THE GREEN FILES
By Sonia Green-Brown, PE
Issue 213- Sustainable Tourism
For some, sustainable tourism may conjure up thoughts of resorts in the middle of nowhere with no air-conditioning visited by tree huggers. Not so, there is an opportunity for our resorts, small and large, and for taxis and restaurants to behave more responsibly, as I believe that this is what our visitors will increasingly come to expect.
Imagine for a minute that you are visiting The Bahamas for the first time. In the place where you live you are accustomed to separating your plastics from paper and even gathering kitchen scraps all headed for recycling plants. Your solar system heats up water for your home and you have double glazed windows, weather stripping and insulation to keep out the cold. Further, you are accustomed to taking your small children to the numerous well maintained public parks.
You arrive in The Bahamas pleased to shake off the winter cold and ready to enjoy a family vacation. You are having a good time and it is great to be away but you can’t help but notice a few things. Everywhere you go the air-conditioning is not comfortable, it is extremely cold. You see no trash separation facilities anywhere.
You go to the food store and unlike back home where persons bring re-use bags to pack their groceries there is none is sight. The young lady who packs your grocery items is attempting to use an over-abundance of plastic bags but you politely explain that you have enough space in your bag and don’t need them.
You take a trip to a place called Saunders Beach and at first your breath is taken away by the beauty. You decide to have a picnic and in clearing your area you notice that in the sand there are bottles and other trash and the few bins available are already overflowing.
There are a lot of places with beautiful beaches, friendly people and dare I say better prices than The Bahamas. We continue to do well in our bread and butter industry but I worry that we take it for granted that people have to come to The Bahamas.
The world isn’t changing, it has changed. Increasingly persons have the environment at the forefront of their minds and this is no different when they vacation. Airlines like British Airways and companies like Terrapass allow travelers to pay to offset carbon use. National Geographic Traveler has guidelines for how to be sustainable when traveling. I doubt these programmes would exist if persons were not utilizing them. Many are convinced by what they see and believe that human induced climate change is a reality. And where are we in The Bahamas? We are at the business as usual mode.
It is time to encourage our resorts and other guest facilities to be more sustainable. We need programmes to promote greater use of solar energy and better water management. The elimination of tariffs on hybrids and electric cars might allow us to join the rest of the world that has a proliferation of hybrid taxis to transport visitors. We could be do more to keep our beaches clean.
We have all that it takes to continue to be successful. We just need the will to make the necessary changes.
We would like to hear how this article has helped you. Send questions or comments to sbrown@graphitebahamas.com.
Sonia Brown is Principal of Graphite Engineering Ltd and is a registered Professional Engineer.
