Sustainable Practices at CRC

We’re thinking sustainability…

Recent crew and campers have offered suggestions for making Cold River Camp more sustainable, including “use fewer paper products” and “compost food scraps.”

Many sustainable practices are already in place at Camp. Guest cabins use wood heat and no electricity; car-pooling to hikes is common; reusable cloth lunch bags are available; and guests and staff diligently recycle newspaper, cardboard, glass, metal, and aluminum cans. Energy efficient light bulbs are replacing incandescent, native plants are used in the perennial gardens, worn guest towels are reused as rags, and food scraps go daily to neighborhood pigs. Although we have vacuum cleaners and a drying room, it’s more common for the crew to use brooms to sweep floors and the clotheslines to dry laundry.

Our current energy-saving and waste-reducing practices have qualified the Camp to be certified as an Environmental Partner by the New Hampshire Sustainable Lodging and Restaurant Program (NHSLRP). In 2008, we’re researching and evaluating other changes suggested by the NHSLRP. We have begun to compost coffee grounds (pigs don’t need caffeine), offer tissues and paper cups for campers by request only, and promote the use of bandannas as trail lunch napkins instead of paper napkins.

Sometimes, as we consider these sustainability efforts, they seem to point to times past, when most things were simpler and had less impact. In some ways, earlier times at Camp can be a model for sustainability efforts today. But we recognize that there are some things that don’t deserve the moniker “back in the good ole days” – like cold showers.

To further advance these initiatives, the Camp has been awarded a small conservation grant by the AMC. This is funding an intern who will evaluate the carbon footprint of the Camp, energy use, and the use of other resources. A report and recommendations will be provided to the Camp’s governing Committee this fall. The report is now available as a pdf file (may take a while to download).

We think Cold River Camp is an ideal, low-impact – yet rich and rewarding – vacation experience. Campers – who often return year after year – choose this simpler, greener community.