5 Ways to make your business climate-smart

Eco- Features Series -No. 1 – Energy

In honour of the upcoming Earth Hour celebrations (March 30th, 2019 read more about it below) we here at the True Blue Bay Boutique Resort Blog  want to share 5 ways to make your business climate smart. In particular the ways that we, as a resort, reduce our energy consumption, especially the use of fossil fuel powered electricity. This is the first of our Eco- Features series. We hope that this inspires other hospitality businesses locally, regionally and internationally to take a critical look at their energy consumption and begin switching to more environmentally friendly alternatives.

1. Participate in Earth Hour

Join us at Earth Hour on Saturday 30th March at Dodgy Dock Restaurant and Lounge Bar. For one hour (8:30pm to 9:30 pm) we join millions around the world  by turning off the lights and lighting lanterns and candles to save energy and save our planet. If you can’t make it to an Earth Hour event join in from home, turn of the lights for an hour- every effort counts.

2. Alternative energy – solar energy

Though the upfront cost of this switch  to solar power is quite an investment, over time, it will reduce your fossil fuel electricity consumption without sacrificing the comfort of your guests. We use solar-powered water heaters to heat the water in our guest rooms and for the restaurant’s kitchen. Solar panels contribute significantly to the electricity generated for the day to day operations of the resort. Our new solar panels mounted on the climate-smart Cocoa Pods are forecasted to supplement the majority of our overall fossil fuel electricity consumption.

3. Choose energy-efficient appliances whenever possible

Luckily many businesses that create the appliances used throughout our resort value the environment as much as we do. This means that for almost every appliance- from light bulbs to air conditioning units and ceiling fans there is an energy efficient alternative. We always do our research and always choose the most energy-efficient option.

4. Get your guests involved

Holidays and hotel stays are all about comfort and luxury, we get it. Part of that means fresh linens and fluffy towels. However, changing linens and towels every day is not necessary, and it does mean the heavy-handed consumption of energy and detergents. We encourage our guests to choose to reuse their towels for more than a day, and we change our linens every three days unless otherwise requested. This  strikes a fair balance between luxury and energy conservation. We also have signs around the resort encouraging guests to be mindful of turning off lights and air conditioning when leaving the rooms.

5. Prevent energy leaks – Insulate

In the Caribbean, resort’s use a lot of energy to cool down guest rooms with air conditioning. To prevent using more power than is necessary to keep a room at a comfortable temperature it is essential to insulate thoroughly. At True Blue Bay Boutique Resort we use several layers of insulation and have double paned glass doors and windows to keep the heat out and the cool air in the rooms. We encourage our guests to keep doors and windows closed when utilising the air conditioning.

All of these method’s of energy conservation have been built into our day to day operations over the 20 years that we have been open. We try to keep abreast of what is new and what we can incorporate. Environmental sustainability is the foundation on which we have built True Blue Bay Boutique Resort.