Transcription of Rauni Kew for the show Hospitality for All Creatures, Great & Small #258
Dr. Belisle: My next guest is an individual that I’ve known for quite a few years now. This is Rauni Kew and her background is in marketing and public relations. Currently working in hospitality. She manages public relations and green programs for Maine’s luxurious Inn by the Sea. The inn has achieved L-E-E-D Silver Maine D-E-P Leader certification. A legislative sentiment as an environmental leader and was selected preferred hotel groups, sustainability hotel of the year in 2014. Rauni served on the Maine Tourism Commission as the chair of the greater Portland Convention and Visitor Bureau and is the greater Portland regional representative for the Maine office of tourism regional committee. She freKewntly has published articles on sustainable hospitality and industry journals. We’re pretty privileged to have you here today.
Rauni Kew: Thank you very much for having me. I’m delighted to be here.
Dr. Belisle: I really love this topic. I love to travel and I love what’s going on in the state of Maine. Your someone is telling me that Maine is getting greener and tourism is getting green and the Inn by the Sea is right at the front there.
Rauni Kew: Absolutely. I’m going to go back a few years. After the war, when people started traveling a lot. Globally, it was about 1960, that people really started to think about sustainability and preserving and protecting the places that people liked to travel for future generations, which is really what sustainability is all about. It was a huge movement, but it didn’t get a lot of traction here. I think part of the reason that it didn’t get a lot of traction in the United States, is when you go back to the sixties and the seventies and you look at all of these conferences and bureaus that were set up to look at it. They were constantly talking about indigenous people. That kind of language and it was usually revolving around very sensitive Eco systems like the Galápagos, or a rain forest.
Nobody here really caught onto that concept. In 1992, an economist by the name of John Elkington, came up with a very simple catch phrase, for something that he and a bunch of other economists had been working on for business for ten years. We came up with the Triple Bottom Line. The Triple Bottom Line was such a simple roadmap for everybody to follow. What it said very simply, in simple terms, was that in this day and age, you were no longer profitable if you just considered the single bottom line. You also had to consider the environment and you also had to consider people.
A year later he coined another phrase, which was People, Planet, Profit. That roadmap was so simple, everybody got excited about this and tourism all over the world started looking at who they were and what they were doing and redefining themselves. You ended up with Eco tourism and cultural tourism and sustainable tourism. All of these different kinds of tourism that we all very niche oriented. At the center of every single one of them was this business plan, People, Planet, Profit. John Elkington was very precise about what people was. Planet is obvious. Reduce your carbon footprint. Do what you can for the environment. Profit is obvious. We all know we need to be profitable to stay in business.
The people he said, were what he called stakeholders. Not shareholders, but stakeholders. Those were the people that helped you be successful and be profitable in your business. It was your community and in our industry, it’s your growers, your planters, your vendors. The people in your community, you have to support, but you should support the other people that help you be profitable. That was a roadmap for tourism that was really easy to consider. In the early 2000’s it was a huge boom. All of a sudden we have over three hundred and fifty really good certification programs for tourism. Every single one of them was based around People, Planet, Profit and it really made it easy for the industry to start greening and they did.
Everybody started doing things. The Inn by the Sea was one of the leaders. We started down this path fifteen years ago. What most people did in the beginning, was they focused on reductions in water, waste, energy and chemicals. I think really the reason for that, was that the hospitality and the tourism industry discovered that if they reduced energy, or if they reduced water, if they did all of these things, they actually were saving money. That helped that profit piece.
The people piece has come a long slowly. After people have done as much they can with design features, people have now turned their attention to community, vendors, growers, producers and all that kind of thing. A lot of community collaboration is going on. Some of the things that we’ve done at the Inn by the Sea for the planet piece are, the design features that we put in. For instance we have solar panels that heat a desalinated pool. We have recycled sheet rock walls. We were the first hotel in New England to have duel flush toilets to save water. We have recycled cork floors in our spa area. We have recycled rubber floors in the cardio room.
Some of the things that help the hotel guests are, we have air to air heat exchanges all through the inn, which gives you fresh air, constantly being mixed with the cooled, or the heated air, but it gives you a very clean environment. Of course none of the guests really care about this. They want to come to green hotel. They don’t know about your design features. We want our guests to really have that quintessential Maine experience. We want to connect them to people here. We want to connect them to place. We have a lot of programs that bring the people in. Both our guests as well as our community. Some of the programs that we would do for hotel guests, to connect them to the greening that goes on at the inn, as we have a naturalist from the Cape Elizabeth land trust, that does ecology beach walks for our guests.
They take guests down to the beach and they talk about the importance of the sand dunes. They talk about endangered species, like the piping plovers. It really connects them to that Maine experience and gives them the feel of this wonderful, natural environment they’re in. We have something that Derrick will talk about, when he’s here to talk to you, our head gardener, who’s wonderful. Derrick Daily, he does something called The Bug’s Life program. This was going to be a program that we did for one summer and it’s just taken off and it really connects people to all the green design features that we have at the inn, when something like a writer comes in to write about it.
It humanizes it. It connects people. It makes them care. It’s a program for kids, where they create their own bug costumes and then they learn about Eco systems and predator and prey. They learn about the migration roots of the Monarch Butterfly. They look at the larvae, the in growing on milkweed. They go and pick blue berries. It connects them to the environment and they learn a lot about Eco systems. That’s another terrific program. Then on Tuesday evening, we do something called a Taste of Maine. We invite vendors to come in and talk to guests about what it’s like to do business in Maine. We’ve had lobster fishermen come in and have sampling of lobster. We have somebody like Cold River Vodka come in and we have tasting of vodka. Then they can tell us how they turn Maine potatoes into a wonderful vodka.
It really connects our guests, again to people, but also to place. Then one of the programs that we did years ago, that has just been an ongoing program for us, that really is the perfect sustainability program, in that it helps preserve and protect a traditional Maine industry and the resources for future generations, while using the resources now. We were on the steering committee for the Gulf of Maine researches out of the Blue program. That was one of the most amazing experience that I’ve ever had. There were three chefs. I don’t know why I was there, but anyway I was there. We had the Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s research. We had Maine fisherman there telling us what was abundant and what was available in quantity. Then we had the chefs there, saying what it was that they’d like for seafood on their menus.
The concept behind this was that, with haddock fisheries being closed. Now open again, but cod fisheries being closed. Maine shrimp fisheries being closed. The fishermen with the management that was going on in the Gulf of Maine were really being sKewezed. It was really about how can we start expanding markets for fisherman, by introducing under loved, under appreciated, lesser known seafood to people. Since seventy percent of the seafood that’s consumed in the United States is actually consumed in restaurants. Chefs have an enormous part to play in introducing people to fish that are abundant, but under loved, or lesser known.
For the next about four or five years, we only served lobster and then what we were calling under utilized, but the lesser known seafood in Sea Glass. The way we came up with the five species that we served, was the fishermen would say, “These fish are abundant.” The chefs would say, “I don’t want to serve that. That’s not delectable.” The chefs would say, “What about this seafood. We really want to serve that.” The Gulf of Maine, research would look it up and say, “It’s being taken out at ninety percent at what’s allowed. We can’t expand markets for the fishermen.” Then the chefs would come up with another fish. The fishermen would say …
The fishermen were so knowledgeable about the environmental concerns, it was amazing. They’d say, “That fish actually has a thirty year life span. If we over fish it, it will never come back. That fish is so far out, it would cost us too much money to bring it in, or we have to de gill it and ice it and brine it, in order for you to use it, so we can’t.” We kept going back and forth, until we came up with the five species that were being brought in at maybe less than ten percent of what was allowed, so the markets could expand, that the chefs deemed delectable and that the fishermen said were abundant and could bring them in.
That was a great project. We’ve been very proud to be part of that and that’s part of our restaurant program. We of course work with local chefs, I mean with local farms and producers as much as we can. Actually have something right now that I’m crazy about. It’s teenie greenies. Do you know about teenie greenies?
Dr. Belisle: I do not know about teenie greenies.
Rauni Kew: Teenie greenies are amazing. These are challenged adults. They have green houses in Saco Maine and they create miniature farms. They’re about this big that come in and they’re micro greens. There are all kinds of micro greens. A million different flavors of micro greens. Every week they deliver these little tiny farms to the chefs at Sea Glass. All week long when they’re making salads, they pick micro greens. They couldn’t be fresher. They couldn’t be more local. These farmers are learning to farm sustainably and it gives them an economic path to independence. It’s just the most wonderful program, but it’s also a very delectable product. We love to be working with teenie greenies, they’re terrific. I recommend them to everybody.
Dr. Belisle: I’ll have to check them out.
Rauni Kew: Yeah absolutely.
Dr. Belisle: What are the five species of fish that you’re currently working with?
Rauni Kew: Mackerel, Silver Hanker Whiting, Pollock, Dogfish. Was that five? I think so.
Dr. Belisle: It might have been four, but we’ll let you stop there.
Rauni Kew: That’s great. Oh Red fish.
Dr. Belisle: Having as a vegetarian / pescatarian, I’ve eaten a lot of fish. I know the fish have very specific tastes to them. When you say that your chefs say these are delectable, what is it about them?
Rauni Kew: The Silver Hanker Whiting would be a flaky white fish that people could … Pollock is a flaky white fish too. For people who are used to eating Haddock or Cod, that wouldn’t be a problem. Red fish and Dogfish are definitely not as flaky. They’re denser. They have stronger flavors. Mackerel definitely has it’s own flavor. The Mackerel we usually served smoked. We would do amuses with them and mix them with other things, so that people would enjoy them and be interested in going further with that. I know that with the Dogfish we did a lot of Dogfish stew, that kind of thing. Getting it a lot of sauces and a different kind of taste. Trying to work with the fish that we had, the seafood that we had. That’s a great program.
Dr. Belisle: How are people responding to that?
Rauni Kew: People have really responded. We are no longer doing this, but for several years working with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, they were the spearhead of this program. They brought over information cards with pictures of the fish and you could get more information on the GMR website. We would talk to our service so that they knew. We would have ten day promotions, five times a year, really marketing these fish. You’d have the story on the fish. You’d have the story on the fishermen. When a guest, as you know sitting at Sea Glass restaurant. Looking out over the Atlantic and you can see the lobster boats bobbing on the horizon right there. When you explain to a guest why we weren’t serving Haddock or Cod, or something that they actually had requested. This is why we were serving this.
The chef used to come out if we had someone who was pushing back and he’d say, “Try it. If you don’t like it, I’m not going to charge you for your meal.” Of course they would eat it and it would be wonderful. They were always happy. In fact, when you told them the story about what it was that we were trying to accomplish and that it was actually a program that not only helped the bio mass of fish that were in decline. I’m not going to say over fish, because we’re never quite sure why. Why fish are in certain species, the bio mass goes down. Not only help the bio mass for certain fisheries, but also help sustainability for the Maine fishing industry and trying to expand markets for local fishermen.
They were thrilled to get onboard. It actually made their meal much more interesting and I think probably tasted better, because people just love to give back to the region that they visit. Another program that we have, that I think is terrific and really is almost a year long program. It’s really about the community support piece. It’s about the education piece. One of the things that Elkington did say in his People, Planet, Profit, was that it was a responsibility also to educate people on sustainability. The people that I think do that really well. He didn’t say People, Planet, Profit inspire, which is too bad, but our natural parks department did. They say preserve, protect and inspire. They are certainly sustainable in that they are preserving natural spaces for future generation, while allowing people to use them now.
The inspiration piece, I think is really important. That’s why we try and connect people to things like the beach ecology walks. We do a school program that I love. All through the month of December, anyone who comes to the Inn and makes a reservation. For every reservation made, we buy a school book for one of seven schools in south Portland off the reading list, of the local school librarians. We actually don’t buy the books, they do, because we wouldn’t want to guess what it is that they need. They all have wish lists for books that they need. They’re usually just reading books that they don’t have a budge for. This is a terrific program. Guests love it when they hear about this. Guests often will just give us a check to buy more books, because they love doing that.
The same kids in the school systems also help us with the Giving Tree. We have a Giving Tree in the lounge over the holidays. It has hand made ornaments from these students. The guests will exchange an ornament and bring back warm clothes for the food banks. We work with Project Grace on this. Project Grace distributes the warm cloths. We get stacks of warm clothes and hats and mittens and scarfs and wonderful things, to our local food banks all winter long. Then those students that help with the ornaments come back in January and we talk to them. I love this when we do this. We talk to them about thinking about a different business model. They’re usually fourth or fifth grade students.
They’ve all had business practice, in that they’ve sold a lot of painted rocks, or lemonade stands. Painted rocks are actually very big. We talk to them about, thinking about not just the profit that you get, but also doing something for the community and thinking about the environment. They’re very in tune with the environment and they have lots of great ideas. We show them that by creating these ornaments and by distributing this to the food bank, they’ve also helped their community. That’s one pillar of this. Then by helping us do this program, they’ve helped us with the profit piece, because it’s all part of being at the Inn by the Sea. Then they come back on Earth Day, or around Earth Day and we do a big beach clean up. That’s the Planet piece.
We move onto another class the next year. It’s a terrific program that involves the community in so many ways, but it also allows our guests to give back to the community that they love to visit in two ways. Either with a book purchase, or with purchasing warm clothes for less fortunate neighbors. I love that program. That’s a terrific program.
Dr. Belisle: One of the things that I love about Inn by the Sea and Sea Glass is that, there is a vegetarian option and I think also vegan.
Rauni Kew: There is, yeah.
Dr. Belisle: That for me is a big deal, because I eat more plant based meals and there are a lot of patients that I have, who I’m trying to encourage in a more plant based fashion. Sometimes it’s hard, because when you go out, there aren’t always other things to have. I really appreciate that about the Inn by the Sea and about Sea Glass and also your lounge area.
Rauni Kew: Good, I’m so glad. I think that is getting to be even stronger. Things are now marked. Gluten free, vegan, vegetarian. It’s getting more and more complicated to design a menu, but very important because so many people are into wellness and really appreciate doing this. We have a program that’s probably new, since you were last at the inn. I don’t know, one of the other connectors for being a green hotel, is that we also have a collaboration with the Animal Refuge League of greater Portland. We have a foster dog on site all the time. Sometimes they have their little vests that say adopt me, and sometimes they don’t. We take them off, because they look hot sometimes. Guests will come to the inn and they’ve left their dog at home, or they’re traveling without their dog, or they no longer have a dog. They enjoy walking the dog and we love feed and house these foster dogs. Then guests fall in love over the weekend and adopt them and take them home.
We’ve been doing this now for a little over a year. In the calendar year we had forty-six dogs adopted from the inn. Again it connects people to community, but it also is a great Segway into why do you do this? Well because we’re a green hotel. This is a community collaboration. It gets that conversation started on all the good things that we’ve got going on.
Dr. Belisle: I haven’t see the foster dog program. Makes me thing I need to go back and actually see what’s going on there. I do know that you are a pet friendly hotel and that’s one of the things that’s quite visible whenever we go to visit. There’s very happy looking dogs that are sitting at their owner’s feet, or taking walks on the property, or going to the beach.
Rauni Kew: This was and exactly, the inn has been dog friendly for twenty years, so it was a very natural transition to actually try and help the dog community, as well collaborate with somebody in our … We already had the infrastructure in place to be dog friendly, so that’s great. We have another pet that is another community collaboration. Not really a pet, because he’s in the wild and he’s free, but the rabita. That was another great and that would be part of the planet piece. The state park had become completely infested in front of the inn and adjacent to the inn. Many acres had been completely taken over by bamboo and bitter sweet. It was a sanctuary, a wild life sanctuary that really had no wild life in it anymore, because of this dense bamboo that had taken over.
In a very unusual I think collaboration, public, private collaboration, we’ve worked with the Department of Conservation. We took over the really running that piece of land for five years. We spent literally hundreds of thousands of dollars, ripping out the bamboo and the bittersweet and then replanting with the perfect habit for New England cottontails. They woods off to the right run Crescent Beach State Park. Rachel Carson people, Fish and Wildlife people did a study a few years ago, picked up scat and discovered that we had sixty nine New England cottontails and they’re severely endangered. They think they’re only about four hundred and fifty, five hundred in Maine. A lot of them there. We’ve planted with the perfect habitat for New England cottontails and we hope they’ll thrive and do well.
We go rabbit tracking every winter with the Department of Conservation. Derrick and I, so it’s fun. I think the numbers are up, so it’s great.
Dr. Belisle: I was part of the Maine magazine 48 Hours, when we went to Cape Elizabeth. I stayed at Inn by the Sea. This was a few years ago now. In addition to all of the wonderful things you’re describing that are very planet and profit and people oriented in a bigger sense. You also have very comfortable place to be and a very wonderful place. I really enjoyed getting up and going running in the morning. Going up towards the light house. Going down to the beach. It’s a really special place that you have available for people and not only from out of the state, but within the state of Maine.
Rauni Kew: It is a wonderful place. Being on Crescent Beach. The beach is just wonderful. It’s an unspoiled beach. It’s just gorgeous and wonderful bird watching at Kettle Cove in the morning. The inn actually has fourteen JJ Autobahn engravings that are on the third and the fourth floor of the fourteen birds that you’re most likely see. If guests want to get up and walk Great Pond early, or go to Kettle Cove. They can take a look at the Autobahn to see what they should be looking for. It’s a fabulous location as you say and wonderful spa, which is silver lead certified.
Dr. Belisle: That’s true, I’ve been there too.
Rauni Kew: Sense of place treatments. Our favorite being the sea waves massage, which is done on an undulating bed with massage strokes that undulate with the ebb and flow of the ocean and marine based product and surf surround sound. You really get that Maine coast feeling when you’re in the spa as well. Lots of Maine mud and sea salt kinds of treatments.
Dr. Belisle: I’m planning to go back again there very soon, because I feel like there’s some things I’ve been missing. Now I need to catch up. We’ve been speaking with Rauni Kew, who manages public relations in green programs for Maine’s luxurious Inn by the Sea and clearly has done a lot of thinking and a lot of acting in the sustainability movement within tourism and hospitality. I appreciate all the work that you’re doing and your thoughtfulness and your willingness to come in and talk with us today.
Rauni Kew: Thank you Lisa it’s been great to be here.