How Eco-Conscious Hospitality is Good for the Guest and Good for Business

Episode Transcript

Michael Kennedy: One thing that really pops out is our ‘Adopt a Nest’ program. On our beaches, we have up to 120 turtles. We give everyone an opportunity to adopt a nest at different financial levels. One-hundred percent of those proceeds go to the non-gain division of the Department of Natural Resources, in which they can fund a genetic study to help with the sea turtles, and that reinvestment actually has benefited the survival rate. So, it’s not all about the financial side, but I think it all lives together.

Robin Trimingham: Welcome to the Innovative Hotelier podcast by HOTELS magazine, with weekly, thought-provoking discussions with the world’s leading hotel and hospitality innovators.

Robin Trimingham: Welcome to the Innovative Hotelier, brought to you by HOTELS magazine. I’m your host, Robin Trimingham. Sea Island, a luxury resort located on the southern east coast of Georgia, is renowned for its stunning natural beauty, so it’s not surprising that it’s also become known for its commitment to environmental sustainability and has developed a wide range of eco-tourism initiatives and activities, which provide guests with an authentic and immersive experience. My guest today, Michael Kennedy, is director of recreation and resort logistics at Sea Island, and he’s here today to discuss the many benefits of designing and implementing a comprehensive eco-tourism program. Join me now for my conversation with Michael.

Robin Trimingham: FOH is a global food service and hospitality company that manufactures smart commercial-grade solutions. Headquartered in Miami, the company designs and manufactures all their restaurant and hotel products. They have showrooms and distribution centers located throughout the globe, and their products are always in stock and ready to ship from any of their distribution centers worldwide.

Robin Trimingham: Welcome, Michael. It’s great to get a chance to chat with you.

Michael Kennedy: Well, thank you for having me on, Robin. I’m excited.

Robin Trimingham: I’m actually really excited, too. I was really fascinated to read about Sea Island and all the different kind of eco experiences that you guys have implemented because I’ll be honest with you, I’m not from the Georgia area, so I really wasn’t familiar with your resort, but I was really impressed. Talk to us a little bit about the very diverse ecosystem that you have and the various types of terrain, because I think that’ll help our listeners wrap their minds around some of the rest of what we’re going to chat about.

Michael Kennedy: Yeah, sure. So, we are an island located right in the middle of our 100-mile coastline, the Atlantic Ocean to our east, and we’re the westernmost point on the east coast, due north being Cleveland, Ohio. So let that sink in for a second because that’s a hard one to understand.

Robin Trimingham: Yeah. Westernmost point on the East Coast. Okay. I think you better explain that.

Michael Kennedy: So we’re tucked back into the Atlantic Bight, but it’s called the bottom of that cup, and that makes our Gulf Stream waters 80 miles offshore, which provides a really shallow coastline off of our beaches for us, which is pretty unique to the east coast. To the west is our saltwater estuaries. We have more saltwater marsh than anywhere in the country, a third of the entire nation’s, actually. And the island itself is four miles long, and it consists of beach and dunes and a maritime forest, which is just basically hardwoods built up over old sand dunes from thousands of years ago. With that, the elevation, the highest elevation is only ten feet, and we’re narrow at certain areas. But with that, the water that surrounds us is so nutrient-rich from all that broken down grass, and it really provides one of the nurseries for the Atlantic Ocean, providing a home for numerous species. So it’s a very unique place. I’ve been lucky enough to travel a lot up and down the coast, and truly this is a very unique area and we’re lucky to provide customized experiences in this pristine environment. And we’re surrounded by state and federal parks that mostly are only accessible by boat. So if you don’t know us or this area, you really don’t know the Georgia coast.

Robin Trimingham: I imagine that’s entirely true, because when you’re not from the Georgia area, you hear the Georgia and you think peach trees. Forgive me for pointing it that way. I mean, I’ve been to Atlanta like lots of people have, but this is fascinating to hear how completely different your ecosystem really is from what people would expect. So, I think you’re the perfect guy to ask my next question. So, there’s a lot of hotels out there who have been paying lip service to the idea that they’re getting involved in local conservation initiatives in place of really being at the forefront of real conservation programs. Why, in your opinion, are they making a mistake? And what’s a better way to think about all of this?

Michael Kennedy: Well, I can speak for us. We’re lucky enough to be situated in a place where conservation initiatives have taken place for over 100 years, and we’re just a steward to that. To our north is the only Undammed River on the east coast. The Altamaha River and the island to the north is a natural island that had never been harvested, and it’s a unique, pristine environment and our job is always to continue what has been. And we look at our role as more of an educator, and we share our thoughts and examples of how we can coexist in nature. We’re able to provide guides and naturalists with thousands of people a month. And what I’m seeing is the importance of this trickle effect out into the world of conservation, with these individuals taking home the lessons learned here all over the world and it’s really exciting. There’s so much in terms of learning that ties in the bigger picture from we have Willie birds that migrate through that land in the saltmarsh that that eat little crabs that are on their way to the northern plains, and you know how to tie it all in together on a bigger picture to taking kids fishing and teaching them the importance of sustainable fishing, right? And they’re catching that first fish and they’re learning from us for the first time, and hopefully they carry that on for a lifetime. So, we’re continually looking for opportunities and I’m sure we’ll get into the loggerhead sea turtle a little bit later. But, through teaching, we hope to create a sense of responsibility that returns home with our guests and it’s just a way of life for us to constantly seek out those opportunities.

Robin Trimingham: I love how you talk about being stewards of the environment, the property on which you sit. I think that’s a fantastic way, really, for a hotelier anyway, to be thinking about their role in their community, because for a while, I guess people in general have just been on the mission of concreting up the world. And I really do think it’s time for us to all turn around and take a look at what’s really around us, and how do we sustain that? How do we enrich that? I understand Sea Islands partnered with a number of local conservation organizations that you alluded to, some of them have been around forever. How does the hotel, the property Sea Island, benefit from these partnerships?

Michael Kennedy: Well, our educational piece, for sure, a lot of the contents that we get are through those organizations as we’re always looking for opportunities to help. It’s our obligation, right? It’s our culture. It’s what the Sea Island Company was built on. One example is the local land trust that’s involved in buying property on the surrounding islands to preserve the land, right, and not build on it. One of the bigger ones, our Department of Natural Resources, non-game division, that that kind of oversees the migratory birds, the birds, the whales, the turtles through different programs, we support them that ultimately fund a University of Georgia sea turtle research program. The loggerhead sea turtle is on the endangered species list, and with that genetic study, they’ve able to increase the numbers and hopefully soon come off the endangered species list. So, we were a part of that in helping. We do shorebird counts as well for local organizations and butterfly research actually for migratory butterflies, and we want to be part of the answer and part of helping these organizations. So, it is very beneficial for us to do so to walk side by side with them.

Robin Trimingham: Talk to me a little more. Let’s use your loggerhead sea turtle as an example. How does the hotel participate or how does work into a guest experience? How does it work where you guys are?

Michael Kennedy: It’s intertwined in our whole season, so I guess I’ll just frame what they are first, right? So, there are sea turtles that actually nest on our beaches. We will see. And they’re on the endangered species list for various reasons. But their numbers are increasing, which is great. So as part of a DNR obligation of being on the island, we do our morning research and genetic studies. So, we do nest inventories on the nests. But before I get into that, this sea turtle that comes up on our beach is a female and it with its she’ll dig a hole and lay up to 120 eggs in that hole. That egg will hatch, and they will come out of the sand and run to the beach and run across the beach into the water. They will swim for two days nonstop to the Gulf Stream that I mentioned earlier that’s 80 miles offshore. That turtle will live in that Gulf Stream that takes it all the way up to the northeast, kicks it over towards Africa, and it’s just a big circle of current for the first five years of its life. They will then come in and start re-establishing their adult life, and the males will always stay offshore, they’ll never come in, only the females will come in. And that same turtle that hatched on our beach will come back. They think anywhere from 30 to 36 years later to nest on the same beach.

Michael Kennedy: So, it’s an incredible story. We’ve had to learn to coexist with that. We’re running a beach operation and a beach club too, and we’ll have up to a thousand chairs on the beach with umbrellas and tables and up until this year, every single seven days a week during the season, we would remove every chair, umbrella and table off the beach and set it up again in the morning so that turtle can have a pristine beach with no hazards to nest in. So, that’s one way as we kind of work together, but it was such an interesting topic that we started offering to our guests: to come along on the morning inventory of nests. So, that’s our early morning encounter. And then, on top of that, we ended up in the evening doing a night turtle walk where we walked on the beach with red lights. And you’ll see sometimes hatchlings early in the season, you’ll see the females coming up and laying their eggs, and you’re getting the full educational piece around that sea turtle. And it’s just been a highlight. And then we also have an ‘Adopt a Nest’ program that helps fund the studies that I mentioned as well. So, again, we’re always looking to improve and always looking to expand and help our scope in matters like that.

Robin Trimingham: So, I love a story like that because what a unique set of opportunities for a guest who’s visiting your property. Let’s change the subject for a couple of minutes here. I also understand you guys have an enormous golf program. Do you have any activities or ways that a non-golfer can also take advantage of all of your golf courses?

Michael Kennedy: Sure. Our lodge is located right on the corner of the sound in the ocean, actually right where sunset is. So, we have a putting green called Speedway that is basically just a simple way at sunset to go out and enjoy the evening and . During that time, the bagpiper is out walking with the sun setting, you’re looking out at the ocean, you’re watching dolphins. It’s a bit overwhelming. There’s so much awesome going on, it’s hard to focus on one. Also, Colton and Alison, the restaurant, the views all incorporate what I’ve mentioned, too, but one thing I do want to note in terms of the golf courses, it’s our golf courses. And really everything here was built into the beauty of the island and coexist with what’s around naturally. So one course, for example, is built into our marsh, and it’s an incredible walk. So even just walking the course in the evening is a great way to see sea habitat. And then the other course is through the maritime forest, through live oaks. So, you’ll see that, wherever you are, there’s something to do and look at other than what you may be there for as involved.

Robin Trimingham: Established in 2002, FOH is a woman-owned, global food service and hospitality company that manufactures smart, savvy, commercial-grade products, including plateware, drinkware, flatware, hotel amenities and more. Driven by innovation, FOH is dedicated to delivering that wow experience that restaurants and hotels crave, all while maintaining a competitive price. All products are fully customizable, and many are also created using sustainable, eco-friendly materials such as straws and plates made from biodegradable paper and wood and PVC free drinkware. FOH has two established brands: Front of the House, focused on tabletop and buffet solutions, and Room 360, which offers hotel products. Check out their collections today at fohworldwide.com

Robin Trimingham: I love that a great big golf course going up the side of the mountain, one of the things that they were famous for, and still are, actually, was that they take people out in the golf carts to go bear watching. So, they had black bears and mama bears who would bring their cubs out onto the green in the early morning, and the cubs would be playing with the flags and the pole. If you’re not a golfer, you might not know this, but the pole is actually usually quite flexible and here are these little baby black bears rolling around on the green, playing with the flagpole.

Michael Kennedy: That’s incredible.

Robin Trimingham: Yeah, it’s just amazing what kind of unique opportunities you can come up with that respect and promote the environment and include all of your guests. I know that all around the world, ESG initiatives are becoming more and more important, and hoteliers everywhere are keenly interested in thinking of new ways that they can introduce sustainability initiatives. Can you talk to us a little bit about what you’re doing at Sea Island?

Michael Kennedy: We’re always looking and finding, trying to find better ways of doing, but recently, with the help of quite a few, we’ve expanded what we call ‘Sea Island Cares’, which is this community umbrella to include items on the social side, environmental side, everything. And so, all nonprofits and volunteer groups, for example, in our community — which there’s hundreds — have access to get in contact with us and ask for assistance. So, whether it be beach and marsh cleanups, whether it be feeding people in need, it’s such a wide range of things that we’re doing on that side. One thing that’s pretty interesting, too, on the social side, is that we have something called a ‘Quarter Century Club’, and part of all of this is looking after people from guests and colleagues, right? And creating a generational workplace that shares the culture that kind of we’ve talked about. And what’s incredible is we have close to 12 team members, I would say, every year celebrating their 25th year. And, personally, I attend children of team members working for us now, too. So, as they branch out into the community too, we’re trying to pull it all back in together under the Sea Island Cares initiative to really get out and look at how we can help the community.

Robin Trimingham: Well, that’s certainly a unique approach to recruiting and job retention. Yeah, bring us your children, I love that. I think actually that’s the first time I’ve heard that one. So, a lot of our listeners, including some who are actually from fairly big brands, might very well be sitting there saying, “yeah, well, there’s really only so much we can do to reduce our environmental impact”. Do you agree with that perspective? And what makes you say whatever your answer is?

Michael Kennedy: Well, I think maybe there is only so much you can do. But the question I ask myself is: am I doing everything I can?

Robin Trimingham: Yeah.

Michael Kennedy: And it’s funny because that is an ever-evolving task, and it really almost takes daily focus and that search of opportunities. And so, use the example for on the beach with the thousand chairs, 500 umbrellas and tables. It would be a lot easier to leave everything out there, for sure. It’s a financial impact to remove everything and it’s a toll, but it was the right thing to do, right? So, we did it. That being said, I think there’s opportunities everywhere for and how you can really grab a hold of them and make it your own, I think is the challenge. Instead of saying, “I just can’t work”, we’re lucky here: our play, our playground, our playing field it’s what surrounds us and for us, we have to take care of that or else we don’t have it. We don’t have a once in a lifetime opportunity to share with people, and we all want it better future for our kids. And that’s what drives myself and our team into looking at better ways to do things.

Robin Trimingham: Talk to me a little bit about how a marketing campaign that promotes environmental awareness and conservation positively impacts revenue at Sea Island, because revenue is the big word for hoteliers, as you know.

Michael Kennedy: Sure. I’ve been lucky enough over the years — I’ve been here 23 years — so we’ve always promoted something. But I think one thing that really pops out is our ‘Adopt a Nest’ program. So, on our beaches we have up to 120 turtles. We give everyone an opportunity to adopt a nest at different financial levels. You’ll get a frame, our naturalist will communicate with you and give you updates about the nest and so you’re engaged in that 100% of those proceeds. 100% go to the non-gain division Department of Natural Resources, in which they can fund, like I mentioned before, a genetic study to help with the sea turtles and that reinvestment actually has benefited the survival rate. We’re guests and members were drawn to it and are involved personally with that. And soon we hope that they’ll come off the endangered species list. So, with that program, obviously it drove up our participation in our evening turtle walks and our sea turtle encounters and everything that pertains to it. So, it’s not all about the financial side, but I think it all lives together if that makes sense.

Robin Trimingham: Yeah, I do, I love that it’s an all-encompassing project. Just about every hotelier that I’ve talked to had something to say regarding how the pandemic or after the pandemic has impacted their business and their operations. Can you give us some insights regarding how the importance of promoting sustainability and the natural environment has been impacted since the pandemic?

Michael Kennedy: Yes. So that’s a great question. What we found were people wanted to be outdoors and we were already set up for that. We were preparing well before Covid for what we were about to see, and the net effect was just an explosion in terms of participation in all of our programs and specifically the cottages. So, our Four Mile Island, we have homes for multigenerational families to rent and spend time and during the pandemic, we had these families spending quite a bit of time with us, which opened up a wider island in nature, experience and opportunity. We have the ability to offer a choice, whether it’s staying on the marsh and river or the beachside, and it’s only a minute walk to get to one side or the other. We also have the ability to customize each experience, whether it be a child on a beach walk to a grandfather on a dolphin tour. Each trip sparked an interest that led to another that led to another. So no path was the same and by offering all these hundreds of different types of opportunities, it really benefited us tremendously with these extended stays and different age groups so everyone could find their own path. And it’s not just the ocean and river, but it’s the maritime forest, it’s the eagle’s nests on the island, the birding tours, the flora and fauna, our falconry program, there’s so much to do that everybody took their own path and it was fun to watch. It definitely increased our participation tremendously.

Robin Trimingham: Well, I have to say, you’re definitely the first hotelier that I’ve talked to with a falconry program. I think that’s amazing. You talked about how your strategy at Sea Island had impacted employee retention. How is it impacting guest loyalty? Do you have a lot of repeat visitors because of the way that you do things?

Michael Kennedy: We do. I use our guide. Our nests are, whether they’re a kayak guide to a saltmarsh nature boat riding guide, they’re spending 2 to 8 hours with these families, and they’re sharing their passion for what they do, right? They’re not clocking in and clocking out. Everyone we have absolutely loves what they do and loves sharing. And with that, it’s just the natural platform to create a relationship and some lasting multigeneration. And it’s not just our guides. I’ll tell you a story. We had a front desk manager over here, a young child that was really excited about their beach horse ride, and she found out the name of the horse, and she ended up going out on her own and purchasing a stuffed horse animal to put in the child’s room to write a note from the horse. And that individual still comes back today with their own family and talks about it. Just one of many stories where we focus on genuine hospitality, building relationships and creating moments in nature that are lifetime memories shared with somebody. You’re drawn to that. And yeah, so our return business and clients have increased quite a bit.

Robin Trimingham: I think you’re very fortunate to be in that position because some other, what used to be family resorts, that’s fallen away, and you guys just seem to be like bigger and better if I’m allowed to put it that way. Do you foresee any emerging trends in eco experiences or opportunities as we start to head towards 2024?

Michael Kennedy: What’s different with us, I think, what makes the island special is we’re really not looking necessarily at, we are looking at what others are doing, but rather our programming is rooted in the necessity of what’s around us. So, we’re observers in a playing field that provides us a unique opportunity, really every hour of the day, with the tide going in and out with the weather patterns. And I think the opportunities for us are probably our vehicles to get out into this world. And one example, a few years back, we built a passenger yacht that holds 40 passengers, and it helped us provide an opportunity to experience our saltwater estuaries in a more formal setting. It has a top deck, and so, we’re always looking at ways to maybe improve and exceed the expectations from previous stays. And with that, what kind of vehicles are out there to get out and see it.

Robin Trimingham: That’s an interesting way to look at developing your, I’m going to call it product offering in a non-invasive sort of way. We have a couple of minutes left here. I’m going to ask you my favorite question I ask an awful lot of my guests. What’s your key message for everyone who comes across this video?

Michael Kennedy: I hope this inspires people to get out and enjoy their surroundings. I think wherever you are, there’s really something to see and gain and step back and look at that overall picture, just like the ‘will it hurt’ example that just may be here, but it’s headed up to Canada, right? And take a trip to Sea Island and see first-hand what we have to offer. It is unique, and like I said, we leverage what’s going on around us so you really can’t get it anywhere else. And then, on top of that, everything we’re talking about is surrounded by a five-star spa, hotel, world-class golf, tennis and dining. So, you truly have it all with us and come check us out would be my message.

Robin Trimingham: I love that you can mix luxury and wilderness so seamlessly in the products that you’re offering your guests. Michael, I want to thank you so much for your time today. It’s been a pleasure to chat with you. You’ve been watching The Innovative Hotelier. Join us again soon for more up-to-the-minute insights and information specifically for the hotel and hospitality industry.

Robin Trimingham: You’ve been listening to The Innovative Hotelier podcast by HOTELS magazine. Join us again soon for more conversations with hospitality industry-thought leaders.