Bar HArbor Inn
Sustainability Initiatives

Mission Statement

Our sustainability committee seeks to strengthen environmental stewardship and sustainability practices companywide by implementing relevant programs and policies across the Witham Family Hotels portfolio. Through education, collaboration, and support we strive to make impactful changes towards an environmentally sound future for our local and global community.

Maine Environmental Leader Logo

Coffee & Food Service

The volume of single-use coffee creamers, plastic stirrers, and other individual serving size packets has been reduced by moving to insulated creamer carafes, bamboo stirrers, and bulk packages of other condiments. We have also limited single-use plasticware waste by offering silverware whenever possible. Reduction of single-use items will continue as we provide the utmost care for our guests and our environment.

The Result

Reduced waste of over 100,000 single-use food service items annually through the use of reusable and bulk service items.

In-Room Amenities

We have replaced single-use guest bathroom amenities with sleek, dispensers crafted by Kure, a company with its own strong environmental focus. These custom Kure dispensers are filled with Babor bath products, offering you spa quality products without added waste. Babor has a carbon-neutral footprint, creates products free from microplastics and resource critical raw materials, focusing on sustainable, certified goods and alternatives to create luxury skincare— never tested on animals.

The Result

Elimination of over 95,000 single-use plastic containers being sent to the landfill each year.

Low Light - Dark Skies

Acadia National Park offers a large swath of untouched dark sky and while not yet certified by the International Dark Sky Association, we support the beauty of the night sky by using the bare minimum of exterior lighting with low lux fixtures.

The Result

While still a work in progress, we strive to reduce our light pollution each time we install new lighting and are actively working to replace bright light fixtures.

Water Bottle Refill Stations

Single-use plastic water bottles are one of the largest sources of plastic pollution in the world. To reduce reliance on these single-use items, we have installed multiple water bottle refill stations. This makes filling up your water bottle convenient before a hike or when arriving back to the hotel from adventure. Curious about our water quality? Read Bar Harbor’s Annual Water Quality Report.

Water bottle refill stations can be found in the Lobby Coffee Room, Fitness Center, and Continental Breakfast.

The Result

Elimination of over 77,000 single-use water bottles being sent to the landfill each year.

Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

We have four ClipperCreek HCS-50 charging stations available to guests of the Inn and visitors to our restaurants. The ClipperCreek HCS-50 is a high-powered Level 2 EV Charging Station EVSE. 40 Amps of power (9.6kW) is perfect for plug-in electric vehicles. It will charge your car up to nearly 7x faster than the cord set that came with your electric vehicle. ETL listing demonstrates this product has met the requirements of widely accepted product safety standards for EV charging stations.

Agri-Cycle

Food waste from our dining outlets, whether it be the lobster shells from the Lazy Lobster in the Reading Room or that sandwich you couldn’t quite finish are separated into dedicated bins and collected each week by Agri-Cycle, New England’s premier food-waste-collection service. These food scraps and waste are turned into renewable energy and compost using anaerobic digestors.

The Result

Over 25.6 tons of food waste and scraps converted into energy and/or compost over the last year.

Waste Oil

Spent cooking oil from all of our dining outlets is collected by Maine Standard Biofuels giving this waste oil new life to as heating fuel and biodiesel.

The Result

265 pounds of waste cooking oil diverted from the landfill and converted into biofuel.

Community Service

As a company, we understand that we are only a portion of the larger community where we live, work, and conduct business. Each year our team volunteers their time for local programs including the Bar Harbor Inn’s Annual Easter Egg Hunt, Witham Family Hotels Charitable Christmas, and the Friends of Acadia Annual Roadside Cleanup Day.

The Result

Hundreds of hours of service invested in our community each year.