Chanterelle Country Inn and Cottages
The 150 acre property is dedicated to being environmentally responsible at the same time being profitable. Its sustainable practices serve as an example to guests and to other tourism operators in the area. We include our guests in these practices as well. We have a section in our guestbook titled "It ain't all that hard bein' green".'
About You
Contact Information
Title
Mrs.
First name
Earlene
Last name
Busch
Your job title
Owner/Manager
Name of your organization
Chanterelle Country Inn and Cottages, Ltd.
Organization type
Organization Type
Annual budget/currency
Annual Budget/Currency
Mailing address
48678 Cabot Trail, Baddeck, Nova Scotia B0E 1B0
Telephone number
902-929-2263
Postal/Zip Code
Country
Canada
Email address
Alternative email address
Alternative email address
Your idea
This will be the address used to plot your entry on the map.
Street Address
48678 Cabot Trail
City
Baddeck
State/Province
Nova Scotia
Postal/Zip Code
Country
Canada
Geotourism Challenge Addressed by Entrant
Quality of tourist experience and educational benefit to tourists , Quality of stewardship of the destination.
Organization size
Small (1 to 100 employees)
Indicate sector in which you principally work
Tourism-related business
Year innovation began
2000
Place your video embed code here from YouTube, Google Video and other video sharing websites. How to embed a video from YouTube.
Paste your code here
Indicate sector in which you principally work
Living culture, Culinary or agritourism.
Name Your Project
Chanterelle Country Inn and Cottages
Describe Your Idea
The 150 acre property is dedicated to being environmentally responsible at the same time being profitable. Its sustainable practices serve as an example to guests and to other tourism operators in the area. We include our guests in these practices as well. We have a section in our guestbook titled "It ain't all that hard bein' green".'
Innovation
What is the goal of your innovation? Please describe in one sentence the kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
The goal of the founding of the Chanterelle Inn was to demonstrate that a tourism property could be both sustainable and profitable.
Please write an overview of your project. Include how your approach supports or embodies geotourism or destination stewardship. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the map located on the competition homepage.
The 150 acre property is dedicated to being environmentally responsible at the same time being profitable. Its sustainable practices serve as an example to guests and to other tourism operators in the area. We include our guests in these practices as well. We have a section in our guestbook titled "It ain't all that hard bein' green".'
Explain in detail why your approach is innovative
The primary innovation was the design of the Inn building itself: maximize the flow of fresh air, thereby eliminating the need for air conditioning. The second was the installation of solar panels for space and water heat. Beyond these, the primary innovation is the extent to which the property incorporates sustainable practices: pre-cycling, re-cycling, composting, use of non-toxic cleansers, soaps and paints, low-power lighting, planting heritage trees, shrubs and flowers. We eliminate out-gassing by eliminating use of foam rubber: bare locally-produced wood flooring, 100% cotton linens, soy candles. We reduce the carbon footprint of our food by buying from local producers (and put "food miles" on the menu). We buy meats from farmers who humanely raise heritage breeds. We use no pesticides or herbicides and encourage guests to refrain from wearing fragrances of any kind. Of the 150 acres, approximately 75 are devoted to a wildlife preserve.
Impact
Describe the degree of success you have had to date. How do you measure, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the impact on sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How has it transformed or contributed to the power of place or demonstrated the sustainability of tourism? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
Quantifiable impacts are measured in terms of yearly revenues: For the past three years our revenues have increased 30 percent yearly. Qualitatively: The property has been awarded several coveted prizes: Small Business of the Year by the Resource Recovery Board of Nova Scotia( 2005), the Sustainable Tourism Award from the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia (06) and the Micro Business award from the Canadian Council of Ministers for the Environment (06). In 2009, the Inn was selected for the prestigious National Geographic Traveler "stay list." We have just been notified that we will be awarded an eco-conservation recognition by Dalhousie University in Halifax. The owner/chef was selected as one of 25 chefs from Canada to attend Slow Food International's Terra Madre in Turin Italy in 2006 and 2008. The Chanterelle was only one accommodation property in Nova Scotia to receive the 4 green-leaf rating by the Audubon Green-leaf Eco-Rating program. The emphasis on the use of local food provides an authentic culinary experience for visitors while reducing the carbon footprint of food transportation. Further, buying directly from local producers and farmers sustains local, environmentally responsible agriculture and counters the power of agri-business. The response from guests has been exceptionally rewarding as reflected in comments made in our guest book, on Trip Advisor and on comment cards submitted to the Province.
In what ways are local residents actively involved in your work, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
The community has slowly responded to our approach but because of the publicity we receive locally, the awareness is increasing as evidenced by the popularity of the Farmers' Market and purchases from our growers. We buy local meats, honey, vegetables, greens and seafood from local producers, fishermen and suppliers. This practice has particularly helped local gardeners expand their acreage. The practice is now being copied by other restaurants and accommodations. We are contacted regularly by other restaurant owners and I am glad to give them the names of my sources. Too, we are increasingly being contacted by properties interested in the value of using solar energy.
How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
Guests appear to appreciate the care we give to providing a sustainable and authentic experience. They appear to "take it personally", that is, they take the effort as a compliment. As regards the food particularly, they often pose the question: " I couldn't have this meal anywhere else, could I?" to which the answer clearly is "Correct." An interesting aspect of using local food ingredients, the taste of which is fresh and uniquely delectable, is that wine sales are extraordinarily high. Our house wines are Nova Scotia wines, of course. Several local people have given me copies of their mothers' or grandmothers' recipes. I have incorporated items made from these recipes into the Inn's menus.
Describe how your work helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues.
Many local residents, especially the current generation, have lost touch with their culinary heritage. Because we celebrate local sources, they too are beginning to purchase local, fresh ingredients from local farmers and growers. Since the local growers and bee-keepers are also organic producers, it gives us the opportunity to discuss chemicals and the threat to the Harbour. The property actively supports organizations that seek to preserve the environmental ad natural heritage of the area, such as the Stewards of St. Ann's Harbour." Our guests , while very environmentally aware to begin with, appreciate our approach and increase their knowledge by participating in our practices.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
The Chanterelle is primarily owner-financed with development assistance provided by the Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation, a federal-provincial development partnership. Our annual revenues for 2007 were $155,000 (seasonal). We have 5 full-time staff on a seasonal basis from May 1-October 31and we employ 1 college student and 1 high school student on a part time basis.
Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? Is there a potential demand for your innovation?
Barring a world-wide recession/depression, the indicators are that the Chanterelle property will continue to be financially and organizationally sustainable. In Nova Scotia, unfortunately, the greatest threat to financial sustainability is allowing accommodation properties to exist illegally. These pay no commercial taxes, do not have health and fire inspections nor carry liability insurance. AS to the province's environmental practices, several organizations are making strides to preserve the coastline, enhance local and organic agriculture and clean up polluted sites, but these do not communicate with each other or work together.
What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
Being environmentally responsible is still seen as being expensive and elitist. I do have increasing concerns that some claims to being "green" are not genuine. Large agribusiness interests are constantly throwing roadblocks through legislation at the use of using local food. They are successful at lobbying government entities to creating ever more restrictions and requirements for local suppliers.
What is your plan to expand or further develop your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
I would like to host more culinary events. While we do have one-day farm to table events in which we visit local growers, choose fresh products, design the menu then prepare the ingredients for dinner, I would like to increase these to two and three day events. We currently have a Fall Fungi Foray and Feast event which is quite popular, which serves as a mode. For 2009, the fungi foray will be expanded to include the entire community and primary events will be held at the community hall. . I would also like to define a part of the wilderness preserve area as a cemetery for environmentally responsible burial for eco-pods. My plan is to work with a nearby church. At present, eco-pods are not allowed in local cemeteries.
The Story
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
Earlene Busch, born in Oklahoma on October 26, 1941, moved to Colorado and grew up on a dryland wheat and cattle ranch. Married an officer in the United States Air Force, who was subsequently killed in Viet Nam. Two daughters. Educated at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Ph.D. in Communications and an MBA in Organizational Behavior. Founder and CEO of Circa Logic, an Information technology firm until 1999. After I sold the company, I moved to Canada in 2000 and opened the Chanterelle Country Inn and Cottages.
What is the origin of your innovation? Tell the Changemakers and media communities what prompted you to start this initiative.
My parents were dry-land organic farmers before the term was introduced. I grew up eating humanely raised beef and chickens and fresh vegetables from my mother's garden. When I had my own home, I lived in the country across the road from farmers who had a dairy farm and raised beef cattle, sheep and hogs. I bought directly from them and had my own garden. My daughters were extraordinarily healthy. According to my mother, I was always a "saver". The birth of my children and grandchildren accelerated my dedication. As I said to the audience at the CCME awards ceremony, if my grandchildren asked what I had done to leave the world a better place for them, I wanted to be in the position to tell them I had given it my best shot! Founding the Inn appeared the best opportunity to live and share my values.
Describe some unique tourist experiences that your approach provides. Be specific; give illustrative examples.
We focus on providing that which is missing from the lives of our guests---a peaceful, quiet place where they can relax and do absolutely nothing. We serve many traditional dishes, using local and often organically produced food-stuffs. (We put food sources and "food miles" on our menu to demonstrate our dedication to local agriculture. At dinner, I often point to the fields of one of my organic suppliers and tell guests that the green beans on their plate (for example) were in his field at 4 o'clock that afternoon. They experience the taste: many guests say the taste of the food brings back memories of visiting their grandparents on the farm. Many accompany me when I am foraging for wild mushrooms, wintergreen, mussels and oysters. I think that many of our practices introduce guests to ways of "getting started" on reducing consumption.
What types of partnerships or professional development would be most beneficial in spreading your innovation?
Partnerships who foster the combination of sustainability with profitability. Professional development workshops that work through the economics of sustainable practices at the individual business level.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| solar panels2.jpg | 146.03 KB |
 | 157 weeks agoDana Frasz said: Hello Mrs. Busch, Is there anything you can do to greater involve the local community? What trades are unique in your region that ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 158 weeks agoEarlene Busch submitted this idea. |
