Nestled in the rural community of Independence, Oregon, Marquis® is surrounded by verdant farmland, lush mountain ranges, and majestic waterways. This abundance of natural beauty has influenced our spa designs for over 40 years, and continues to influence our commitment to the environment.
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The Highest Standards
For starters, all Marquis hot tubs and Aquatic Training Vessels™ (ATV™) swim spas meet or exceed the highest standards:
- California Energy Commission (CEC)
- European Union Council Directive 2002/96/EC
- Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)
- Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
- ANSI/APSP/ICC-14 2019 for Portable Electric Spa Energy Efficiency
Our products are carefully engineered to improve system performance and consume less energy. For example, our flagship ConstantClean+™ water management system—available across our entire product line—is the most thorough and efficient water care system on the market.
Sustainable Culture
Marquis is pleased to follow the guidance of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, an agency known for its passionate commitment to the environment. To ensure a culture of sustainability:
- Marquis employs a full-time safety and compliance manager to audit our facilities, ensuring best practices and a culture of continuous improvement.
- Our workplace safety committee meets regularly to review operations and make recommendations.
Whether it comes to materials, manufacturing and maintenance processes, or waste management and recycling, we strive to be good stewards of the land.
Sustainable Materials
The primary structural components of our spas use a variety of sustainable materials. For example:
- High-quality acrylic sheet, used to form the interior shell of our hot tubs, is derived from natural glass and petroleum-based polymers. It is strong, lightweight and easy to clean.
- Wood frames are made from sustainably-harvested hem-fir, a renewable resource with an ideal strength-to-weight ratio. Leftover wood scrap is sent for composting.
- Water-based Icynene® spray-foam insulation adds strength, conserves heat energy, and reduces electricity usage. Plus, it contains no volatile organic chemicals, HCFCs, HFAs, HFCs nor formaldehyde.
For spa owners, the two most often-used consumables are spa sanitizer and spa filters. By combining ingenuity with higher standards, Marquis hot tubs consume less of these items:
- Marquis ConstantClean+ (mentioned earlier) features a slow-dosing bromine or Smartchlor™ cartridge, in cooperation with an ozonator, to maintain safe water and consume less sanitizer. Plus, empty sanitizer cartridges are a #7 mixed plastic and may be recycled depending on your local municipality regulations.
- Genuine Marquis spa filters are engineered to meet the higher demands of our high-flow filtration system. Whereas cheap generic spa filters wear out every 30 days and need to be discarded, genuine Marquis spa filters can last a year or longer with proper maintenance. This keeps waste out of the landfill and saves you a lot of money!
DID YOU KNOW? You can boost sanitizer efficiency even further by adding Marquis Naturally Clear Enzyme to your spa water. This optional product emulsifies and biodegrades organic contaminants before they affect your sanitizer. Ask your local Marquis Dealer for more information.
Sustainable Practices
As you can imagine, hot tubs and swim spas require extensive plumbing. When joining plumbing lines together, Marquis uses ECO Primer™ (instead of traditional PVC solvent) and a low-VOC glue to significantly reduce odorous fumes.
These measures help to improve the workplace environment for our most precious resource—our employees. Air quality is just one of the many important safety measures we take seriously.
Our rock-solid DuraShell® spa shells are made from high-impact acrylic, reinforced with multiple layers of hand-rolled vinyl-ester resin and fiberglass. Naturally, the rollers used in the hand-rolling process need to be cleaned daily.
- Marquis uses an eco-friendly cleaning process to reduce solvent usage. This eliminates the need for off-site disposal of “still bottoms” (i.e., hazardous residue requiring special disposal).
ATV swim spa shells are made from a yacht-quality, covalently bonded polymer resin. The master molds we use are hand-cleaned and polished after each use to ensure every swim spa shell is free from defects.
- The rags we use to clean and polish swim spa molds are made from recycled cotton t-shirts. Used rags are collected, sanitized, and delivered to Marquis for reuse again and again.
Recycle, Recycle, Recycle
Whereas wood scrap is sent for composting, leftover HDPE scrap is collected and recycled by a trusted service provider. Due to the value of raw materials, this recycling program generates revenue which offsets some of our manufacturing costs.
Beyond our spa components, the Marquis factory consumes a variety of miscellaneous items. For example: printer paper, batteries, fluorescent lamps, hydraulic oil and motor oil. What happens to these resources?
- All types—and all sizes—of batteries are collected and recycled. From small batteries used in electronic devices and power tools, to large batteries used in forklifts and vehicles.
- When new lighting is installed, we use motion-activated LEDs which turn off when not in use. In older sections of the factory, used fluorescent lamps are collected and recycled.
- Recycle bins are located around our facilities to collect cardboard and plastic packaging. All our offices have recycling bins for office paper and other common recyclables.
- Hydraulic oil and motor oil are collected and recycled.
Oregon is a bottle-deposit state, so we have special green bags located throughout our facilities to collect employee beverage containers. The refunds we collect from returning thousands of bottles and cans each year are used to supplement employee reward programs.
Building for the Future
As an employee-owned company, our team is comprised of multiple generations of craftspeople. Many of our employees are parents whose children have grown up and joined the Marquis family. Because we are building for future generations, our green initiatives have extra-special significance.
We take pride in building the most efficient spas on the market, and remain steadfast in our commitment to the environment. Investing in a Marquis hot tub or ATV swim spa will benefit you and your family for many years to come. From our family to yours, thank you for the confidence you have placed in us. We truly take it to heart.