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It has been 29 years since the world-famous 1992 United Nations Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit and Ewald Biemans, our Owner/CEO of Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort is still as inspired as the day he heard the call to action given to the world at that conference. An avid news follower, Biemans feverishly read and watched all the coverage he could find as the pivotal 1992 gathering took place. Describing it as “a wake-up call,” the conference accelerated his early efforts to what is now the Caribbean’s most eco-awarded and first carbon-neutral hotel by 2018 and ultimately, a United Nations honoree.
Last year, Bucuti & Tara became the first hotel in United Nations’ history to win the coveted Global UN 2020 Climate Action Award for Climate Neutral Now. This year, Biemans was invited to attend as a speaker at UN’s 26th annual climate change conference, Conference of the Parties, or COP26, last month in Glasgow, Scotland which drew over 30,000 attendees. COP26 was deemed the world’s most important summit on climate change in the race to keep a temperature rise limit of 1.5 degrees within reach cited by the 2015 Paris Agreement with just nine years left before ecological consequences would be catastrophic and irreversible. 
A global vision to share the “highly scalable and replicable” solution for the hospitality industry
While the topic of climate change can be daunting, Biemans’ appearance will provide more than hope as he will provide solid support and actionable initiatives that can be implemented in hotels and similar businesses. Upon awarding Bucuti & Tara, the UNFCCC Secretariat commended our resort for being “highly replicable and scalable,” thus uniquely positioning it to help others throughout the world’s massive travel and tourism sector representing 10% of global GDP. Biemans’ COP26 appearance intended to demystify the process of going net-zero, how to structure the necessary framework, and share how hoteliers can deliver a memorable vacation that is both financially successful as well as regenerative.
“Every day I reflect on the UN’s Rio Earth Summit of 1992 as the call to action we heeded at Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort in ultimately leading us to provide a guilt-free vacation that lets guests trade carbon footprints for sandy ones, and it was an honor to share at COP26 with others our sustainability solutions so that we are all winners, because we must all win to have a healthier, safer, more resilient future,” shares Ewald Biemans, Owner/CEO of Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort. “Climate change is the largest pandemic of this lifetime.”
Vacationing that saves the future
Bucuti & Tara has an eye on the future by helping our guests plan regenerative vacations for the present. We know our guests seek vacations to take a break from the daily grind and often times to reconnect with one another. Vacations are a time when indulgences are given into and Bucuti & Tara is helping guests do so while still protecting the planet for generations to come.
As the Caribbean’s first and only certified carbon-neutral hotel, our resort stay is already guilt-free. Now with the addition of a Carbon Offset Concierge, our guests can make their entire vacation guilt-free from wheels up to wheels down.