Resorts complete with golf courses, pools, and pavement do not typically hold a symbiotic relationship with nature. The majority of the greens are less-than-a-friend to Mother Nature because they require large supply of water to maintain their lifeline. Pools contribute chemicals to the environment, and the vast amounts of concrete add polluted runoff to nearby vegetation beds.

However, the Kiawah Island Golf Resort near Charleston, South Carolina is changing the negative impacts that resorts can have on the environment. Their initial environmental stewardship began before they laid the first matt of sod. While designing the resort, Kiawah and its master planners conducted an island survey of the native plants and animals, understanding the sensitivities of the habitat.

With that information in hand, they designed the resort to maintain and preserve as much of the island as they could, mitigate where needed, and prevent pollution. Current efforts include certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries throughout the resort, which require environmental management plans for preserving and conserving nature, landscaping with native plants to prevent nonnative take over and provide food resources for wildlife, serving sustainable menus using organic and locally grown foods, on-site recycling and environmental education programs for staff and resort guests.

To help in the eco-preservation efforts, every guest can choose to donate $2 to the island’s conservancy program to help maintain the resort for future weekend getaways. Here’s a fun factoid, because of the extensive preservation efforts, the Animal Planet television network has been known to film wildlife at the resort!

These current eco-efforts by the resort and the many other organizations and business throughout the world are absolutely beneficial and admirable. But, what is icing on the cake is what organizations and businesses like Kiawah Island are doing before the first back-hoe arrives on site: planning the construction with the environment in mind.

Considering the environment during the planning stages of a project provides the most flexibility for greening and preserving. It allows an entire building to be moved from an area where tree cutting is required, to a tree free corner of the island, for example. For resorts, saving nature means less landscaping and maintenance costs, and the chance to set your resort apart from others because you never know what beautiful bird may fly by, how can that be bad? Sounds like an excellent vacation; fabulous eco-resort and the chance to be on TV. Vacation doesn’t get better than that!