Vision Spa Retreat

Drawing up water for spas: is it sustainable?

 

Early last year, in an article entitled Putting the water back into spa, I expressed my sadness that the spa industry in general might be tending to focus on wellness without water.  This shift is certainly partly related to economic factors.

There are obvious challenges for spas in providing safe water in abundance without incurring heavy financial costs and without further exacerbating increasingly evident problems regards our water resources in general. 

To many, a statement like the one below from that article, might seem quaintly naive at best.

Can we imagine a spa industry that has something more than an economic motivator?  A spa culture that models personal, communal, and planetary health?  Spa with water flowing from its heart.

The latest Spa Business Digital Edition, issue 1, 2010, describes some heartening developments that indicate that economic and environmental issues can come together.  In Alternative water supplies (spas using groundwater ), Emilie Filou presents four examples of spas celebrating and valuing water.

Recession and Spas

Two definitions ...

Recession:
1. A moderate and temporary decline in economic activity
2. The act of restoring possession to a former owner

From The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition.


Earlier this month, Susie Ellis of SpaFinder Inc. reported the closure of two established day spa operations in a blog post entitled 'Spas and Recession'. She wrote that she found this:

Heartbreaking - yet not particularly surprising given the current economic climate. In fact, I am sure that we will be seeing more spas closing. Frankly, I am surprised that we haven't seen more already. I think it speaks to the fact that these businesses likely did everything they could to try and weather the recession, but at some point they had to pull the plug.

The post goes on to makes some suggestions about ways to weather the storm, but I think there is something important missing here.  It is something I've been exploring on this blog over the last year.  It is a view that asks for an enormous shift in perspective.

Below I have compiled six posts that look at what is happening in our culture in general, how this might relate to spa, and how we might respond - not in terms of surviving as businesses but rather in order to support cultural change and contribute to our survival on the planet.

First, here is a copy of the comment I made on the above post:

Chaos or crisis can be thought of as opportunity disguised as loss. I know what that feels like, both personally and professionally. We all do. I think what is needed now - more than adaptations or limitations on business as usual - is a reevaluation of what role spas have played (and could play) in our culture; and a re-examination of why people work in and go to spas.

Not for marketing or business purposes but for our souls!

This calls us to examine our underlying values, our world views, and to see if what we do (through spa in this case) is really meeting our needs and those of others in a way that respects the source of our livelihood, the planet itself (including all things sustained by it).

We'll need to hold the paradox of thinking big and thinking small. In the latter respect, spas could both support and inspire sustainable local communities. Any spa that is growing beyond and outside its local community and not engaging that community fully is not in service.

I don't think it is a question of how much you pay your staff or what you do to entice customers but how much everyone really feels valued and involved. If we were to think of spa as a form of culture not as an industry, that might help us make the shift.

Here, in chronological order, are my earlier posts on the topic of spas and recession. 

1. Green marketing: 'Aspiring to a dream' after 'Deflating a myth' (Nov. 2008)

I've been learning a lot about 'green marketing' recently and what that means from the varying points of view of consumers, companies, marketing professionals, and those in the business of providing information resources to niche groups.  My particular interest is in how this relates to the spa world but it runs deeper. Here, I want to explore what supports the need to go green, why I'd like to see it become a primary consideration rather than a 'selling point', and what it might take for green to be taken for granted as a sustaining and sustainable way of making a living and doing business.

2. Economic blues: asking deeper questions (Dec. 2008)

This week's Splash e-newsletter for the aquatics industry addressed the topic of 'Attracting Patients in a Down Economy' and suggested that it would be beneficial to look at how other aquatic disciplines are approaching this concern.  Particular reference was made to the spa industry and a recent blog post from Susie Ellis (spa guru) of Spa Finder giving her top 10 list of new spa trends for 2009.  I too had seen the list and have been thinking about what it might mean in the context of 'economy' and 'choice'.  What might spas and aquatic therapy clinics, both service-oriented, have in common when it comes to attracting custom?

3. Spa culture: timely opportunity for a paradigm shift (Dec. 2008)

This image shows two deer stranded in a river while the forest burns around them.  For me, it conveys well the current challenges we face in deciding how best to survive economic and environmental crises. These deer know that the water may save them.  Could a new vision of spa play its part in helping us to survive? For this opportunity to be grasped, we must go beyond superficial style and develop authentic integrity in providing true spa (sanus per agua - health through water) services. 

4. Spa culture meets corporate culture: a force for positive change (Jan. 2009)

Long before colonization of the New World, Native Americans gathered at thermal mineral springs for physical health, spiritual, and social purposes.  In Europe, the Romans were cultivating spas as places for both play and politics.  And in ancient Greece, people went on spa sabbaticals to receive healing dreams from the gods that offered solutions to otherwise intractable problems.

Our own society is now recognizing the value of adding spa culture to its social and business settings, to meetings and events.  It's an interweaving that, if fully realized, could provide us with solutions to our own personal, social, and environmental issues by immersing us in an inclusive and informal setting where all three aspects of human life are recognized as being inseparable.

5. Corporate social responsibility: how does spa biz show up? (Feb. 2009)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the spa world is a topic I'll be looking at in more depth on this blog.  Though my main focus is on small businesses, the influence and potential leadership role of  the larger corporations is significant. I want to highlight those who are showing the way.  There is a majority in the spa world still who have nothing to say on the topic of sustainability (including environmental and social responsibility) and others who talk the talk but may not be walking the walk.

6. Spa industry lemons (March 2009)

Is the spa industry in general more concerned with profit than with people and personal and environmental health? Unfortunately, some of the reactions (from industry voices and in professional networks) to the current economic recession would seem to suggest  that this has been so. 

Anyone want to join me in brainstorming an alternative to business as usual or business at all?

Future Spa: Bringing concepts to life

This new forum on Vision Spa Retreat is intended to inspire free-flowing dialog about some of the challenges of visioning and then manifesting a spa venue that can truly call itself 'eco'. We're inviting questions or concerns that you can present openly or anonymously (although you must make yourself known to Vision Spa Retreat). All kinds of topics relating to ecospa could be covered, we'll just let that evolve.   Feel welcome to offer ideas. 

To start us off, we're looking at:

What turns an inspired spa concept proposal into

the real thing?

Recently, 'B' the managing director of an architectural firm in the UK wrote to VSR about a spa project his company has taken on.

An existing US resort (cabins accommodating just under 100 guests) on 14,000 acres of mountainous forest land currently offers golf and outdoor activities.  It now wants to complement a new golf lodge, accommodating about 50 and still under construction, with an 'eco-spa' of about 9,000 square feet that will serve the 150 or so guests of the resort.

The architect (B) sent me the initial Concept and Design proposals dated end of 2007, adding that working drawings have been completed for the spa but that it will not be constructed this year as planned.  Curious as to how they were bringing those early proposals down to earth, I wrote B the letter below. Although he agreed with the points made, B did not offer any specific answers.

I suspect that this is because the issues I raised are about giving as strong a foundation to ethos as to bricks-and-morter, which may not be exactly his role though I think it is one he is exploring. B's company has teamed up with a spa consultant who has a strong background in ayurvedic health and products.  He kindly agreed to sharing our correspondence here.

We invite you to write in (see comment box after this post) with any thoughts that are sparked off by what you read below.  Please share in the spirit of the positive (how this project could be even better) rather than negative (what is wrong with this picture).  Feel free to draw on examples and experiences of your own in order to develop the dialog.  And if you have an idea for another Future Spa post - let us know!