With the Future Centre Trust’s experience in waste management projects, the Travel Foundation saw the organisation as a natural partner as it continued a hotel focused programme to reduce environmental impacts.

Project Coordinator, Lani Edghill, has been hard at work on this project for some months with a number of assistant interns, initially from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, – students Tanya King and Simonique Welch and supplemented by students from the Bellairs Research Institute Field Studies Semester out of McGill University, Laura Pinkham, Adrienne Pacini and Chris Wong. Also joining the team is Ayana Moosa, who has been working with the FCT in a number of roles since March, and has found an appropriate avenue for her interest in recycling in this project.

The Travel Foundation has this to say on the concept and their goals for this initiative:

“The Travel Foundation has been working with hoteliers in the Caribbean since 2009 on a project to save water and energy,  called ‘Switch off, Save Big’. This project assisted hoteliers in reducing their water and energy consumption and,  to date, collectively the hotels have saved close to £1 million on their water and energy bills. This has resulted in them being able to utilize the savings in other areas of their businesses, including retention of staff.

In May 2011, the Travel Foundation partnered with The Future Centre Trust, Barbados,  and extended the programme to include waste prevention and reduction. The partnership aims to ensure that hoteliers receive the relevant tools required to implement a waste prevention programme in their hotel. This project will run until May 2012, providing training on implementing waste reduction measures and recommendations.

It is estimated that by implementing the reduction measures, hoteliers can reduce their overall waste by 10%. This can also have a positive impact in terms of reduction on the hotel’s overall expenditure. All hotels involved in the project will receive a final waste audit report, along with their reduction comparisons over the one year period.

Hoteliers interested in reducing their water, waste and energy consumption should visit www.thetravelfoundation.org.uk/greener-accommodations for free online tools.

This project is part of a range of water, energy and waste reduction initiatives run by the Travel Foundation. The Travel Foundation is a UK charity that cares for the places we love to visit. You can find out more at www.thetravelfoundation.org.uk

The project has so far completed work at the following hotels, each in different stages:

• Dover Beach Hotel
• Divi Southwinds Hotel
• Southern Palms Hotel
• Plum Tree
• Coconut Court
• Accra Beach Hotel
• Bougainvillea Hotel
• Crystal Cove
• Worthing Court
• Butterfly Beach

We look forward to seeing some major reductions of waste that would otherwise head to the landfill from this project with a minimum of 50% of waste audited thus far, recoverable for composting or recycling.

Thanks to Lani for leading the way on this one and for all of our student contributions and to Susan Mahon and Jill Parlee of the Bellairs Research Institute for their support and recommendation of this project to the McGill students for this year.

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Tags: Bellairs Research Institute, Lani Edghill, Travel Foundation, University of the West Indies