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Story and photo by Suzanne Nielsen and reprinted with permission of the
Daily Herald.
December 24, 2003
"Everything on Saba ends up in the Marine Park," says Tamara Storm van Leeuwen-Croes, environmental expert with the Dutch Caribbean Management Consultancy in Curacao.
When one looks at the steep-sided profile of this five-square mile dormant volcano, it easy to see that water runoff will eventually take all waste products into the sea. Waste production is on the increase, provoking the concern that the "unspoiled queen" could eventually be polluted enough to become an undesirable destination.
Van Leeuwen-Croes just spent a week giving a one-day workshop for hotels and then spending a half-day "environmental walk-through" with each of the nine hotel operators. This session included a checklist, a tour of the premises, and advice on how to operate in a more environmentally friendly fashion.
Angelika Hartleib of El Momo's Cottages was the Saba contact for the event, which was sponsored by the Netherlands Antilles Department of Environment, Public Health, and Hygiene and put together by the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST). Saba island government supplied a vehicle for the consultant. Every participant paid a $35 fee, and many hotels provided complementary accommodations, meals, and meeting space.
Awareness intensified
"Tourists expect paradise, and we must offer it to them," van Leeuwen-Croes pointed out to the hotels attending the workshop. If Saba is used up, if the National Marine Park has nothing to offer because bleaching products and other pollutants have killed the fish, then tourists will have no reason to come to Saba. It is good business to put measures in place to make tourism sustainable and Van Leeuwen-Croes was impressed that 100% of Saba's hotels participated in the week's program.
 Workshop participants discussed ways to conserve resources, starting with that precious commodity, water. Saba's hotels, like its homes, rely on rainwater captured in cisterns. Gray water can of course be recycled, but water usage can also be reduced by supplying hotel linens only when the tourist requests replacements, by installing water saving devices on faucets, showerheads, and toilets, etc.
Energy use--a hot topic because of a recent increase in fuel price--brought about a discussion of solar panels, solar showers, energy conserving light bulbs, effective use of timing devices, hybrid generators, appropriate isolation around refrigerators, etc.
There was an animated debate on cleaning products, as Van Leeuwen-Croes declared household bleach to be the number one offender, a very toxic chemical. Hoteliers told of trying to educate staff members not to use bleach, and found that they would bring it from home anyway, convinced that nothing worked as well. This behavior was identified as the "if it doesn't smell like chorine, it's not clean" syndrome and very difficult to eradicate.
Van Leeuwen-Croes pointed to superb marketing efforts as the culprit in convincing people to purchase highly touted, but environmentally unfriendly, products. She said that it takes time to convince the current generation that there are new and effective products on the market that do the job AND do not pollute. She recommends common natural products like baking soda and vinegar as highly effective.
In addition to instructing staff, hotels need the cooperation of their clients. Tourists can be educated to cooperate as willing participants by appropriate information at check-in and reminders placed in their rooms.
 Keeping the momentum
The seminar also functioned as a forum to exchange ideas. The group shared their creative ways to recycle and reuse. Forming a purchasing alliance was proposed, so that environmentally friendly products, which might have to be especially ordered, could be purchased in bulk to make them affordable to small business operators.
Van Leeuwen-Croes noted that all hotels are interested in environmental issues if it means saving money. "True believers" take it a step further and lobbying in their communities for issues such as total waste management, which will mean ordinances and legislation. Saba's landfill is already bursting, but there is no articulated plan to educate the public or control what it uses for packaging and how it disposes of its consumables.
The environmental walk-throughs will result in individual reports for each hotel and final documentation sent to organizer Hartleib and to Lt. Governor Antoine Solagnier. The group plans to meet after the holidays to compare notes and to determine the next step now that common ground has been established. Education and certification have been mentioned as possibilities.
Reeducation
 "Start at the schools," cautioned Leeuwen-Croes. The education process, which she called "reach and teach," cannot begin too early: Proper disposal of containers, more prudent use of chemicals, increasing awareness of the impact of even small environmental gestures: "It all adds up," she says.
The next step would be island legislation to support environmental concerns. Leeuwen-Croes cited a program on Bonaire, which charges a refundable bottle deposit, underscoring the principle that it is the consumer who pays for environmental impact. This includes the idea that disposable bottles are not welcome. Many tourists now carry their own water bottle and refill as needed.
Certification process
"Being green" can just reflect the philosophical persuasion of the establishment OR it can be used as hotel promotion to attract tourists. Promotion usually includes some sort of recognizable "stamp" or certification process, indicating that the establishment conducts business in an environmentally friendly fashion. The most well known certificate is ISO 14000, with criteria established by the International Standardization Organization in Switzerland. The Caribbean Hotel Association also has a certificate, the "Green Globe," but it is still unfamiliar to tourists.
 At any rate, most of these processes are lengthy and costly--and possibly out of the reach of small Saban hotels. There was talk at the seminar of banding together to see if a "Green Area" award, encompassing the entire island, would be possible. Another suggestion was to create a local award or recognition program perhaps administered by a hotel association or the tourist office. The program would create criteria that hotels would need to observe in order to declare themselves "green on Saba."
Hartleib said the hotels were very pleased with the value of the workshop and walk-throughs, and are excited to interest restaurants and other entities in a comprehensive environmental protection program of sustainable tourism on Saba.
Photo (top): Seminar participants meet for workshop.
Photo (second from top): Seminar consultant Tamara Leeuwen-Croes (standing) advises one of the small groups.
Photo (middle): Barbara Tooten (left) of Scout's Place goes through the checklist with Leeuwen-Croes.
Photo (second from bottom): Scout's Place employee Icilma Fontaine (right) explains that ice chest water is recycled to the consultant (center) and owner Barbara Tooten (left.)
Photo (bottom): Eco Lodge's Marie Anne Groenendÿh (right) uses white vinegar to clean mildew instead of toxic household bleach.
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Story and photograph © Suzanne Nielsen, 2005.
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