Summertime is a busy time for Ocean Lakes Family Campground in Myrtle Beach, S.C. They encourage guests to go green with their iCare program. The campground expands their program with the latest environmentally friendly technology.
“We’re basically kind of setting the tone for the camping industry,” says Kevin McWhirter, maintenance and facilities manager at Ocean Lakes.
Ocean Lakes is the first place in the Coastal Carolinas to have an electric vehicle charging station, SCNow.com reported.
“For the folks that come in from the outside that want to charge their car on their way down south or up north and for our camping guests they might have an EV car attached to their motorhome. They can come up here and charge their car for four hours,” says McWhirter.
The most popular mode of transportation on the campground is golf carts. Only electric golf carts are allowed on the campground.
“We have about five or six thousand golf cars on property, that’s five or six thousand less vehicles driving around,” says Ocean Lakes Marketing Director Barb Krumm.
One of the newer components of the iCare program is solar panels. Ocean Lakes is testing out the energy efficiency at the main bath house.
“It’s instant hot, so there’s no waiting for the water to heat up. The guests are real happy when they’re not waiting for that hot shower,” says Krumm.
The campground is also composting. They’re making compost from things like old landscaping scraps, fruits and vegetables and a making a fertilizer. Soon they’ll use to fertilize flower beds all across the campground and encourage guests to learn how to compost too.
“We keep testing new ways that we can be good Stuarts to the environment,” says Krumm.
Recycling is a huge part of the iCare program. Since the program started in June 2009, they’ve recycled over 250,000 pounds of recyclables. During the summer, that’s about 2,000 pounds a week. Going green is something Ocean Lakes hopes their guests will take with them, even after their stay.
“Hopefully we’re just planting some seeds. They seem to really be encouraging it,” says Krumm.
