The Latornell Steering Committee (SC) is doing its part to reduce our carbon footprint and combat climate change in organizing your annual Symposium:
These efforts, and more, are helping:
Travel and carpooling information is gathered from Latornell conference attendees annually through the registration process. Identifying form of travel and number of kilometers travelled to reach the conference, allows the Steering Committee to calculate the carbon dioxide emitted through delegate travel to and from the symposium.
Approximately 128 tonnes of carbon dioxide is emitted annually through travel to and from the symposium. For several years, in partnership with the Nottawasaga Foundation and the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority, the Symposium has accepted carbon responsibility by planting over 4,000 trees annually. These trees will absorb the 128 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 10 years time from planting. The carbon absorption of these trees for the 70+ years of their lives after that is an added bonus to the planet.
In 2009, the Symposium proudly added a new partner to our carbon offsetting program – Trees Ontario. Trees Ontario, working with its partners, is the largest, not-for-profit tree planting partnership in North America. It is committed to the re-greening of Ontario through a range of tree planting programs.
Together with the Nottawasaga Foundation, the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority and Trees Ontario, the Symposium will continue to combat climate change and help improve conditions in the Nottawasaga River watershed through our on-going tree planting efforts.
The Latornell Conservation Symposium encourages an approach whereby carbon emissions are saved, or at least significantly reduced, where possible and only offset when and where they cannot be saved. We strongly encourage conference attendees to carpool and to use the CARPOOLING internet site link to work towards reducing the carbon footprint of this conference. Through this approach, each of us as individuals and collectively can accept carbon responsibility and therefore affect positive change in carbon emission in our atmosphere.
Visit the CARPOOLING sign up board.
The Latornell Conservation Symposium will be powered by 100% clean, renewable energy through Bullfrog Power.
Bullfrog sources power exclusively from generators who meet or exceed the federal government's Environmental Choice Program EcoLogo standard for renewable electricity. It comes from clean, emission-free sources like wind power and low-impact water power instead of carbon-intensive sources like coal and oil. The current electricity mix supplied by Bullfrog is comprised of 20% wind power and 80% low-impact hydroelectric power.
Wind power is among the cleanest sources of energy available, producing no emissions that contribute to air pollution or greenhouse gases. EcoLogo-certified low-impact water power must meet a range of environmental criteria including the protection of indigenous species and local habitat, and measures to minimize fish mortality and to preserve fish migration patterns.
By using Bullfrog Power, the Symposium is supporting clean, renewable electricity producers who are displacing polluting and carbon-intensive electricity production on the grid. Bullfrog is committed to increasing the amount of green power on our regional electricity grid systems in Canada by helping to develop new renewable generation facilities. Several new turbines have been commissioned in Canada to meet the needs of bullfrogpowered homes, businesses and events.
By making the choice to use Bullfrog Power, the Latornell Symposium is not only helping fight climate change, but also helping to advance the development of renewable power in Ontario.
Check out www.bullfrogpower.com to find out more about how you can help fight climate change and create a healthier environment for future generations.
In keeping with our green philosophy we have been working with the Nottawasaga Inn, our venue, to promote local food sources. The Nottawasaga Inn has been extremely helpful and has worked hard with us to ensure that many of the menu items included are locally grown produce & farm raised products. We are happy to be able to say that the A.D. Latornell Conservation Symposium Committee and the Inn will continue to provide our traditionally plentiful and varied menus, while at the same time supporting local growers and reducing our impact on the environment.
Today’s Nottawasaga Inn Resort is situated on land originally used to produce the first nursery grown sod in Ontario. It was purchased by Lou Biffis in 1959 and, from the very first, Lou dreamed of building a resort that would take advantage of the river location and the beautiful rolling hills of the Nottawasaga Valley.
Along with 40 years of family tradition of great hospitality and service comes the appreciation for environmental conservation. The foundation of the resort’s water conservation is it’s own water treatment, distribution and sewage treatment facility. Not only conserving the amount of water used, but the way in which the water is used. Nottawasaga Resort is only one of two or three in the province who have a permit and are using effluent water for golf course watering. This method preserves water & energy and reduces the amount of phosphorous fertilizers added to the grounds by reusing non-potable water for the lawn irrigation.
The Nottawasaga Resort looks to conserve for the future in all aspects of the resort and surrounding residential homes of Briar Hill. Low-flush toilets, energy-efficient bulbs and occupancy sensors are standard as is recycling of all plastics, glass, cardboard and even taking kitchen waste off-site to be converted into secondary fuels. The new Centre Ice twin pad arena has set a new benchmark for not only arena design but ultimate energy conservation. Centre Ice insulates the ceiling with R-60 and R-30 for the walls, resulting in significant energy savings where R-20 and R-12 are the typical standard. Reclaimed heat from the ice compressors is used to pre-heat water. High efficiency gas boilers, including in-floor heating, consumes less equalling a “greener” Nottawasaga Resort.
Always looking to source suppliers locally, the resort made the decision to relocate 1500 local trees, instead of importing from outside the province, as is the norm, to replant on the grounds of the golf course and resort. With environmental awareness in the forefront of their minds, Nottawasaga Inn Resort continues to seek new ways to contribute to the conservation of our environment and continues to ask the question “what else can we do?”
The resort is very pleased to be recognized and acknowledged with a 4 star Green Key rating. This rating officially recognizes our continuous commitment of environmental responsibility and sustainability that we have been practicing, in various ways, since the resort's inception. We are proud of promoting and adapting green initiatives while accommodating the evolving needs of our guests to ensure a comfortable, successful and responsible stay at our resort.
