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For the uninitiated, reading that they are encouraged to go on vacation for Climate Week 2023 likely rings a bit, well, odd. It’s true, though, that a Bucuti & Tara vacation is better for the environment than even staying home. How? A vacation at Bucuti & Tara is carbon neutral - you don’t leave a carbon footprint, rather only sandy footprints. Our resort is the only hotel in the history of the United Nations to ever win its coveted Global UN Climate Action Award. The UN heralded our sustainability program as “highly replicable and scalable” for hotels around the world to follow as we all work together to mitigate climate change.
Bucuti & Tara goes even further by providing our guests with a regenerative travel experience. Regenerative travel means leaving a vacation spot better than you found it. While it is easy to wonder what that means, Bucuti & Tara makes it even easier. A vacation here can include joining in a beach cleanup along our Eagle Beach, affectionately named one of the “Dream Beaches of the World.” It means opting for Lionfish ceviche, an invasive fish we strive to help eradicate from our surrounding coral reefs. It can look like planting a tree at our new nature preserve that doubles as a carbon sink drawing down CO2 emissions from the atmosphere. This can be opting for a nature tour with our friend and famed wildlife expert Michiel Oversteegen instead of off-roading on an ATV, which continues to prove detrimental to our flora and fauna. It can even be as simple, yet deeply meaningful, as participating in Pack for a Purpose by bringing much-needed supplies to help at the local children’s home we support.
Taking action globally during Climate Week 2023
Our Founder, Owner/CEO and noted environmentalist Ewald Biemans is in New York City this week as an invited speaker at the Regenerative Travel Summit 2023 as part of Climate Week. The summit brings together thought leaders to discuss the future of ‘force for good’ travel, such as empowering communities like we do here in our home of Aruba and transforming food offerings like presenting our popular Authentic Aruban & Caribbean menu resulting from generations of staff family recipes instead of sourcing food from halfway around the world that requires a heavy carbon footprint and inauthentic experience.
The flagship event assembles leading experts and visionaries from the travel industry to explore groundbreaking solutions and take action in implementing practices that allow travel to be a catalyst for positive change. Afterall, most everyone loves to travel! This responsible travel approach prioritizes sustainability and regenerative practices that foster environmental and community well-being.
Mr. Biemans is there at Regenerative Travel to share proven solutions and contribute to the global discussion and actions required to overcome the ever-increasing dangers of climate change. His success with aligning Bucuti & Tara in providing one of the world’s top vacations with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is of particular interest to summit attendees. We are excited that our resort’s boldness sets an example, such as our popular and at times controversial What We Are Not list that clearly states that vacationing here includes embracing responsible travel.
The timing coincides with the United Nations General Assembly where Secretary-General António Guterres' Climate Ambition Summit on today, Sept. 20, will accelerate action by governments, business, finance, local authorities and civil society, and hear from "first movers and doers.” These entities, such as Bucuti & Tara, demonstrate solutions others can adopt as the world is amid a historic stretch of climate extremes, with 2023 on track to be the warmest year on record.
While it is a serious time, it is also a hopeful time and we are honored to join colleagues and travelers in providing the world with a climate-forward vacation opportunity.
Sharing successful solutions locally
Recently, Mr. Biemans granddaughter and Bucuti & Tara Executive Committee Member Crescenzia Biemans was invited to share the resort’s sustainability solutions on island. Crescenzia was invited as a changemaker by the Women's Club of Aruba where she spoke to 260 leaders in the community. While informing them of the resort’s practices that they can implement into their own approach to business and daily life, she encouraged the group to continue opening their hearts and minds and taking a leap with a proactive role and regenerative approach that will help preserve Aruba for future generations.
Joining together for traditional monthly beach cleanup
For more than 30 years, Bucuti & Tara staff and interested guests join together on the third Wednesday of each month for a beach cleanup. Mr. Biemans founded Aruba’s Sponsor a Mile program decades ago and at its peak, every Aruba hotel participated. This treasured tradition brings guests and staff together to converse while working collaboratively to keep Bucuti & Tara’s stretch of Eagle Beach pristine as well as safe for wildlife such as our nesting and hatching Leatherback sea turtles.
We are honored to provide every Bucuti & Tara guest with a memorable vacation that is as good for you as it is our shared environment.