Adrena LINE Zipline Adventure Tours, who normally offers excitement to thrill-seeking customers, received a little thrill of their own last week when they were presented with the 2011 Tourism Vancouver Sustainability Award by Tourism Vancouver Island.
The award recognizes a tourism business that strives to reduce their environmental footprint, conserve natural resources, respect local cultures and benefit local communities.
“We’ve made a commitment as an organization to minimize our environmental impact,”said Jonathan Heerema, sales and marketing manager for Adrena LINE.
The company applied to Tourism Vancouver Island to be entered in the running, but Heerema said they started green initiatives started long before that. One of the bigger campaigns they organized was to eliminate all water bottles on site.
“We brought in water coolers, (and) we had them painted as tree trunks,” he said.
Other efforts they’ve made include installing energy-saving compact fluourscent light bulbs, purchasing recycled items like paper and containers, and using transportation that runs on bio diesel.
Being environmentally conscious was a “natural element” for the company that is situated in 100 acres of forest just behind the 17 Mile House Pub. Guests zipline —propel down a long cable attached by a harness up to hundreds of feet above ground — between trees reaching speeds up to 60 km/h.
Dave Petryk, president of Tourism Vancouver Island, said “Sooke should be extremely proud of them.”
One of the key things that made Adrena LINE stand out among the rest of the tourism businesses competing all over the Island from Port Hardy to Victoria was that it’s situated right in a natural environment, said Petryk.
“They use that to educate about the environment, (which is) very important.”
The awards were handed out at this year’s annual general meeting in Nanaimo.The AGM moves to a different host city every year that Petryk said is a boost for whatever community it’s in, since there are tourism delegates from all over who attend. Next year the AGM will be held at the Prestige in Sooke.
“We will start working with the community in the next few weeks (and) determine what venues we’ll use for the conference.”
