The Ministry of Environment remains committed to Barbados’ goal of becoming the greenest economy in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Minister Dr Denis Lowe made the pledge yesterday at The Crane Residential Resort, St Philip, where he toured a showcase under the theme Think, Eat, Save as the hotel commemorated World Environment Day.
Lowe said the journey to a green economy would be determined by how the island’s environment was treated “because we believe that we can have a sustainable economy without comprising the virtues of our environment”.
The minister commended the St Philip resort for sound environmental practices in the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of its facilities.
He also said that tourists were interested in coming to an environmentally friendly destination and Barbados was aware of what was required to achieve that status.
“Those standards would discourage people from littering and dumping illegally as well as asking the business community to incorporate what we are seeing around here at the Crane today,”?he said.
The minister also alluded to the green energy programme which was launched by his ministry in conjunction with the Sanitation Service Authority which included the Mangrove Pond Landfill being converted into a total green site.
“We are in the business of starting the construction of a waste to energy plant where we are working on wind and solar energy. What we are really trying to do is to decrease our emissions of greenhouse gases.
“We are fully aware that we have a small land space and therefore we cannot continue to landfill solid waste. What we want to do with the solid waste is convert it to energy so that we can reduce our dependency on fossil fuels,” he said.
Yesterday’s showcase featured presentations from The Future Centre Trust, the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation, Ace Recycling, Solid Waste Management and Eco Lab.
The Crane’s “green team” discussed how the resort incorporated efficient energy use, food wastage management and sustainable development as part of daily operations. (AH)
