Almond Beach and Jaguar Reef Lodge Environmental Programs:

Sustainable Development has been a passion of the owners of Almond Beach and Jaguar Reef Lodge for many years. The Managing Director of Almond Beach and Jaguar Reef spent more than twenty years actively working in this field with a background that included her role  in launching the Canadian Environmental Choice program as its Program Chairman, (the second eco-labelling program in the world); teaching Sustainable Development as a faculty member for ten years in the Prince of Wales Business and the Environment Program, at Cambridge University England; participating as a founding member of the Canadian national Round Table of Environment and the Economy; and working as a consultant around the world in this field since 1986.

Sustainable Development requires us to understand the integration of environmental policies and programs with the realities of economic and social needs. This is particularly important in developing countires and was never more relevent than over the past year when job losses in the travel industry in Belize were devastating in many areas, and programs to develop skills and knowledge among the Belizean worksforce, as well continue to take steps to improve our environmental footprint.

We were proud that we did not have to reduce our employee head count during this challenging year, but we were not able to move as agressively as we had hoped in our environmental improvement programs.

A sign of our faith that the economy will improve, and of our committment to overall sustainability can be found in our decision, taken in September 2009, to work to be certified in the Green Globe Program. As we start working towards this important initiative this is a summary of our present initiatives. We will be adding our economic and social goals and publishing them in to a formal report on our Sustainability committment as the year progresses.

We believe that our acquisition of Jaguar Reef last year enables us to take important action steps in many areas. While we are collecting data and starting our counts here is what we are doing at present:

Knowledge and active participation

Starting in September 2009 we will be embarking on a formalised, and expanded, program to reduce our impact on the environment. This will involve a commitment to the Green Globe initiative with formal assessment and reporting. Our first step will be to involve employees in active participation through our Green Team, building their awareness and seeking their ideas on where we can make a difference. We hope that the Green Globe initiative will also give an added emphasis to our activities with guests, providing them with the opportunity to help us move forward through the actions they can take during their stay.

Energy
Our goal is to reduce our use of fossil fuels both in our day to day activities and in the products we use. We have therefore set the goal of reducing our vehicle energy use by 10% for our season 2009 over our peak season (September 2007 to September 2008). We have already replaced several of our vehicles with diesel fuel, and bought larger vehicles to reduce the number of vehicles used. We plan in the 2009/10 season to continue this program, to look for opportunities to reduce our energy use including reducing the numbers of trips we take for shopping, combining these trips with other activities wherever possible.

Plastics and the Environment

We recognize that long term use of plastics made from fossil fuels has impacts on our land, water, and wildlife, and is also unsustainable in the longer term. We have initiated a program to assess where we could use alternate products where possible. This will involve phasing out the use of styrofoam containers and replacing them with compostable products. We will also be moving to increase our use of reusable alternatives, such as reusable ice packs, as well as a full review of the options and alternatives that might be available to us.

Water
We understand the impact that our use of water has on the environment, both in terms of waste of a natural resource as well as the energy used to bring water to our resort and guests. We are reviewing our use of water and plan to initiate programs which will hopefully reduce our water usage by 20% over the next three years through non essential use (such as limiting our water usage in laundry and dish washing areas, and vehicle cleaning through not using running water). As stated, we will also be encouraging our guests to conserve water in their daily activities and encourage them to participate in programs to reuse sheets and towels when appropriate rather than sending them to daily laundry.

Chemicals and the Environment
We continually assess our use of toxic chemicals and try whenever possible to implement programs that reduce our use of toxic materials. This involves us carefully assessing our use of pesticides and herbicides, and moving to a new program of biodegradable, non toxic, washing materials and cleaning products.

Waste Management
We recognize that waste management is a continuing problem in developing countries where there is no infrastructure to recycle effectively, and where almost every product has to be imported.

We are implementing a program in the 2009/2010 season to set up our own composting center which will alow us to separate our biodegradable waste at source, providing useful compost material. We also have an active program to change our purchasing so as to focus on re-use options, larger sizes that can be then put in to reuseable containers for day to day use. We have an initiative to phase out styrofoam containers, replacing them with plastics made from potato starch or sugar cane which can be added to the compost when used. For our employees we are providing reuseable food containers for lunches that will reduce our styrofoam use significantly, and for guests we hope to phase out 75% of our small water bottles by providing guests with their own reuseable bottle on arrival.

We continue to look for opportunities to reuse or pass on materials that can find a useful home in a country where almost all manufactured goods have to be imported.

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