One of the great things about canoeing is that, as vacations go, it's relatively low impact. Paddling down a river leaves only ripples, and even the people at Leave No Trace are generally happy with leaving only footprints. But, we can't forget about the less obvious impacts: where you camped, how your canoe was produced, what your life jackets are made of, how you got to the river, where your food came from, etc. It's definitely worth taking the time to ask some of these questions and learn about the best answers. For our part, we'd like to give you the details of our own operation; afterall, the quality of our environment is literally at the heart of our business.Travel Green Wisconsin - First of all, before anything else, we're Travel Green Wisconsin Certified (and the only canoe rental service in the state to do so). In order to become certified, you have to be at least a little bit aware of your environmental impact and willing to make an effort to improve it. Plus, they're an independent 3rd party. You need to score at least 30 points on their checklist to be considered. We scored 59. Yeah, we're serious about this stuff.
Responsible Canoe Fleet - The greenest canoe is the one you don't buy, except that'd be a terrible way to run our business. Our current test fleet (while we begin to establish the rental side of our company) is a set of used aluminum boats whose environmental cost has already been accounted for. However, our official canoe supplier (when we're finally able to replace and expand the fleet next year) is Holy Cow Canoe, a small company hand building sustainable boats just over the border in Canada. While their boats can be pricey (our model retails near $1,400), we believe the quality of both the boats and the company make them well worth it.
From their website: "Although more time consuming and a lot more work, the materials and methods used to produce your canoe are either brushed in manually by hand, or impregnated into the construction without any atomization. Components used to build your Holy Cow Canoe have been equipped with either all, or a portion of recycled materials when ever possible. We do not employ processing equipment, materials, or methods that create any CFC's, or large amounts of non-biodegradable waste as a byproduct of building your Holy Cow Canoe."
Local Food - By now I'm sure most everyone has heard of Omnivore's Dilemma or Food Inc or any number of books, movies, and talk shows about eating local. We are fortunate to have a local foods store in Spring Green, something not commonly found in rural Wisconsin towns, in addition to the many roadside produce stands that popup over the course of the summer. We do our best to buy nearly all of our foods for guided trips (and our own personal use) from farmer's markets and produce stands along our shuttle route. Currently, about 70% comes directly from someplace in Wisconsin.
15% to a Good Cause - Every year we donate 15% of our profits to various South Central Wisconsin groups and organizations that seek to protect and preserve the outdoors while still providing access to the general public. These donations go towards organizations like the Friends of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway, Wisconsin River Alliance, and the Wisconsin Hoofers.
Customer Education - If you've ever happened upon a sandbar just after a rowdy group of overnighters who have left the place in shambles - trash everywhere, piles of smoldering ashes, etc. - you already know how unpleasant that experience can be. As such, we do our best to instill a sense of 'leave it better than you found it' in our river users by encouraging people to pack out their trash, being respectful to others, and leaving no trace of their campsite.
The Little Things - Our office is very nearly paperless and decentralized to allow everyone to collaborate online and work from home. Only our liability waivers are printed and we've almost got those online too. We ride our bikes to meetings as often as possible, and when longer distances are required, we car pool. We don't use incandescent light bulbs and we wash our boats with river water. Because everything is online and we don't provide disposable products to our customers, we produce almost zero waste - though we can always do better getting our overnight campers to do the same.
Future Plans - I've already mentioned our Holy Cow Canoe fleet, and in addition, we will be replacing our current gas powered shuttle van with a more efficient bio-diesel shuttle by 2012.
Of course we can always do better, and by no means do we expect or even ask our customers to make drastic cuts. Only that they become more aware of their own impacts and maybe adopt a few of our policies for their own. We're currently a leader in our industry when it comes to sustainable operations (just another thing that makes us The Best) and we hope our customer's continue to appreciate it as much as we do.
The Wisconsin River is consistently rated as one of the best canoeing rivers in the Midwest. The last 92.3 miles have been protected from further development by the creation of the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway which now encompasses nearly 80,000 acres of land on both sides of the river. The Lower Wisconsin begins at Prairie Du Sac below the last dam on the river. From Prairie Du Sac, it flows freely through the unglaciated hills of southwest Wisconsin where it joins the Mississippi river at Prairie Du Chien and Wyalusing State Park.
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