KAANAPALI, MAUI » The holiday skating rink at The Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas could be straight out of a Currier & Ives print except the famous holiday scenes typically wouldn’t have vistas of palm trees, ocean waves and neighboring islands peeping through the holiday lights.
"It’s surreal," said California visitor Gina Artavia as she and Geoffrey Chadwick glided across the resort’s slicked-over Ocean Lawn, which has been whimsically transformed into a winter version of a tropical paradise. "We didn’t expect to ice-skate here. It’s really neat, especially to do this in Hawaii."
Guest stays at the resort are up about 20 percent this holiday season as are banquet and party events as a result of promotions such as its 2,000-square-foot hybrid skating rink, which is built of recycled plastic, said Bob Megargle, food and beverage director at The Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas. The Four Diamond time share is the first Hawaii resort to offer holiday skating, which it started last year. This year "Skating by the Sea, a Westin Kaanapali Holiday" opened on Nov. 28 and will stay open daily through Jan. 1.
"It’s so popular that even before this year’s launch party, Hawaii knew that we were doing it again," Megargle said. "The local traction has been fantastic, plus we’ve got owners and guests calling and asking where and when."
REDUCED FOOTPRINT
Ethan Urquhart, a young visitor from San Diego, already had gotten in four days of skating before the rink’s grand opening. "We’ve only missed one day," said Urquhart’s dad, Kris, as he watched his son race across the smooth moonlit surface. "We’re going home tomorrow, so we promised that he could skate extra long tonight. Winter sports aren’t really big in Southern California where we’re from."
There is no doubt that the ability to work on a tan while ice skating in 85-degree weather wearing shorts and a T-shirt or a bathing suit has driven resort traffic, said Angela Nolan, general manager of the resort. However, despite the added holiday volume, Nolan said that the environmental footprint of the resort isn’t growing comparatively thanks to sustainable practices that work to reduce car traffic, shipping, waste and energy consumption, while at the same time grow local agriculture and create local jobs.
"By using sustainable practices even for something like our expanded skating promotion, we’ve reduced our carbon footprint about 22 percent from 2008," she said.
In this case the carbon footprint that Nolan is referring to is the measure of greenhouse gases that are emitted by the visitor industry through transport, clearing land, food production and consumption, the manufacture of goods and the use of everything from fuel to materials, wood, roads, buildings and services. To that end the resort’s skating rink is made of synthetic ice, which does not need expensive refrigeration units, generators or electricity to keep it cold. This model is in keeping with other broader initiatives at the resort, which relies on a co-generation facility to produce its own energy. The heat produced by the diesel engine that generates electricity also heats the resort’s swimming pools, its Jacuzzis and all of its domestic hot water.
"We produce our electricity for less than a third of the 45 cents a kilowatt-hour that it would cost us to purchase it off the Maui Electric grid," Nolan said. "Over time we’ve saved millions."
The resort also keeps cars off the road by offering free shuttle service to guests.
"Ridership this year to date is 321,000," Nolan said. "We estimate that we’ve basically realized about a 30 percent reduction in trips annually."
Food and products for the resort’s restaurants and for its Spa Helani also are obtained locally whenever possible, she said.
GOING LOCAL
Sarah Hisey, the resort’s spa director and co-chairwoman of its sustainability committee, said she looks for Hawaii partners that make spa products that are organic and sustainable.
"We use a line called Ola, which is made on the Big Island, in many of our treatments," Hisey said. "The owner, Robin Williams, who lives in Hilo and creates products on-site, even developed a signature scent for our spa, which is called Hualani, or heavenly fruit."
A Maui-created product called Volcano Oil is also used in deep tissue and sports massages, she said. Another product called After Sun Remedy is packed with native noni, aloe, kukui nut and coconut oil, Hisey added.
"Local and organic products are very important to our customers," she said. "Hawaii has a lot of natural healing and products, so we try to take advantage of that. In the last four years, we’ve grown the percentage of local products that we use from 40 to 60 percent. We also are increasing cultural sustainability by bringing in more local lomilomi instructors to teach our staff, and this summer we just launched a Polynesian ritual treatment."
Executive chef Francois Milliet said about 70 percent of what’s prepared in the resort’s kitchens is acquired locally, but when considering produce alone, the percentage is about 90 percent.
"Our goal is to really grow and help support the farmers and the local community," Milliet said.
The resort also recycles its plastics and cans and cooking oil, which goes to Maui Petroleum to turn into diesel gas, Megargle said. Likewise, all of the edible waste is donated to local pig farmers, he said.
Every restaurant also has its own filtration system, and informal outlets that serve to-go beverages and food use green-stripe cups made of corn, Megargle said.
"They deconstruct like they would in the field and become part of the land again," he said.
Hotel initiatives like these are helping to fulfill parent company Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ commitment to reduce energy use from a 2008 base line by 30 percent by 2020, Nolan said.
"Our results are higher than the company average," Nolan said. "Our combined energy reduction is about 28 percent for energy and about 20 percent for water from 2008 levels."
That’s really something given that the 26-acre resort, which sports eight buildings and 1,021 villas, is the largest on Maui. While hotels across the state are increasingly concerned about sustainability, the Westin’s efforts have not gone unnoticed.
In May, Gov. Neil Abercrombie awarded the resort the State of Hawaii Green Business Award for its sustainable achievements. The resort’s signature restaurant Pulehu, an Italian Grill, was awarded in April its third set of accolades for excellence in sustainability as part of Maui No ka Oi Magazine’s Aipono Awards. The award recognized the resort’s food-and-beverage team for supporting local vendors and farms.
In fall 2012 the resort also earned a $250,000 rebate check, the highest ever issued by Hawaii Energy, for its decision to replace 10,356 traditional light bulbs with LED or CSL bulbs.
"By changing the bulbs, we’ve saved 1.9 million kilowatt-hours a year," Nolan said.
Megargle said the resort takes seriously its responsibility to meet the needs of its environmentally conscious guests.
"Coming to Hawaii, they want to experience the culture of being sustainable. It’s definitely one of the most important pieces of our brand loyalty," he said. "
Time-share owner Olya Wright agrees.
"We love the skating tradition and the resort is super nice, but the Westin’s commitment to the environment is one of the main reasons that we decided to buy here," Wright said.
