Earth Day 2024 in Tofino - Finding New Ways to Make a Difference at Long Beach Lodge
written by Mikey Nixon, April 2024
Earth Day and every day, Long Beach Lodge operates with future generations front of mind.
What a beautiful ride our planet provides. The 4.5 billion-year-old girl keeps on spinning away, providing life for the 8 billion humans who call this place home. And while it’s true that we should live every day like it’s Earth Day, there’s nothing wrong with taking a day to show our gratitude for this miraculous place, and also to fine tune our stewardship for the sake of generations to come.
When you look west from Long Beach Lodge and watch the ocean breathe in and out while whales cruise across the horizon and bald eagles swoop overhead, you feel very much like a visitor in nature’s domain. Planet Earth reigns supreme around here, so we do our absolute best to take care of her. We’re continually adapting our practices—large and small—around the lodge to minimize our ecological footprint.
 |
 |
Some of our bigger picture initiatives include our transition to electric power for all of our on-site laundry, housekeeping and maintenance vehicles. We also have eight EV charging stations in our main parking lot for guests. And we’re proud to be part of The Den’s Business Refill Program for the majority of our bath and cleaning products, an initiative that’s helped businesses on the coast work towards eliminating plastic use wherever they can.
All of our seafood is Ocean Wise certified by the Vancouver Aquarium and Surfrider has designated us an Ocean Friendly Business.
We’ve got a host of other large-scale initiatives that you can read about here. But sometimes we like to go big by going small. In January this year, The Great Room and our Events department began to undergo a food waste audit. And yes, it was about as exciting as it sounds, but it’s incredible what a difference it’s making.
“The audit’s about tracking food waste and really tightening up our portion control,” explains our Executive Chef Shaun Snelling. “We're wasting about 160gms of food per guest. And the industry average right now is about 355gms. So we're significantly less than the average, but that doesn't mean we can't be better.”
 |
 |
 |
Chef Shaun’s echoing one of the cornerstones of our approach to sustainability around the lodge. There’s always room for improvement. And sometimes the little things add up to something larger.
“I think all of the staff agrees on things like that…We all love our planet,” says Méline Yang, our Assistant Guest Relations Manager. “That's why we came to Tofino!”
