Bougainvillea

We are taking care of the environment and our local community to preserve our beautiful beaches and the unique culture of Barbados. We are doing our best to make sure that your holiday benefits the country’s economy through buying local produce where possible thereby supporting agriculture on the island. Furthermore, we support local schools and non-profit organisations, such as the Aids Food Bank and Verdun House Rehabilitation Centre.

How we support our local community: It is one of our goals to keep our beaches and towns tidy and attractive for both our guests and locals.

We organise beach and coastal area clean-ups four times every year and guests are invited to join staff for all these initiatives. We take this very seriously and therefore we are founding members of the Maxwell Beautification Project. The project’s purpose is to beautify the community, increase environmental awareness and provoke community spirit and solidarity.

How you can get involved: If you are interested, we would like to invite you to one of our Garden Tours to show you the diverse range of plants found on the island and at the resort, and to illustrate the use of compost. Kids can visit our turtle and rabbit centre for educational talks and re-used materials such as, icicle sticks and juice boxes are used for arts and crafts.

How we protect the environment: Just like you we would like to preserve the island’s natural beauty for generations to come. We are trying to find ways to save towels, linen and energy. Moreover, we purchase from local producers that use sustainable methods and at least 80% of our employees live within ten miles of the resort. We also use low wattage bulbs especially around the beach area to ensure hawk’s bill turtles can nest in peace.

Recycling is always on our minds and we encourage our employees to reuse everything that they can. We buy recyclable office paper and after use we shred and donate it to local pottery firms, chicken farms and also local gift shops to use it for packaging. Administration offices use boxes as garbage receptacles in administration offices, and old business cards as ‘post its’. We hatch plants on property in tire gardens and reused old tubs. Furthermore, cuttings from around the property go straight to our compost station and re-used as fertilizer.

As a Tour Operator: We are committed to sustainable tourism and want to do our best to ensure that your children and their children are able to enjoy a holiday as beautiful and unspoiled as the ones we offer you today. We actively support the Travel Foundation in their work with people and environments in holiday destinations overseas. We also work closely with the Federation of Tour Operators in driving improvements in sustainability across the industry. We are working with our suppliers to encourage and reward responsible practice and ‘greening’ our own operations (including aiming for a carbon neutral HQ within 3 years).

We support charities in the UK through our Group charity arm and through a comprehensive programme of employee volunteering. We also undertake a range of initiatives to support community organisations in our holiday destinations. These include funding a degree scholarship in Tourism Management for Caribbean nationals, providing sports equipment for schools in hurricane-hit Grenada and supporting community development and entrepreneurship in South Africa.

Thanks to Sir Richard Branson, we are also the only tour operator able to say that all our future profits will be invested in renewable energy initiatives. (Together with the rest of the our travel group, this is a commitment worth US $10 (GB £5)BN over the next 10 years)