine. A family friendly Inn.
