Nine years after becoming the world’s first all-inclusive resort to be Green Globe certified, through its Negril Beach Resort & Spa property, the Sandals/Beaches hotel chain says it has become the regional hospitality industry leader in environmental practices.

Green Globe is the international environmental benchmarking and certification organisation which utilises standards developed by the United Nations from the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil, requiring all persons, governments, non-governmental organisations and private enterprise to take action to protect the natural environment.

Since achieving the coveted Green Globe certification in 1998, the chain had gone on to see all its properties qualifying for the Green Globe 21 certification and obtaining the distinction as the only Caribbean hotel chain with all its hotels awarded the Green Globe certification for environmental stewardship.

The Sandals chain is currently celebrating its latest environmental accolade – the awarding of Horace Peterkin’s Sandals Montego Bay as Caribbean Green Hotel 2006.

“Sandals and Beaches Resorts International believes that the travel and tourism industry has the potential to contribute significantly to environmental preservation, especially if there are specific efforts to monitor the impact of daily operations on the surrounding environment,” said chairman, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart.

Stewart recently approved a proposal to publish a special environmental journal in the Jamaica Observer newspaper, which is a part of the group, and asked journalist and environment activist John Maxwell to edit the publication.

Sandals surged ahead of the hospitality industry shortly after it formulated a corporate Environmental Health and Safety policy for all its resorts and put Richard May in charge of a team of environmental, health and safety managers appointed across the chain.

“Each resort gains further organisational support through the establishment of volunteer Green Teams, who become ‘guardians of the environment’,” May, group director for Environmental Affairs, told the Sunday Observer.

All Sandals and Beaches properties must adhere to what, May said, were “critical sound environmental practices” such as water conservation, energy management, solid waste management, control of hazardous substances, land and ecosystem conservation, as well as social and cultural development. “Staff awareness is a critical component in the environmental management strategies of each hotel, and properties undertake various means of effectively educating and involving the team members. There are environmental contests, daily briefings, poster competitions and in the case of Sandals Whitehouse, a conservation trade show is mounted annually,” he disclosed.

May pointed to beneficial ways in which the environmental management programme impacted the wider communities, and the country as a whole. “For example, through lower energy consumption there can be improved municipal power management, thereby reducing impact on community electricity needs, reducing things like blackouts, load shedding and the like.”

Through its energy management programme, a 20-35 per cent reduction in energy consumption had become the experience across the group, he disclosed.

May noted that Sandals and Beaches properties promoted and sold local tours and attractions with special recognition of “Green Tours” at their tour desks, and invited local craft artisans to the hotel at least once per week to display and sell their craft items as part of the programme.

The group environmental director outlined several other ways in which the programme benefited the community.

“Sandals and Beaches Green teams are focused around the 3Rs principle: Reduce, Re-use and Recycle,” explained May. “This gives rise to activities such as the composting of garden waste and allowing local farmers to collect vegetable food waste from kitchen to feed farm animals; returning of glass bottles to suppliers, and using kitchen grease collected by recycling to make soap.”

He said solar heating was also being practised at some properties and only organic fertilisers were used on soil. At Sandals Grande Ocho Rios, office paper is shredded and donated to local ceramics manufacturers to be used for packaging.

“Watersports staff members identify the importance of reef protection to guests and ensure that no marine animal (corals, shellfish, sponges, etc) is removed from the sea during snorkeling or diving activities. Even the resort guests are included by placing a card in each room encouraging them to conserve water through towel reuse,” May added.

The Sandals and Beaches environmental programme gets the personal attention and approval of chairman Stewart who pledged that the resorts would remain committed to maintaining the environmental policy.

Stewart was confident that that would ensure “the sustainability of our business and community development through local purchasing preferences and continuous improvement in the utilisation of our natural resources within the Caribbean”.

It was the chairman’s belief that the company’s dominance in the area of environmental stewardship was attributable to “foresight and diligent planning” as mandated in the company’s mission statement emphasising environmental responsibility.

“From recycling to conserving, ecological responsiveness is a Sandals commitment,” said Stewart. “Because at our resorts, which are made for love, loving the environment has always to be second nature.”