Simplifying Sustainability : Travel my path from Green Business to a Better Caribbean

Why start another business program geared towards improving the sustainability of businesses?

True Caribbean realities can never fit into the trending expectations of being green. The ways through which my expectations have adapted over the past two years - are a glaring testimony.

A short (not really) story of how I ended up here visioning a Better Caribbean -

For the last 2 years I have been working for the Future Centre Trust and the Inter-American Development Bank on the Green Business Barbados Program. I always had the intention of returning home from studying in the U.S. My plan was to work either for government or as a consultant to preserve the beauty which inspired my learning and my desire to find a career where I could fulfill one of my life goals - to spend more time on the beach!

With that intention, every year I came home to see my family, I tried to reach at least one organization, government representative or person who I would want to work with in the future. I tried to reach the Future Centre Trust on two trips and was successful in 2012. We had a general conversation about what they were doing and what I was working on in the U.S.

Dismal Job Market

That same year (2012) I graduated and the job market was looking just as dismal in the U.S. as it did when I finished my Master’s. At that time completing a Ph.D was my best job offer, getting paid to go to school, teach and build up my work experience as an educator?? Yes please.

So, back to the job market seeming dismal, especially in academia. Shortly after graduating, I found a short term contract to work with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. One daunting aspect of this contract was that I couldn’t really work on climate change education because of the political climate in Florida's government.

This was crushing for a bright eyed, ready to work, spanking new PHD graduate who was just put through the wringer to defend a climate change adaptation dissertation! I went through this wringing process very willingly because I figured if we must work this hard for this degree, it has to be worth it. I was specifically told that my work would be worth it if I wanted to lead teams and be the person creating solutions.

I did want that. Message received and that was my plan. So where is all of this work to be done?

Climate Change, Funding Agency Shape Shifting and BARE STRESS

I had spent the last 6 years deep into climate change research and devising a grand plan to be at the frontline between communities and funding agencies willing to assist. I wanted to make sure that when all of this climate chaos began to happen, that the desires, traditions, cultures and ways of being of any community (and hopefully the ones where I grew up) would not be forgotten in how adaptation happened.

From what I saw while working with a non-profit focused on African American organic farmers and what I heard from my cohort of fellows at Green For All among other channels in the environmental revolution, the norm is that funding agencies shape shift on you. This happens simply because their money is coming from somewhere else and they have certain restrictions and goals they have to reach. This is all really one big interconnected bank, banking on your ideas at levels you and I will never find out about.

Before you know it, you are convinced that their agenda is your agenda (sometimes it is but the path to fulfill the agenda is different) and this is what prevents any kind of on the ground effectiveness or real solutions. This also creates “bare stress” (as we say in Barbados) for anyone not clear on the importance of your agenda or how to navigate this shape shifting.

An opportunity to shape shift

So again back to the dismal job market. I kept applying for lots of teaching jobs, most of the opportunities were in online teaching. This gave me the push to plan my path back to working in the Caribbean region. I got an online teaching job and I decided to move back to Barbados. I then reached out to FCT to let them know and found out about GBB, they asked me to interview and I secured the consultancy to begin in March 2013.

Now this is what I imagined the job would be like - I would enter into a program which had been running for two years and was strong enough (in terms of achieving results) to receive funding from the IADB MIF.

Expectation - My job would allow me to use my facilitation/creativity skills to expand and strengthen the program and use my science/education skills to coach businesses one on one about how they could become sustainable.

I thought the latter would be what I did the majority of the time, but it wasn’t.

Reality – 80% of the work was creative (and persistent) faciltiation. Also known as pure grit : D teeth smily. I only got to the 20%, the one on one work, with businesses in the final 4 months of my contract.

Expectation - I also imagined that it would be difficult to convince businesses to be green but once I showed them how they could save money too, they would jump on board to join the program.

Reality - It WAS difficult and sometimes I wondered if we really wanted to do better business in the Caribbean. I was not only reaching out to local businesses but also to regional entities which I realized now only had a surficial interest in the Green Business Barbados Program.

Expectation - I also imagined that I wouldn’t sound like a crazy person when I spoke about the urgency of sustaining our islands resources because climate change was happening now in the region and would only get worse. Afterall from my research on the various agencies and types of projects being funded through Barbados, climate change awareness and projects were happening.

Reality – Climate change adaptation is still largely culturally irrelevant and not a priority in the region. Yes there are infrastructural projects and delegates at climate conferences but are local businesses ready to face the fact that they may have to relocate, consider diversifying products and gasp reduce reliance on tourism in the face of climate change threats like more intense hurricanes, coastal land loss, agricultural disruption and supply chain fragility??

Dubious Reality - No, climate change still meant polar bears and faintly, chickungunya and sargassaum seaweed. Even further, I noticed that very few in the region have assertively and publically made the connections between current realities and what the predictions, models and scientific data which indicate that climate change is happening.

Lastly, I imagined that businesses in Barbados would jump at the opportunity to be pioneers for the Caribbean. Although there was a fee to join the certification program as is common for certifications, the fact that having joined the program you could receive a mini-grant to buy some type of technology or products which were needed to help you save money, what could possibly stop you from taking the opportunity and becoming a pioneer?

What is really what?

The truth is there are many factors which stopped businesses from signing up, following through or progressing through the program as they intended to. These multiple factors colour our Caribbean realities and all of these factors are not necessarily a reflection of inefficiency or unwillingness.

Until my contract allows me to (2017), I can’t share much more about my Green Business Barbados experience but what I can say is that I’m launching a program to define a Better Caribbean which brings me back to my original purpose – adaptation and at the same time feeds the hunger of Caribbean businesses to become more resilient.

The simple truth is - A Better Caribbean is the only Caribbean reality we really can afford to focus on.