Our guests this week have been full of cheer and smiles watching our team create and adorn the resort with beautiful holiday décor hand made from repurposed furniture and other recycled and reused materials.
“We opt to reforest the globe instead of depriving it of precious living, breathing trees” explains owner/CEO Ewald Biemans. “For example, in Aruba, all Christmas trees are shipped thousands of miles, burning fossil fuels in the transportation and heating the planet along the way.”
Christmas trees require about 5 years to grow to minimum size and require substantial amounts of water and poisoning fertilizers. Typically, they provide adornment for only a three-week period and these oxygen producing beauties are then discarded. Our view is that the damage exceeds the benefit – and alternatives are possible. Bucuti & Tara would like to see our island destination collectively choose the sustainable route and show that our guests understand our intentions and react with appreciation for the creative and festive solutions we have implemented in effort to maintain Aruba’s health and beauty for generations.
Bucuti and Tara has proudly chosen to preserve our natural environment for future generations and has achieved a Carbon Neutral certification. Besides that, this month the resort was the first and only hotel in the world to be awarded a United Nations Climate Action Now Award. This prestigious honor was awarded due to their environmental program’s scalability and replicability. As a company, they demonstrate that the implementation of sustainable actions is not only possible, but also something that can be applied throughout all businesses.
“Another improvement to sustainable living in Aruba would be to change the impact that the extreme use of fireworks has on our small island,” Biemans continues. “Fireworks pollute on many levels. The smoke that is created by these objects is especially dangerous to our lungs and we should be more mindful than ever about this with COVID-ÂÊ. Besides that, they cause noise, chemical and waste product which ultimately can end up in the sea, damaging marine life. Days of continuous fireworks causes undo stress on our animals, our elderly, our ill from noise pollution. The expense and annual expenditure is wasteful and causes economic harm as well. While traditions are understood and appreciated, when they cause more harm than good, alternatives must be adopted.”
The Bucuti and Tara Sustainable team suggest seasonal music, dance and culinary contests and festivals that promote culture and similarly provide a vocal and sensory outlet to ring out the old year and welcome in the new! We hope Aruba chooses to protect its beautiful island for future generations.
