At Bucuti, we’re proud to be eco-pioneers, and creating a sustainable, eco-friendly environment for our guests is woven throughout the fabric of our company culture. We go far beyond towel- and electricity-saving programs, and have made significant investments in eco-technologies and systems, as well as environmentally safe products to earn the title of Top 10 Green Hotels in the Caribbean and earning a Green Globe High Achievement Award.
Practicing and executing sustainable programs is one thing, but an equally important part of our mission is educating and enlightening our staff and our guests about the driving factors that spark our motivation day in and day out to keep our mission going.
Last month, I was given the opportunity to be a keynote speaker on World Tourism Day and I wanted to share some of my key points with my esteemed Bucuti guests.
Our world is under siege, threatened by global warming and overpopulation and scarcities. One of the scarcities being the source of life, water. It is a fact that water is life and we would not be here today on this earth if there was no water. I’ve read that 71 percent of Earth is water, and not only do we have to preserve that water supply, but we need to protect and preserve the land that surrounds our oceans and rivers. In Aruba we have been hearing a lot of green talk every day, and our government is working diligently to replace fossil fuels we use to produce our energy and the precious water we need, with alternative and sustainable energy.
I reminded my audience and local tourism partners that as a country, we need to be careful, however, to not allow these great and necessary efforts to create the illusion that we are achieving a sustainable environment. “Green” can mean many different things. It can mean renewable energy, being energy efficient, or it can mean entirely reliant on greenfuels. It can mean preserving nature, being environmentallyconscious, but it can also mean community-friendly. When it comesto tourism, green means everything from using local products toemphasizing local culture.
So to determine what creates a green andsustainable environment, let me read you a quote I recently found:
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
And so we should ask ourselves and you, our Bucuti guests, are we meeting our present needs without compromising our future, just to satisfy our current needs?
Our little world known as Aruba has to be preserved in all aspects, including our culture, our land, our ocean, our reefs and our nature. It’s a total concept. It’s not just saving energy or planting trees. It is much, much more than that.
There’s a lot of work to be done in Aruba and the truth is, tourism itself is a bit of a destructive force; people go diving, they damage the coral, people rent quad racers and go cross-country and create erosion. Our own people are sometimes not very well aware of the damage they can do by cutting down trees; creating Illegal dumps; destroying mangroves; bulldozing lands, the list goes on...And these are our driving fuels to keep learning and doing our part to preserve Aruba in all aspects, which includes helping our valued guests understand and learn why environmental awareness and action has always been a major focus of Bucuti & Tara Beach Resorts.
The reality is, we are destroying our own natural resources that we depend on for generations to come. What will future generations live on, if our beautiful beaches and reefs and cactus forests are gone and theisland has become a solid mass of concrete?
It’s important to be realistic and realize that our nature -our beaches, reefs and ocean - are the “one and only natural resource” we have, the only product we produce and the only source of our income.Our primary economic pillar is not tourism, but it is our nature, our beaches, reefs, ocean and our culture and people. It is these natural resources that allow us to enjoy a healthy tourism industry. However, it is our job to make sure we note that these natural resources require protection, regulation and enforcement.
I reminded my fellow tourism partners that we need to get involved individually, we need to involve our families, the entire community and give back to the community, create community outreach, and encourage full participation in an environmental program, because today sustainability has come to mean more than just protecting the environment and our natural resources within it.An effective and all-encompassing sustainability program builds pride in the community and a strong emotional connection between the residents and its country as well as with the travelers visiting our little world known as Aruba.
A proud and sustainable community is our insurance for Aruba’s long term economic well-being and we hope that our Bucuti guests will help us in this mission. We encourage our guests to get involved and help do their part to protect our environment so their children can also enjoy “one happy island” for years to come.
Here are some ways to get involved: www.bucuti.com/resort/eco-friendly
