Eco-Spa Council News

According to the Eco-Spa Council, Spa, Wellness & Environmental Awareness are All Connected

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 4 PRNewswire — It's a magical combination: the vacation, designed to get you away from the daily grind. The spa, designed to rejuvenate your body and your mind. Imagine a cleansing mask, deep tissue massage, or therapeutic facial. Imagine lotions made from flowers, or a good workout. That's just the start. Relax — body and mind. Now, imagine the calming effects of knowing that your luxuriating and pampering is doing good for the environment.

Stevenswood Spa Resort Combines leisure with health for both the guest and the environment!

The world-renowned Eco-Spa Council takes this health objective one step further by emphasizing the dramatic impact spa operations can have on the environment. This impact can be positive when steps are taken to ensure that environmentally friendly decisions are being made by management.

Mike Webster, chairman of Eco-Spa Council sees council members join that are anxious to implement the changes that can make the footprint left behind by a spa ever so slight on the environment. Eco-Spa Council has been formed with the mission of raising consumer and management awareness of environmental factors in spa operations. The council further will compile, monitor and publish a directory for ecologically sensitive spa operators with a ranking system that rewards those who make extra-ordinary efforts at conservation.

What's Behind The Experience?

"Guests who share a sensitivity to the future of our environment can also selfishly demand the best in premium grade products. The two objectives are fortunately not exclusive of one another," says Webster, who also operates Stevenswood Spa Resort along the Mendocino Coast.

For example, Stevenswood Spa Resort in Mendocino, California features the Indigo Eco|Spa, which according to Experience Manager, Trace Cooper, is a certified "eco-spa" and uses formulas and products which are never tested on animals, have all organic base ingredients obtained only through sustainable resources, and reusable packages or packages using recycled and recyclable containers and soy-based printing inks. Even the linens and towels are made with hemp, or renewable cotton. No synthetics or polyester fabrics are used.

"We believe today's savvy consumer demands more from the provisioners they choose," says Indigo's manager, Vladimir Joksimovich. "Guests who share a sensitivity to the future of our environment can also selfishly demand the best in premium-grade products, which also happen to be the most natural, pure, and quality products on the market. The two objectives are fortunately not exclusive of one another. Indigo Eco|Spa addresses this marketplace with a core based commitment to eco-sensitive, organically-based components of kind."

The spa uses botanical and all-natural ingredients, including red earth masks from locally-harvested clays, Pacific sea plants, essential oils from local old growth Redwood extracts, and all-natural lotions. Skin care products include shea butter and eucalyptus elements, custom-made procollagen marine cremes, and ground local seaweed compounded with lemon and juniper essential extracts.

"Most of our treatments feature our private label line of skin and body care products," says Cooper. "(They are) locally formulated utilizing only the very finest organic botanicals, raw ingredients, and ecologically sensitive methods."

Overall, the message from those in the industry reflects one of preparation.

Perhaps with the combination of a faster-paced world and the inherent need people have to occasionally slow down, the renewal of the traditional wellness spa was inevitable. If spa trends remain on the upswing, personal health might make a momentous leap to the forefront of our busy lives.

"It's about using botanical and all-natural ingredients to pamper, detoxify, and re-energize the body," says Cooper. "By making certain that anything which comes in contact with the guest is of the utmost purity and made from the highest-quality, synthetic-free, all natural materials, Indigo Eco|Spa affirms our commitment to an ecologically sensitive spa experience."

"We are experiencing a revival," says Leavy. "We are well on the road to wellness destinations."

Stevenswood lodge was designed from the ground up by working with local architects, who were deeply aware of the environmental considerations. Locating the facility in the eco-friendly area of the Mendocino Coast ensured that the building would be as "Green" as possible. The lodge was designed and crafted superbly with custom-made Honduras wood doors, using reclaimed lumber, and hand-rubbed recycled Red Oak ceilings.

Much of the furniture and furnishings at Stevenswood is imported and stylish, with a flair of contemporary elegance, while guaranteeing the use of sustainable lumber, recyclable materials and production without the use of noxious chemicals.

Italian microfibre sofas, dark espresso fixtures, hand-blown Venetian glass bowl Italian vanities, using post consumer recycled wine bottles, imported reclaimed cork flooring from Portugal, and bathrooms finished in Ocean Green slate from Madagascar.

The Indigo Eco|Spa at Stevenswood, and the Eco-Spa Council remain committed to make a difference and consider the impact to the earth.

SOURCE Eco-Spa Council

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