Blue Horizons announced the resort's award of a Green Globe, the premier sustainability certification for the travel and tourism industry, in late March. A small, first class hillside hotel overlooking the bay 300 yards from Grenada's glorious Grande Ance Beach with the island's lively capital of St George 5 miles distant. Sounds idyllic?- perhaps in more ways than one.
The resort offers deluxe accommodation among lush gardens that are home to 21 different species of wild native birds and 49 varieties of Moths. It also has a freshwater swimming pool to service twenty-two spacious air-conditioned suites with kitchenette, ceiling fan and color television. The latter of course modern elements embedded in a natural habitat and drawing on environmental resources that must be cared for to sustain future generations.
Evolution of Green Globe Certification
Green Globe was developed to provide a progressive path which tourism organizations, keen to measure their environmental impact, could follow; subsequently developing and implementing strategies to reduce those impacts.
The resulting certification is based upon the Agenda 21 Plan, originally embraced by 182 heads of state at the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 that delivered a set of principles appropriate to local, state, national and international action on sustainable development. Given its unabridged title, 'Agenda 21 for the Travel and Tourism Industry: Towards Environmentally Sustainable Development', describes an action plan which engages a number of overall objectives for the industry.
Blue Horizons Garden Resort secured a prized Green Globe Certification for its environmentally-friendly initiatives and practices. Arnold Hopkin, the resort's owner/manager, is flattered that their environmental endeavors have been recognized, "We are extremely pleased that our efforts over the years have earned us such a prestigious award," he adds, "Of course, the true beneficiary of our initiatives is the environment and we are proud to play a key role in preserving Grenada's best natural assets."
Blue Horizons Environmental Custodians at Work
Green Globe certification comes as a result of Blue Horizons' active promotion of the following environmental practices:
The main swimming pool is purified by the chemical-free Auto Pilot system, which employs salt instead of chlorine. Swimming in water with a saline content of 0.3 to 0.5 percent has positive health effects such as eliminating dry skin, damaged hair and red eyes and excludes an unnatural chemical from the environment. It also attracts a considerable cost and energy saving as a result of not having to purchase and have chlorine delivered.
Blue Horizons has devised a process which allows the resort's laundry system to be operated using 100 percent rain water. This measure required the restoration of an old 10,500 gallon water tank which captures and fills exclusively with rain water. All laundry: staff uniforms, towels, bedding, etc. is washed in this way; a process which saves about 500 gallons of water each day. The absence of minerals in natural rain water also significantly reduces the need for additive chemicals and laundry staff already use environmentally friendly, non-toxic and phosphate free cleaning products.
Distribution of reusable shopping bags is another initiative. As resort accommodation is fitted with kitchenettes, 90 percent of the guests tend to walk to the nearby supermarket for groceries and they are given shopping bags specifically for this purpose. The resort's management also encourages guests to take these bags with them when they depart from Blue Horizons so that they hopefully with use them for grocery shopping back home.
Food for Thought
Aside from the self catering and therefore a chance to reduce energy consumption in your own personal holiday space, La Belle Creole Restaurant and bar, reputedly the finest in Grenada, is at your service. Billed as 'gourmet cuisine with a delightful West Indian touch taken while looking out of archway framed pictures of pure masterpiece Grenada, it is indeed a memorable pleasure.
Green Globe's certification system is designed to meet the major environmental challenges facing the planet head-on; including the greenhouse effect, over utilisation of freshwater resources, destruction of biodiversity, production of solid and biological waste, and corporate social issues. Mr. Hopkin and team Blue Horizons Garden Resort continue to strive toward even greater environmental achievements, meanwhile their combination of Eco-tourist and straight R & R visitors can spend time on location with a somewhat clearer conscience.
Andrew McTiernan - A respected print and broadcast journalist & editor, PR specialist and moderator with a broad economic focus and established international ...
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