Seal River Heritage Lodge under the sun that powers it.
Churchill Wild lodges will be increasing their use of solar power in 2017, which has been declared the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations.
“Right now we run 16 solar panels at 340 watts per panel at each of our lodges,” said Nolan Booth, Churchill Wild Director of Lodge Operations. “We reduced our diesel consumption by 75% when we first put solar power in and our goal is to double our solar capabilities in 2017. That combined with the various power saving initiatives we already use at the lodges will reduce our power consumption substantially.”
“Our ultimate practical goal is to run the lodges on 85% solar power in the summer months. Fall and winter are tougher, but we’re always looking for solutions to reduce our power consumption with new technologies. And we continue to research sources of sustainable environmentally friendly power. We’ll get there.”
Churchill Wild received the Sustainable Tourism Award from Travel Manitoba in 2015, and we take great pride in the sustainable tourism practices in place at our lodges, but we are always striving to reduce our environmental impact.
The areas surrounding our lodges are truly wild. The air is pure, the water crisp and clean, and the land unspoiled. We want to keep it that way. Recognizing that our future is our environment, we honor an ongoing commitment to enhance, rather than degrade, our natural environment.
Churchill Wild has developed a minimalist approach to luxury eco-lodging on the coast of Hudson Bay and we have implemented a number of additional environmentally friendly systems and procedures at our lodges in an effort to minimize our footprint.
We practice and promote wise and sustainable resource use and sound conservation principles and practices for all habitats and wildlife in our surrounding ecosystems. As such, we also minimize the efforts people need to undertake to view wildlife. On the Hudson Bay coastline the wildlife is very active and the animals often come to us, reducing our use of motorized vehicles.
“We’ve decreased our use of motorized vehicles over the years,” said Booth. “And the smaller all-terrain vehicles we use are kept to a set of grandfathered trails up and down the coastline. We like to stay close to our roots, which are polar bear walking tours. Not only are we increasing our walking tours around the lodges, but when we do see polar bears from the vehicles we stop and get out and walk. The guests love it and are continually amazed at how safe they feel.”
“That first evening back at the lodge is always something special.”
