Beachmere Inn goes Green


The Beachmere Inn has been an independent, family owned and operated inn for the past 71 years. For the past 5 generations, my mother's family was born and raised in Maine, a state we take great pride in! You can't help but notice nature's beauty all around us, be it the pristine sandy coastline, the craggy shoreline or the forests and fields just a short distance inland. Our family is committed to do what we can to help preserve this beauty and our planet.
We hope that you, our guests & visitors, will help us in this effort.

In the past we have implemented energy and waste saving measures such as the use of compact fluorescent bulbs in all guest & public places. This alone makes for a substantial energy savings and reduction in our carbon footprint. For 2008 we plan to take this one BIG step further! To achieve our status of becoming a certified Environmental Leader in the State of Maine, we pledge to implement the following:

Energy Saving Measures
Solar Panels have been installed for Thermal Hot water for over 32 rooms as well as in our employee housing building.
Solar Photovoltaic Panels have been installed for production of 5 - 8% of our energy needs.

As of Aug 4 over 2175KW has been produced a savings of 3698Lbs. of Co2


Compact Fluorescent bulbs will be in used in all lighting
Cold water laundry processes are being used to save electricity by eliminating the need to heat hot water for the laundry systems through Ozone technology.
Energy star appliances are chosen first for any appliance replacement
High efficiency heating & cooling units were installed in 2008 for Beachmere West
Additional insulation was installed in the exterior walls and ceiling for better building envelope efficiency in Beachmere West.
In 2007 we installed efficient, timed irrigation for the lawn and drip irrigation for our planting beds, in 2008 that effort has continued.
High efficiency Low E Eagle windows are installed in Beachmere West (2008) and were used for all the window & door replacement at Beachmere South (2008) and in the Victorian (2000 - on going).
Since 2000 we have been replacing old inefficient oil burners with Buderus boilers in the Victorian, South and West buildings.

Housekeeping Efforts
Only environmentally safe chemicals will be used for cleaning
New laundry Ozone technology is being used to enable us to wash in cold water and use less chemicals.
Bed linens and towels will be changed every other day, or upon your direction
We will purchase in bulk, eliminating pounds of plastic and cardboard from our purchases
Recycling bins are placed in all guest rooms and recycling centers are available around property to capture plastic, newspaper, cans and glass.
Sometime during 2008, guest rooms will have soap and shampoo dispensers installed to eliminate the small plastic bottles. Similar dispensers have been installed in all public bathrooms.

Administration Efforts
We will use recycled paper for all printing in house & by our outside printer
We will uses non sensitive papers for our scrap paper
Our photocopier machine is programmed for energy efficiency
We recycle our ink jet cartridges
Green Print program saver is used at our printing stations.