Our company won the Green Leaf Awards 2010 presented by The Environmental Management Authority in collaboration with the United Nations on the occasion of World Environment Day 2010 in recognition of our outstanding contribution to responsible environmental management and sustainable development in Trinidad and Tobago.
We support the local community by employing staff from the surrounding village of Plymouth. Our fruit on our organic farm is sold to local vendors at below market price, so they can resell them at a good profit. We buy a lot of our commodities from the local groceries. We use the village taxis for guest transport as well as another village near by. We encourage our guest to use local village eateries and I personally introduce them to the owners of the respective outlets and to buy fish locally from the local fisherman.
We encourage our guests during our briefing to visit the mystery tomb, the courlanders monument and fort James all in the nearest village. Also all the local restaurants, especially those selling local fish and roti. We introduce our guests to the local vegetable and fruit vendors. They are briefed in how to use the local route taxis which all islanders use and the bus service as well as the tourist taxis for their journeys to the airport. We encourage that all car rentals are delivered to the villa the day after arrival. That way the taxi drivers from the village benefit by the guests visit. We prepare paying signs for the local taxi drivers, so they have a more professional appearance when meeting guest at the airport. Guests are encouraged to use local tour guides that are well trained and registered with the local tourist board.
Our laundry uses water from our solar water system and our smaller apartment is fully water solar heated. We work with environmentalists on Tobago and the owner writes article on the environment for the local papers from time to time and encourage organic farming.
We support the local environmental charity, namely Environment Tobago and the Crusoe Reef Trust that have their literature available in our accommodations. We also give financial help to these organisations during the year.
Our electricity is provided by the local electricity company, but we encourage our guests to be energy efficient by turning their air-conditioning off when not needed. We have cut down on our energy use by installing solar water heating for our laundro-mats, thus reducing our energy by a third. This was installed approximately 8 months ago.
Solar water heating assist our energy reduction. We also use solar lights on our driveway. We use energy saving lights in some areas. We collect rain water for our organic kitchen garden near the main house. We encourage guest to minimise on water use which comes from underground wells from the local water board. Our toilets are the more modern type. We change our towels every four days or three is guest request. If we extend the days we end up using more energy. We use the best eco detergents that are available on our island and in smaller quantities.
Our gardens are 100% organic with no use of fertilizers or chemicals. We use organic compost from our farm and nature reserve and have compost heaps through out our facilities.
We encourage our guest to donate bird feeders/nesting boxes for birds and other animals and insects, in addition to our own input. we have a number of ponds through out our facilities to encourage wild life and we leave a large area uncut to create a natural environment for wildlife and encourage others to so same by our signage through out our property, including no hunting signage. We do not have a recycling plant in Tobago, but paint tins and the like, are re-used for nursery plants. Some paper is added to compost if the ink is compatible with the breakdown process or used to keep weeds down with organic mulch on top from our organic heaps.
We collect a vast amount of leaves for our compost heaps. We will shortly try a second bin for organic matter in our guest accommodation and hope that they will not find this objectionable. This will be a test project.
Our organic fruit is sold to local vendors at very cheap prices for them to resell to hotels and in the markets. We also manufacture on small scale Mango chutney and other condiments using local labour. Taxis are from the area and they pick up our guests if requested.
We support local environmental agencies by donating stationery to help them with their projects of educating the various communities of Tobago. We recycle all e-mail and other paper in our office and also use it for scrap pads. We give our guest information of the main environmental bodies on the island and encourage them to participate, especially on the turtle watches which have helped diminish the turtle slaughter on the islands beaches and also ask them not to by turtle jewellery, black coral and caiman bags. They are also encouraged to use the local bus service to get a feel of the island, island route taxis which are very cheap and of course the village tourist taxis who live near by.
All of our staff is employed from the surrounding village and we train them in skills that they may not have. We buy local produce from the village grocers, vegetable stands and fishermen and encourage our guest to do likewise , by introducing them on a personal level. All our masons, plumbers, electricians and other maintenance individuals are from the surrounding communities.
We invite every traveler who books a vacation via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the vacations they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same vacation can have different views!
