How we partying? Oh you like the beach? Consider your bumper X 3
- Ariana Marshall
- Jul 25, 2016
- 4 min read
I only picking up bumpers? We have a problem but it is not about "youth nowadays".
Context from previous blog ~ Pollution Solutions - A step beyond punishment and clean ups.
Video - MADD - PICK IT UP CROPOVER 2016
What our youth do is based on how our elders, our businesses and society value our environment. We like the idea of a clean environment - clean beach, clean water and clean food but how are we spending our money and expressing what we value?
Triple Bumper Line
I live on an island. You too? Or have you been to an island and thought - "Geez these people are so lucky". Most people can get to the beach with a short drive or walk. At most on some of the larger islands you might have to drive two hours to get to the beach. Outside of the Caribbean, people are driving over 12 hours just to put their feet in the water. In the Caribbean - our beach trips require no huge gas guzzling bill - no grand production. Our beaches are relatively easy to get to and therefore we the people who live on the island tend to take it for granted.
This must be the main reason why we don't act in consideration of a triple bottom line which factors in our environment, economy and society. In other words, the triple bottom line concept makes the case that every aspect of our island environment has financial value.
The "nice to look at" value also known as the aesthetic value of our environment is relevant too. However this aesthetic value of how beautiful the turquoise waters and white sands look sometimes clouds our vision of the signs of pollution. Have you ever seen a plastic bottle on the sand and bypassed it by refocusing on the sharp horizon? This is how we are blinded by the aesthetic value to ignore how our litter and other environmental problems are piling up.
The only way we are going to address the rising litter issue is by making the case of the money we are loosing with pollution, the business decisions which lead to more litter and worse yet the health risks of more plastic and chemicals in our drinking water, food and oceans.
Our beach environment and how society appreciates environmental resources - both have financial value. We are behind the rest of the world in quantifying this value, we understand at least about how much($2.2 Billion) our coral reefs are worth for shoreline protection but do we yet understand the value of our beaches, agricultural lands and water aquifers - the very environment which we capitalize on to lure people to our shores and sustain our livelihoods (Burke WRI, 2010).
Understanding this financial value requires recognition of ecosystem services .....and it is a whole thing.
You can read more on ecosystem services here with examples from TEEB - The Economics and of Ecosystems and Biodiversity.
For us to figure out how our business and consumer choices influence ecosystem services - (ecological economics) - we can do this in two ways~
1.We can ask each other how much we are willing to pay to fix environmental issues ( e.g. litter-free drains, clean and clear beach) or if someone else fixes it and charges us - how much should they charge us (taxes, beach user fees, higher product prices).
We can do this in surveys. We are also trying to define this value through our Better Caribbean Program to recruit businesses to sponsor environmental sustainability demonstration projects.
2. We can look at how we spend our money - with which businesses, which suppliers, what kinds of events etc. and then we can deduce financial value from there.
In considering the triple bottom line - we'll leave you with this in mind ~
Do our businesses really require a clean island environment to function? Better yet if we build the triple bottom line into our business operations - could the benefits bring us out of the "barely mekking" category? Could we access the rising eco-conscious consumer's buying power? Could consumers actually improve the quality of Caribbean services and products? If an event wasn't on or near the beach would it still be as successful (e.g. look at the success of the Daiquiri Beach/Pirates Cove event venue in Barbados)? When it comes to music we have some awesome Caribbean musicians, producers and artists but would they be inspired similarly without the backdrop of our Caribbean environment?
With the Better Caribbean Program we want to make the triple bottom line very practical to understand and relevant to what the general public is already paying attention to.
In Barbados we are paying attention to Crop Over - our annual summer festival where we celebrate our history, our music, our food, our connection to each other and the value of the Barbadian and Caribbean diaspora - the totality of Barbadian culture. During Crop Over, we make music, we create products, we sell and we buy. We have no shortage of events to go to and Caribbean and international brands recognize this opportunity for marketing. The festival attracts celebrities and thousands of people from around the world. This is the time when we can make the
best case for how consumer spending and business decisions can demonstrate the environmental, economical and social value of the triple bottom line. So that is what we are doing.
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