Going green for Glacier's centennial

Business effort linked to park's 100th

Garden Wall Inn Bed and Breakfast replaced nearly all its standard lighting with compact fluorescent bulbs and buys its eggs, bread, sausages and produce from local folks.

The Walking Man Frame Shop and Gallery sells frames and furniture crafted from recycled wood, and passes along its plastic-foam packing peanuts to the potter next door who uses them to package his wares.

It's what the two Whitefish businesses were doing anyway, but Michelle Tafoya figures Glacier National Park's centennial celebration in 2010 is a good reason to give them and like-minded businesses some encouragement.

The Glacier Centennial Green Business Program is how she's doing it.

The National Parks Conservation Association, for which Tafoya is the clean air and climate coordinator, and the Glacier National Park Centennial Program are teaming up on the effort to get businesses around the park thinking green.

"One of the goals of the centennial program is to celebrate and recognize many of the park's designations, and one of those is that Glacier National Park is a climate-friendly park," Tafoya said.

The climate-friendly program was launched to help national parks address climate change. They take steps to reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gas production and solid waste output. They conserve water and protect its quality.

And they educate visitors on what they can do, too.

Glacier National Park switched out its light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs, cut back on solid waste and implemented a shuttle system in 2007 that has reduced traffic drastically.

Glacier Park Inc., an authorized concessioner, eight years ago converted its entire red bus fleet to propane-powered capability.

That alone cuts carbon emissions 93 percent, GPI said.

The concessioner also uses certified green paper products, bypasses glass bottles by serving draft beer only, stocks hotel rooms with environmentally friendly soaps and amenities, and buys food in bulk to reduce wasteful packaging.

Bringing nearby businesses into the act is Tafoya's mission.

"The idea is to take the climate-friendly parks program and extend it to gateway communities and show how individual businesses can reduce their impact on the local level," she said.

Since its February launch, 15 businesses have signed on with the program and more applications are in the pipeline.

In exchange, they get recognition on the official centennial Web site and in the centennial newsletter over the next couple years - both of which can direct customer traffic their way. They also get a window decal and logos to post on their own Web sites and use in printed materials.

And their bottom line reflects lower energy bills, reduced solid-waste handling and less transportation expense from more efficient vehicles.

"For some folks it's just a new way of thinking, how can we as a whole do just a little bit better to reduce our energy use and reduce the materials that may otherwise go into the landfill," Tafoya said.

Chris Schustrom at the Garden Wall Inn said building insulation, EnergyStar appliances and a recycling habit accompany their switch to fluorescent bulbs.

"But the big thing for us is using local products," the chef and business partner with owner Rhonda Fitzgerald said. "Year round, we use local organic eggs, local breads and other Montana products, and we have our own blend of Montana Coffee Traders coffee."

In winter they get smoked trout from a Helena-area business, but their breakfast meats always come from Farm To Market Pork, garden produce and eggs from Purple Frog Gardens and flour from Montana-grown wheat. In the spring and summer nearly everything is local, drastically cutting transportation impacts.

"The sense of community is very important to us," Schustrom said. "People live in small towns for a reason, because they're locally connected to the place they live."

Peter Edland at The Walking Man sells Trego artist Kim Lucier's barn-wood frames and furniture, all of it made from recycled wood that Lucier salvages.

The gallery also offers Laville Frames out of Baton Rouge, La., made with wood pulled from old homes and recycled ceiling tiles and corrugated tin. Arlee sculptor Danny Kraus salvages scrap steel and forages for unique stone to produce sculptures sold at The Walking Man.

Edland's wife, Michelle Saurey, signed up for the Glacier Centennial Green Business program to get her started on retrofitting their shop to save some energy and boost their emphasis on buying local.

"We still ship in products, so we're involved in mass transit but we want to support local. It's a work in progress," she said. "We can all do something. It's not going to be a magic transition, but we can be involved in that."

For her part, Tafoya is aiming for 500 business participants by 2010.

"We've already seen a level of consciousness raised in this area. If we can start to have a dialog between all these green businesses about what we can do in our communities, that would be a huge measure of success for me," she said.

"It's really an effort to create a more sustainable future for our children and grandchildren in this area."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com