If there is one thing Martin Wettstein doesn’t like, it’s waste.
Be it in his day-to-day life or business, Wettstein always looks for ways to ensure resources are used to their full potential. That philosophy has carried over to the operation of the Wettstone Guest Ranch, which was recently recognized by the Synergy Foundation as a verified BC Green Business.
“There’s a saying in German: do good things and talk about it,” Wettstein remarked. “My line is, pay once or pay forever.”
Jarret Klim, Synergy Foundation’s senior program manager, said his organization gives out three levels of environmental certification: silver, gold and green. Since Synergy’s foundation as a Vancouver Island-based non-profit organization in 2013, Klim said 400 businesses have gotten certified, with 300 actively part of the program.
Synergy’s goal is to encourage the growth of the “regenerative economy.” The organization expanded BC wide in 2022.
“We work one-on-one with small to medium-sized businesses to identify ways they can enhance their sustainability in a cost-effective, approachable and actionable way,” Klim explained. “We connect them to resources, to specific products or services, look for funding and education opportunities, all that can help them with their operational sustainability initiatives.”
Wettstein has co-owned and operated the ranch since 2015, when he bought it alongside his wife, Diana, and their daughters Daniela-Liska and Valaurie. He remarked that the family came from Switzerland to open up a place like the Wettstone Guest Ranch, a dream both his daughters shared, Valaurie wanting to train and work with horses and Daniela-Liska interested in training service dogs.
The reason they chose to settle on the ranch, located just down the road from the Bridge Lake Ice Caves, is that the ranch house already had a lake heat pump installed. Using a heat pump that runs under Henley Lake, the ranch is kept cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
After settling in, Wettstein said he and his family just naturally began to look for ways to make the ranch more environmentally sustainable. He noted that being green wasn’t always necessarily the goal, but was often the byproduct of their efforts.
“I’m not going to the great big green things. It just makes sense. It makes financial sense, environmental sense, it just makes sense,” Wettstein said. “I hate waste, that’s basically it.”
One of these initiatives was the installation of 200 solar panels on the roofs of several of their outbuildings in 2018. During the summer, they generate all the power the ranch needs, with the excess used by the local BC Hydro grid. During the winter, they have an agreement with BC Hydro to get that power back for free, which Wettstein noted is a lot better than paying a power bill.
Another green aspect of the ranch is the gardens that Wettstein tends across the property. He noted gardening is his side of the business and that he enjoys growing pumpkins, potatoes, leeks, lettuce and beets using the manure from the farm’s 30 horses, assorted emus and pigs as natural fertilizer. Wettstein said they have official farm status, which he is very proud of, noting he comes from a family of vegetable farmers.
The Wettsteins have also set up their own mini recycling depot that mimics the local transfer stations the Cariboo Regional District operates. That way, guests can ensure all their trash is disposed of properly.
“The guests appreciate it. Europeans in particular,” Wettstein said.
One of the most recent additions to the ranch came after Wettstein came across the Synergy Foundation and its BC Green Business program. Wettstein said three years ago, at the tail end of the pandemic, he saw that the Synergy Foundation was helping small businesses secure grants to find projects to make their businesses more green.
At the time, he was looking to replace the roof tiles on several of the ranch’s buildings and jumped at the chance to secure some funding for it. After reaching out, he was able to secure enough money to get Euroshield Roofing to come in and install new tiles made from 600 recycled tires. In addition to recycling the rubber, Wettstein said the new roofing is better at trapping heat during the winter.
Other additions include the recent construction of a net-zero house on the property and the installation of a public electric vehicle charging station. One element they included to get their Green Business certificate was planting indigenous plants and berries to create biodiversity, which Wettstein said he was happy to do.
“The number of points we got was already good enough for the top certification, and they had a couple of suggestions to make it from 97 to 100,” Wettstein chuckled.
Klim said that when evaluating if a business is green, they use sector-specific criteria to base their assessments on. From there, businesses will receive a preliminary score to show them where they are and then suggestions for how they can improve.
“It can range from upgrades to their building, it can be water saving initiatives, procurement practices, waste reduction initiatives. There are social initiatives we take into account, climate action, transportation, all kinds of things that get wrapped up in participating in the program,” Kilm said. “Once a business is certified green three years in a row, they advance to what we call a green leader.”
In general, Klim said he thinks it’s important that B.C.’s small businesses have access to organizations like his own. He noted that small businesses make up the majority of all businesses in B.C. According to a 2023 study released by the B.C. government, per capita, small businesses make up 98 per cent of all businesses in the province, employing 41 per cent of the workforce in 2022.
“Individually, it can be tough sometimes for some people to see why it matters if they’re composting. But if you get hundreds, thousands of businesses all sending their organic waste to be properly composted instead of sent to a landfill, instead of creating methane, emissions could be quite large in a scenario like that,” Klim remarked.
One of the 30 horses that belong to the Wettstone Guest Ranch. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
An emu at the Wettstone Guest Ranch on Thursday, Oct. 23. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
An emu at the Wettstone Guest Ranch on Thursday, Oct. 23. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
A net-zero house recently built by the Wettstein family. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
The Wettstone Guest Ranch’s BC Green Business Certification. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
Martin Wettstein’s winter garden at the Wettstone Guest Ranch. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
The Wettstone Guest Ranch is located on the shores of Henley Lake. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
The Wettstone Guest Ranch has 200 solar panels installed on the roofs of its buildings. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
The Wettstone Guest Ranch has been recognized as a certified B.C. Green Business. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
The Wettstone Guest Ranch has its own miniature recycling/transfer station. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
The Wettstone Guest Ranch is owned and operated by the Wettstein family, including Martin Wettstein (left), Diana Wettstein and their son-in-law, Jason Richard. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
The Wettstone Guest Ranch’s public electric vehicle charging station. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)
The Wettstone Guest Ranch’s public electric vehicle charging station. (Patrick Davies photo – 100 Mile Free Press)