Sustainability may be the buzzword of late, but at its core is a fundamental belief in a better world. Those of us that run eNRG Kayaking believe that a better world will come as a result of our careful consideration of how we can improve social conditions, create economic opportunity for others and ourselves, and live and play within our environment's capacity to regenerate.

As a small business, we make choices each and every day that have impact on the people and places around us. We pay special attention to these choices and we try our best to reduce our environmental footprint and add value to the lives we touch with consideration of future generations. As a company that promotes travel to play (both to local and international rivers and waterways) we recognize that our largest impact on the earth is through carbon emissions from the sheer number of miles we drive and fly. We are currently taking actions to reduce the number of local miles traveled by facilitating more carpooling while we work on a strategy to invest in cleaner air by using biodiesel in a company shuttle. For foreign miles traveled, we will be offering an option to all of our guides and adventurers to offset their carbon emissions before they fly.

Here are some of the other ways eNRG Kayaking contributes to a more sustainable world:

Play!!   If it's not fun, it's not sustainable. We support community in Ecotrust's pattern for a Conservation Economy by creating opportunities to experience beauty and play. We also facilitate experiences that help people develop a sense of place. Check out what it means to be part of a Conservation Economy.

Promote River Conservation.   While our river trips are mainly focused on instruction in the sport of kayaking, our instructors also provide our students with information about the river's history and its conservation status when available. Just by experiencing the power and beauty of threatened rivers such as the Mekong in Southeast Asia creates a connection with a place that will often translate into action. It is our goal to strengthen connections between experience and action to promote conservation as our company evolves.

We support organizations such as American Whitewater whose main focus is to promote river conservation and access in the U.S. In 2003, we raised over $1,000 at a slideshow auction that went directly to AW. We indirectly promote conservation through donations to local organizations doing great work such as Friends of Trees, Save Our Wild Salmon, Tidepool News Service, and Ecotrust's Salmon Nation campaign.

Build community! At eNRG we believe that a stronger community makes for a better place to live. While the Portland kayaking and rafting community is already quite rich, we feel we can add value to these networks by bringing paddlers together in a positive environment to give back to the larger community. For this reason we kicked off our annual "Down the River" clean up in September of 2003 with the support of numerous retail outlets and conservation non-profits. The clean up was an absolute success with over 60 paddlers participating to haul out a dumpster full of trash, 370 pounds of scrap metal, 9 tires, and 200 pounds of glass and aluminum recycling. We look forward to cleaning up more riverbanks in the future with the support of even more partners and more participants!

Support our local economy. When we seek products and services we do everything in our power to buy local and to promote other locally owned businesses. When we shop for food for our multi-day trips we buy local produce from seasonal farmers' markets and we buy most everything else from New Seasons Market. We know that by buying local food we're not only supporting our local economy, but we're also purchasing high quality food that has not traveled far to get to our dinner plates. Ask anyone who has been on a trip with us - the food is always a high point. PS - We buy organic and free-range when available.

For other services such as printing, logo design, office construction, database programming, web design, sheet rocking, video editing and photo development, we use strictly local vendors. What's even more incredible is that nearly every single one of the services mentioned has been provided by a local kayaker. What an incredible network we have to support and to support us. It's a beautiful thing.

Minimize our ecological footprint:   In order to reduce our own environmental footprint we do a number of different things.  

1. To reduce paper and the cost of advertising we have chosen to rely on a business by referral system. You wont see too many of our brochures or advertisements around town. We feel that our service should be high enough quality to speak for itself and that those who have experienced our eNRG will want to tell others about it.
2. When we do feel we have something to communicate, we communicate primarily through the Internet and email newsletters. Our welcome letters and course preparation materials come in the format of emails with pdf attachments. Want to be added to our email list? Email us at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
3. We have reduced our paper usage even further this year by moving to a completely online registration system. No more paper registration forms or course records! What a difference! We do, however, have to keep liability forms on file for legal purposes.
4. When we print materials we use post-consumer content recycled paper. We have not started using a printer who can print with soy-based inks, but we plan to locate a local printer who can provide this service in the near future.  
5. And of course, like all good Portlanders, we recycle everything in our office that cannot be reused.

"Green" our office. For the construction of eNRG World Headquarters we renovated a loading platform once used in the late 1800s for moving hundreds of bottles of fig wine from a residential winery onto large distribution trucks. Traditional building materials were used to construct the office, but they were comprised mainly of discarded materials from other project sites. We did, however, install Marmoleum flooring, which is an all natural flooring product made of linseed oil, pine rosin, wood or cork flour, limestone and pigments. For natural building products visit Environmental Building Supplies. Additional windows were added to improve daylighting and reduced our reliance on electric lighting. Old windows were restored and made functional so as to provide natural air for circulation. We also partner with Clifbar for our organic energy bar consumption.  As an eNRG Kayaking student you get a chance to try different flavors of Clifbars at all our classes!

For our deck, we consulted with none other than the infamous Carrington Barrs of Carrington Barrs Consulting & Construction, LLC. Carrington designed the deck and acquired Forest Stewardship Council certified sustainable timber to construct it. To find out how you can buy certified lumber visit Metafore's Forest Certification Resource Center.

Most recently we have had our rain gutter downspouts disconnected from the Portland sewer system. By disconnecting our downspouts we do not contribute to the overflow of sewage that runs directly into the Willamette River during storm seasons. A huge thanks goes to one of our instructors, Jeremy Watkins, at the City of Portland's Downspout Disconnection Program for making that happen.

Offset our carbon emissions. For our 2004 International Trips we are giving our travelers the option of offsetting their carbon through a voluntary program offered by the Better World Club. We will be exploring opportunities to offer this same service to local paddlers making long driving trips to and from the river.

If you have any good ideas on how we can strengthen our programs or questions about our sustainability initiative, please contact Kristin Dahl at n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it We welcome your feedback!