PA Consulting involved in the Environmental Audits for Sustainable Tourism project, aimed to keep Jamaica’s aquamarine Caribbean waters clean, healthy, and attractive to tourists
In order to keep Jamaica’s aquamarine Caribbean waters clean, healthy, and attractive to tourists, dozens of hotels - from small mom-and-pop operations to the largest hotel chain,
Sandals - have learned to reduce waste, conserve water, and protect the environment.
Hotels regularly check their operations to ensure environmentally sound practices. Many - including the Sandals hotel chain - are now “Green Globe” certified: in addition
to environmental protection on their properties, they work on community projects.
Environmental awareness in Jamaica’s tourism industry has been supported by USAID since 1997, when the mission persuaded some of the island’s smaller hotels to
conduct environmental audits.
“The major challenge was with management,” said Hugh Cresser, chief of party of the Environmental Audits for Sustainable Tourism project. “It was a hard sell.”
Managers thought the process would be costly, but project leaders “focused on the bottom line” and stressed waste reduction, said project officer Karen McDonald-Gayle.
“Hotels were able to report savings within a few months of starting the program.” In each hotel, “green teams” of managers and staff came up with a strategy. These typically small hotels spent $700 to $1,500 on improvements, which usually paid for themselves in less than a year.
Changes often were simple. They included fixing leaking toilets and pools; watering gardens in the morning or evening instead of during the day; replacing 10-gallon toilets and other equipment with water-saving ones; and using ecologically safer products like vinegar instead of bleach when cleaning.
“I heard that many cleaning ladies were actually amazed how well vinegar worked,” said McDonald-Gayle.
Managers appointed employees to “green teams.” Seeing the change they were creating motivated the staff, said McDonald-Gayle.
To ensure changes endure, the current USAID sustainable tourism project in Jamaica is working with the tourism ministry to include environmental management practices as hotel certification requirements.
The project also has convinced hospitality training programs to add environmental protection to their curricula.
