Under the ownership of the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund, Natural Bridge has adopted a comprehensive recycling program for the first time.
By Andy Soergel
At a site with as much history as 500-million-year-old Natural Bridge, it is practically guaranteed that anyone claiming to be the first to do something at the site simply has not done enough homework.
History’s roots run deep into the bridge’s bedrock. Thomas Jefferson was not even the first future United States President to visit the structure. That honor goes to George Washington.
But Environmental Programs Specialist Carly Pleines can safely claim a unique distinction. She is excited to head a first-of-its-kind program at Natural Bridge: A comprehensive recycling plan.
“You’d think this would have happened years ago,” Pleines said. “In April, we put bins in all of our hotel rooms and in our caverns building and in the gift shop. We’re implementing recycling into our bar and our restaurant, and I’m about to start working on a composting project for our restaurant as well.”
Pleines is employed by the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund to make Natural Bridge’s green space greener. VCLF is a subsidiary of Kissito Healthcare, a group that bought the Natural Bridge property from longtime owner Angelo Puglisi for more than $9 million earlier this year. The foundation will introduce a long list of eco-friendly changes at Natural Bridge, said Kissito CEO Tom Clarke.
“We would like people to think about the Natural Bridge as a model for conscious living,” Clarke said. “We want people to understand that there are consequences to excessive waste. There are consequences to things like not recycling. This is more than just a rock.”
“We can’t just be words,” Clarke said. “We have to be actions. What’s the cliché? ‘We have to walk the walk.’”
So Natural Bridge will seek the state’s “Virginia Green” designation.
The Virginia Green designation is granted to tourist attractions in the Commonwealth that pledge to adopt recycling and energy conservation plans.
Virginia Green is an effort by the Commonwealth to reduce environmental impacts of the tourism industry. Started in 2008, the state program grants special designation to restaurants, hotels, conference centers and other tourist destinations that pledge to reduce negative environmental impacts of tourism, like pollution and energy waste. It is jointly supervised by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia Tourism Corporation and Virginia Hospitality and Tourism Association.
Natural Bridge would join more than 1,400 Virginia destinations and attractions designated “Virginia Green,” according to the program’s annual newsletter. In 2011, the commonwealth launched an effort to make all state parks Virginia Green.
By May 2014, Virginia Green listed 17 of 36 Virginia state parks as green certified. Other certified destinations include Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Monticello in Charlottesville and the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle.
Clarke intends to turn most of the Natural Bridge property over to the commonwealth by the end of 2015, to become a state park. So the special green designation now would save work for state park officials later. Pleines said that would allow Natural Bridge to undergo a more fluid transition to the state.
Virginia State Parks Director Joe Elton said he is collaborating with Clarke and his conservation fund as new policies are adopted at Natural Bridge. He said communication now will prevent hassles later.
“We’ll be working with VCLF and the Natural Bridge Hotel and the Caverns,” said Elton. “Because of its location, because of its cultural significance, because of the trail network that’s supposed to be there, I think it will be very popular.”
Pleines said there are stages to green designation. She said Natural Bridge can now use the Virginia Green logo on its website as a marketing tool, thanks in large part to the newly-implemented recycling program. She said outlining recycling and energy-conservation plans is sufficient to receive the preliminary designation.
After renovations, staffers say, the Natural Bridge Hotel will fully adopt the property’s new recycling and energy policies.
Further approval will allow the property to be listed on Virginia Green databases.
“People can look it up online and say ‘I want to go to a green hotel or a green restaurant’ and all of the sites that meet that are listed,” she said. “It helps us reach the people who want to stay at a green hotel or visit a green attraction.”
The Nature Conservancy, an international conservation nonprofit, designated the area around Natural Bridge as a “highly resilient landscape” to the effects of climate change. But Clarke said he wants Natural Bridge to be a model for eco-friendly management.
“We want discussions about the environment. We need to talk about nature. We need to show how streams work,” he said.
“We’re not extremist and in-your-face, but I think the evidence has been pretty clear [for climate change]. Things are happening. Let’s look at the evidence. Let’s look at the facts. And if there’s things we can do to mitigate that or correct it, let’s show that.”
And although a Virginia Green designation would be helpful for marketing, Clarke said he is more focused on environmental integrity than generating tourism.
“It goes well beyond Virginia Green,” he said. “If we’re trying to live consciously and we’re trying to understand the environment we depend on for our survival, we have to do all these things. It’s awareness that we’re trying to create, and things are moving in that direction.