Delaware North’s proprietary environmental sustainability program, GreenPath™, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. As part of the celebration, 360 will be highlighting team members throughout our global operations who are sustainability champions for the program.
Caitlin Drennan, ecotourism manager for Delaware North at Niagara Falls State Park (NFSP) in New York state, has always had a passion for sustainability. After earning a master’s degree in sustainability, paired with an MBA, Caitlin gained experience in the field performing work in site investigation and remediation before joining the NFSP team. A true champion for GreenPath, Caitlin maintains a focus of sustainability and is continually discovering new ways to incorporate it into the park’s daily operations.
Tell us more about your role at Delaware North.
I’ve been with the company in this role since April 2023, although I did work as a suite server at KeyBank Center from 2015-17. My current role as ecotourism manager consists of several responsibilities, with a focus on the environmental, tourism and safety aspects of our operations. I usually start my day by preparing our tour guides and making sure they are ready to greet our guests, many of whom have traveled from all over the world. Then, I focus my attention on the onsite compost bins and check in with team members at each operation to make sure they understand their role in the food waste process. Throughout the day, I check in with the tour guides and monitor the compost program. Both the guest tours and composting programs are new, so I try to ensure the team has everything they need to successfully implement them to both delight our guests and manage our operations more sustainably.
What efforts do you take to ensure sustainability is a part of the culture at your location?
I focus on informing the staff about the sustainability initiatives we currently have in place and keeping sustainability topics top of mind for the team. Like many other Delaware North locations, we have a lot of seasonal team members who work different shifts, so I work to ensure consistent messaging across our operations at the park. I worked with Pam Wightman (director of human resources for Parks and Resorts) to implement a wellness program for the team that consists of preshift agenda topics for managers to use. The agendas include information on safety, GuestPath® and GreenPath, which serve as focus items for the day and week. Another aspect of the wellness program is a toolbox, filled with information sheets on these topics that team members can take and use. After launching at NFSP, we expanded the wellness program to other Parks and Resorts locations.
Tell us about your best sustainability moment at Delaware North.
I am very proud of our compost program at NFSP. We had to work through a lot of logistics – from finding a vendor to conducting
a food waste audit to determining how much compost we would have – and being able to implement the program felt like a huge
accomplishment. I was also proud when we began using recyclable receipt paper at the facility, which was an idea we learned about from the Delaware North team at the Grand Canyon.
What advice or tips would you share with team members interested in living and working more sustainably?
A lot of team members may not realize how much they already do to support sustainability. It’s the little things that add up and make the difference. Whether it’s recycling, bringing your own bag when you go to the grocery store, carpooling or turning off the lights – they all help contribute to a sustainable lifestyle. Also, if you’re interested in doing more, make sure you get involved with sustainability programs and initiatives at your Delaware North location. You may learn that you have an interest in something specific and can focus on that to have even more of an impact.
Why do you think it’s important to recognize the 25th anniversary of GreenPath?
Sustainability is not something that is accomplished overnight, it takes time and resources, and recognizing the 25th anniversary of GreenPath highlights Delaware North’s commitment to its importance. The program has grown and accomplished so much during this time and that’s important to celebrate.