Green Initiatives

(Recent News)

No BP Oil on Naples Beaches, but still need to keep them clean. Guest Services Inc., Hospitality Employees Spend Saturday Morning Cleaning Barefoot Beach. --
NAPLES, FL —“These are the beaches that keep us all employed. Although the BP oil has not reached Naples’ shoreline, we need to keep them clean so that tourists will continue to come here,” Barry Trice, VP of Hotel Operations for Guest Services, Inc. reminded hotel staff members. Armed with trash bags, pick-up sticks and gloves, the group gathered at Collier County’s Barefoot Beach Pavilion early one Saturday morning for a waste-free breakfast and pep talk before walking the beach and trails to remove debris that beach-goers leave behind.

No one there needed a pep talk as they listened to Friends of Barefoot Beach President Margaret Winn talk passionately about preserving the beaches and identifying problem areas where trash tends to collect. Before spreading out to assigned areas, thirty-two volunteers quickly consumed bananas, cranberry granola breakfast tamales in a corn husk, and cinnamon spiked hot chocolate. The clever waste-free breakfast was created by Chef Marc Braden from The Marbella at Pelican Bay and served in recyclable boxes. Chef Braden showed up to volunteer and smiled as he watched his Guest Services co-workers opened their boxes to find real silverware and linen napkins.

“Keep the mason jars we used to serve hot chocolate, maybe recycle it as a bank to collect change,” said Chef Braden. “The silverware and napkins will be taken back and washed. To complete the earth-friendly experience, the corn husks and banana peels will end up in a compost heap, part of the green initiatives practiced at every Guest Services managed hotel, condominium, and resort community.”

Local hotels managed by Guest Services, Inc. include Doubletree Guest Suites Naples, the newly opened Homewood Suites in Bonita Springs and Ivey House Bed and Breakfast in Everglades City. All earned Two Palm designations from Florida’s Green Lodging program for using energy-efficient and cutting-edge technologies and procedures, recycling, and using eco-friendly and biodegradable products.  Staff members managing residential communities like The Marbella and St. Raphael at Pelican Bay and Moorings Park are also diligent in complying with Guest Services’ environmental policies and recommendations.

Nadya Uygun, Facilities Director for Guest Services, Inc. made a point of saying the silverware and napkins would be washed with Apex Ecolab products, identified as safe for the planet. Uygun works with every property nationwide to implement green practices recommended by Guest Services’ Our Planet SM program of environmental stewardship. An intranet website created by the hospitality company’s corporate headquarters in Virginia offers tips about how employees can deliver the most environmentally-friendly products and services possible to guests. At Mt. Rainier State Park, for example, one of several national park facilities managed by Guest Services, Inc. employees recently were recognized for their continual efforts to maintain a compost heap with waste from the kitchen.

In Florida, beaches are the focus, so the Barefoot Beach clean-up crew attached pedometers to their waistbands and covered Barefoot Beach Preserve from the guard gate all the way to Wiggins Pass. The first one back was Controller Todd Pederson who said he found the mother lode of trash back in an area of brush. He walked up to the pavilion covered in nettles but grinning as he held up a huge bag of aluminum cans, water bottles, cigarette packaging and food wrappings.

“I suspect some of this may have been dragged back there by raccoons,” said Pederson. “I need more bags and some help to collect it all.”

Meryl Rorer, volunteer coordinator for Collier County Parks and Recreation, marveled as each bag of 13 cubic feet of trash was added to the collection pile.

“I run out of superlatives to say about these wonderful volunteers. Look at them. They’re going out to pick up trash and they’re smiling,” Rorer said. “This place would not look the way it does without the help of these volunteers and the Friends of Barefoot Beach.” Rorer said that despite budget cuts, the Parks and Recreation Department has been able to maintain the same level of services to the community. The Friends of Barefoot Beach are a group of 100 or more volunteers who work as docents, donate thousands of dollars worth of printed documents for free and educate people about the animal and plant life at the beaches.  Another group of assistant park rangers volunteer to help maintain the parking rules and regulations and help keep the brush areas manageable.  Members of the community who come out to help keep the beaches clean are invaluable, she added. “And we didn’t even have to do anything for these volunteers. They brought their own food and everything.”  

Margaret Winn talked about the generosity of neighboring communities like The Club at Barefoot Beach, who donated oversized table umbrellas to provide shade for picnic tables.

“They were refurbishing their swimming pool area at the club and let us have several umbrellas that we desperately need when school children come for picnics or for elderly visitors who want to escape the sun and heat,” said Winn. 

Returning with their collected trash, the volunteers shared stories about seeing baby gopher tortoises, a dolphin sand sculpture on the beach, rare birds, and more.

“The grossest thing I found was a dirty diaper,” said Lisa Philip, manager of St. Raphael in Pelican Bay. Winn nodded, having heard it all before.

“That is really disturbing to the next family that comes to enjoy the beach to have their children digging in the sand and coming up with a dirty diaper,” said Winn. “I am amazed at the people who treat the beach like a cat box.”

A prize at the end of the clean-up went to Marbella employee Eda Dudushi’s cousin who was visiting from Manhattan and joined the volunteers. Vasilika Gjikondi logged 8,518 steps walking the beach looking for trash to pick-up and appreciated the beach where she could walk barefoot. 

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