Scott Hale, Chief Experience Officer at Brand New Stay
Brand New Stay guided the launch and navigates the daily operation of The Island Inn at 123 West on San Juan Islands, where eco-friendly efforts are helping to sustain and preserve the islands’ economic vitality and help drive low-impact travel and tourism.
In what ways is your business considered eco-friendly? In the San Juan Islands, it’s as simple as being island-friendly. We get that everything we do impacts our neighbors around town, around the island, and around the globe. We’re especially mindful of the abundant life in the Salish Sea that relies on us to make the right choices for the right reasons. The hotel site is a brownfield development with an off-the-charts walkability score. It’s LEED Silver Certified (awarded May 2010), and features recycled post-consumer content along with water-efficient landscaping. To help reduce water consumption, we collect rainwater from roofs and walkways and use it to irrigate plants around the hotel. We didn’t just stop with the building. When outfitting each accommodation, we drastically reduced water consumption by favoring low-flow commodes, and steam showers over hot tubs. Rather than roll-out standard-issue carpet, Penthouses feature wool carpets, while Euros and Sweets spotlight recyclable carpet tile. We innovated day-to-day efforts to reduce our impact to the complex ecosystems around the islands. Most important, we’ve eliminated the need for any printer paper throughout the guest experience by elevating all booking, payment, registration, and communication systems to web-based solutions. Because we’re in the middle of town, and just steps from the ferry, we encourage car-free experiences, and provide complimentary garage parking for all guests who bike onto the ferry.
What inspired you to become an eco-minded entrepreneur? The San Juan Islands are a treasured Pacific Northwest destination. They’re also a remarkable place to live and work. Loving and living in a delicate ecosystem can be tricky. We want to do all that we can to acknowledge the past and contribute to the future sustainability of the San Juan Islands. That means making and preserving space for everyone – from our team, to our neighbors, to our guests, to wild Orcas and Island Marble Butterflies.
For readers who want to be more eco-conscious in their everyday lives, what do you recommend? How about for those looking to launch a green business? Don’t go at it alone. Individuals and businesses looking to enhance their eco efforts should find support and motivation in the community and culture that they create and keep. Surrounding yourself with likeminded individuals and businesses that align with your shared values will offer lots of mutual appreciation and stimulus to sustain your eco-minded endeavors. Most important for the Inn is our all-in commitment to renew our promise every day, every stay. We never stop trying to be qualified for the job. The hotel team, and the neighbors that we align with, make the Island Inn exceptional. It’s their awareness, diligence and relentless innovation that helps keep the Inn as green as it gets.
What are your long-term goals for your company and its impact? Beyond staying on top of our green game, and our never-ending pursuit of excellence, we’re always thinking bigger than our humble hotel in Friday Harbor. We appreciate that we’re a small part of the bigger tourism industry in the San Juan Islands. We also recognize that the small choices our team and guests make can help sustain and preserve the islands’ economic vitality and help drive low-impact travel and tourism. We’d love to nudge our home closer to a regenerative residential, recreational and travel hub. Everyone living, working or playing in our backyard should agree that we all need to leave it better than we found it regardless of our respective stay lengths. Everyone on-island should be compelled to actively seek out ways to give more to our environment and community than we take. It’s a tall task, but our island-community is better placed than most to get there. And, the Inn is off to a great start: the Inn’s LEED Silver Certified building keeps us rooted in regenerative design. Plus, we’re fortunate to have the San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau focused on keeping a balanced scorecard for the islands’ vibrant tourism economy, environment, residential and guest experiences.