Eco-Resorts

Edmonton Journal: As more green-minded Canadians look to spend their vacation dollars in eco-friendly places, environmentally sensitive resorts, hotels, inns and lodges are popping up like organic mushrooms.
Whitewater Village, a 38-cottage year-round eco-resort planned by Windmill Developments, one of Canada’s top green builders, is just the latest addition to the growing list of such vacation venues across the country.
“We feel it’s a fairly untapped market,” said Jonathan Westeinde, Windmill’s managing partner. “It’s a little outside the box for what we do but part of the reason we’re there is it interests me a lot. When you look at the market for green and sustainable, you’re getting downtown urban condo dwellers and you’re getting a lot of cottage owners.”
The market for eco-resorts is growing and will continue to do so, said Joseph Hnatiuk, president of the Saskatchewan Nature and Ecotourism Association, which has been accrediting ecotourist lodges, parks, hotels and tourism sites since 2000 under a program approved by the International Ecotourism Society.
Featuring geothermal heating and cooling, solar hot water and electricity, the development will break ground in spring 2008 along the Ottawa River, northeast of Ottawa near rapids that draw whitewater rafters and kayakers from around the world.
Whitewater Village will be surrounded by a 4,000-acre land trust to keep further development at bay, aims to be carbon neutral and will have a peat moss sanitation system. The exterior of the cottages, generally two-storey structures of 1,700 square feet, will be constructed of logs certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Interior features will include bamboo floors, wool carpets, formaldehyde-free kitchen cabinets and recycled-paper countertops.
Eco-resort complexes latest trend in vacation-land [Edmonton Journal]