Jun 20, 2009

Hotel shop offers environmental bentBy Brett FrenchBillingsGazette.net

Mammoth, Montana – Shoppers may be more educated when buying these days, but how many are enlightened in the same place that they ponder their purchase?

Offering interpretation along with an eco-friendly line of products, the gift shop at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, called For Future Generations, is merging education and commerce.

“This is pretty unprecedented,” said Beth Pratt, director of environmental affairs for Xanterra Parks and Resorts in Yellowstone. “We’re really using the products to educate people. Not everyone who comes here will take a class, but they will buy a memento.”

“The intention is that the first thing visitors will know is that this is a place to learn about climate change,” said Rick Hoeninghausen, director of marketing and sales for Xanterra in Yellowstone.

The gift shop and interpretative center is Pratt’s brainchild. Coming from a nonprofit background, she said, she has been pleasantly surprised in her first year with Xanterra about the company’s commitment to the project, as well as other environmental initiatives.

“Xanterra is really serious about this stuff,” she said.

Pratt said the goal of the shop is to connect park visitors to the threats that climate change and pollution pose to national parks, and the world, and the need to make sustainable consumer choices.

Still to be installed is a display explaining some of the effects climate change is having on the park, such as the loss of whitebark pine trees and a decline in amphibians. A computer kiosk will allow visitors to calculate their carbon footprint. Pratt said the displays should be installed by mid-July.

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