SUSTAINABILITY
ALASKA Above: Rusted work vehicles from the 1920s and 1930s are now used as mini gardens at Chena Hot Springs Resort in Alaska.
OFF THE GRID IN
By Evelyn Kanter
A geothermal-powered resort in Alaska offers sustainability insights and inspiration.
its operation—which is powered entirely by geothermal energy. The resort also has geothermal-heat- ed hydroponic greenhouses, which grow lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and other greens and veggies, harvested daily year-round for its restaurants. The history. The use of renewable energy and a commitment to recycling are part of Chena’s DNA, thanks in large part to Bernie Karl and Connie Parks- Karl, who bought the resort from the state of Alaska in 1998 (and have since transferred ownership to the employees via an employee stock ownership plan). In addition to the shipping container garage, the front desk of the main lodg- ing property is made from railroad carts and tracks from the Hard Rock Gold mine from 1898. The sitting bench in the lobby is a railroad axle, and the domed entrance to the lodge is from an airport walkway. “Even our offices are recycled build- ings from the North Slope,” a remote area in northern Alaska, says general manag- er Natasha Minnerly. It’s a far cry from when the proper- ty was established in the early 1900s as an outpost for miners, when millions of dollars in gold was being panned
As sustainability initiatives and emission reduction goals grow in im- portance in the resort industry, it is possible to break away from the en- ergy grid using natural resources and build with recycled materials. Here’s how one resort is doing it, with a com- plete closed-loop system, which can serve as a model—or just inspiration— for others. Picture a gleaming row of sparkling white, new-this-season electric snowmo- biles parked in a brand-new garage built partially from recycled shipping con- tainers. The snowmobiles are plugged in along a rail of charging units, which, along with the rest of the building, are powered by geothermal energy, which is also used to heat the facility. This a 100 percent off-the-grid operation. This very building exists at Chena Hot Springs Resort, a lodging property and spa located about 60 miles from Fair- banks, Alaska. It offers several outdoor activities: cross-country skiing, snow- mobile tours, dog sledding, and more. The building’s closed-loop system for its electric snowmobiles and e-bikes, some of which are for guest use and others for operational use, is just one example of how the resort utilizes renewables to run
from the Chena River and its many trib- utaries. Brothers Robert and Thom Swan discovered the mineral springs in 1905 and marketed them as recuperation for weary miners in what was then the rug- ged outback. Some of the original log cabins remain today, repurposed into private massage therapy facilities. A Unique Facility Far newer than the cabins, of course, is the aforementioned garage. It was built in summer 2024 to house snowmobiles, e-bikes, and other equipment. Outside, it looks like a nondescript, utilitarian garage with metal siding and a pitched roof, save for the doors of the shipping containers, which are visible on the gable ends. Chena used 40-foot-long shipping containers stacked two high and three long on each side to create the outer walls of the 120-foot-long by 60-foot- wide garage that the resort also intends to fill with heavy equipment and utilize for other to-be-determined uses in the future. The ground level is 7,200 square
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