For The Ranch at Laguna Beach, hospitality and sustainability go hand in hand.
The resort’s chief operating officer, Kurt Bjorkman, has led environmentally focused initiatives at the 97-key resort over the past decade that hinge on accountability rather than monetization.
Bjorkman joined the team in 2010, shortly beforeThe Ranch was acquired by Laguna Beach locals including Mark Christy.
The site was originally a golf course in the 1950s before a hotel was added in 1963. Irvine’s Montage Hotels & Resorts had planned to redevelop the area as part of its luxury portfolio, but those ideas were shelved in 2008.
As part of its new ownership, The Ranch has worked to be at the forefront of sustainability efforts that have swept the hospitality industry in recent years.
Bjorkman sits on the advisory board of Beyond Green, an organization owned by Newport Beach’s Preferred Travel Group of the local Ueberroth family, that evaluates hotels based on more than 50 sustainability metrics.
The Ranch recently hosted the program’s representative this month for its week-long inspection, which happens every three years.
“We shouldn’t get a gold star for doing this, but the end goal is for everyone to do it,” Bjorkman told the Business Journal.
Glass Crusher
The Ranch was one of the first organizations to ban plastic straws in Orange County, thanks to a connection with the Surfriders nonprofit.
As a small, privately owned resort, there were no corporate hoops to jump through, Bjorkman said.
“We didn’t understand the impact we would have on the community yet,” he told the Business Journal.
The partnership with Surfriders helped illuminate the resort’s environmental responsibility as a coastal hotel sitting on 87 acres in the Aliso and Wood Canyons.
Bjorkman began to research further about sustainability in hospitality beyond replacing straws and banning plastic, and found an article about beach erosion in New Zealand.
Businesses in that area owned a glass erosion system that would take glass bottles and crush the vessels into sand that was used to replenish the beaches. Bjorkman reached out to the manufacturer, Expleco Limited, and was told the technology hadn’t reached the U.S. yet.
Two years later, Bjorkman got a call for The Ranch to be the first business in the U.S. to use the glass crushing program. The resort now creates 70 tons of sand per year that is used to fill its golf course bunkers.
“We’re taking the weight of glass out of the transportation stream and lessening the carbon footprint by using the sand in various places at the hotel,” Bjorkman said.
Farming
Another on-site project includes a half-acre farm that the resort established in 2015.
When The Ranch was first acquired, there was a 2.5-acre parcel of untouched land, which the ownership team learned was once the site of the first Girl Scouts camp in California.
The resort brought in biologists and other scientists to set up the farming area on a small portion of the land. It employs two full-time farmers and one part-time, with all vegetables going directly to the kitchen.
From the farm came The Ranch’s composting program as well. All wet food waste from the hotel restaurants is composted and then used for soil and fertilizer at the farm.
Last week, The Ranch farmers pulled about 30 to 40 pounds of rainbow chards to use in the restaurant.
People First
The Ranch can employ over 400 people during its peak season.
“The team is just as important as a ‘no plastics’ rule,” Bjorkman said.
“Treating team members in a way that is fair and equitable is the number one thing that everyone should be doing, especially in the service industry.”
