Global environmental certification program for travel & tourism
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LA VIE ECOLOGIQUE
    
 
3 Rivers is situated in an environment of outstanding natural beauty, and one of our most fundamental aims is to live in harmony with, and have as little harmful impact on, those surroundings as possible. We recognize that our business has an important role to play in protecting and enhancing the environment for guests and the residents of the local community.

In keeping with this goal, every aspect of the project has the environment in mind. We espouse a sustainable lifestyle, minimizing our use of all resources, and monitoring all systems. We currently use the sun for all our electricity, for pumping our water from the river, and for heating our hot water. We plan to install a microhydro system as soon as we can afford to in order to increase the amount of electricity available to us, and run our truck on used cooking oil. We compost all kitchen and garden waste, and use that compost to help us grow as much organic food as we can. We try to minimise our water consumption, grey water goes through grease traps to be used in the garden, and our campers use dry toilets. Whenever possible, we try to avoid purchasing packaged goods, shop locally, recycle and use biodegradable products, and we try to keep our waste products to a minimum.

An important aspect of this policy is to involve the local community. Our employees all come from local villages, and we train them in sustainable living.We offer a number of community based activities and are trying to showcase environmentally sound practices, hosting free school visits and giving guided tours and workshops, to all interested parties, explaining renewable energy, organic farming, and the sustainable lifestyle in general, as well as being involved in various local community projects .

We are a fully certified member of Green Globe 21 ( a sort of star rating for environmentally friendly hotels ) . We are also a full member of The International Eco Tourism Society. Accordingly, we aim to comply fully with, and go beyond, all environmental laws and regulations, and to communicate our policies and practices to all interested parties, from guests up to government officials. We hope we can help Dominica retain its still relatively unspoilt environment, and move into a greener future.

Summary of our environmental work

  • The eco work began from the start, reclaiming spoilt land which had been destroyed by chemicals used by the banana farmer whom I bought the land from.
  • Composting began on day 1 and continues today with the use of a rotating four bin composting system.
  • all soaps, washing liquids and cleaning products are biodegradable
  • we use no chemicals whatsoever on land or anywhere else.
  • all of our electricity is solar power
  • we use solar hot water heating systems
  • we pump our water supply from one of the pristine rivers bordering our land using a solar powered pump, which works in silence to avoid disturbing the surrounding natural habitats
  • our diesel truck has been modified to run on used veggie oil, thereby reducing harmful emissions by some 93%, and re-cycling the oil that had been previously carelessly discarded by local restaurants.
  • We separate all garbage and compost everything, helping our young gardens flourish
  • we employ 100% local people
  • we offer community based activities where guests get a true taste of village life - and villagers earn a few dollars
  • we sponsor and actively support a local turtle conservation project called the Rosalie Sea Turtle Initiative, under the umbrella of Widecast
  • we sponsor the village cricket, basketball and rounders teams.
  • we sponsor one of the local village bands and showcase them here at 3 rivers occasionally.
  • we bought a washing machine for a local lady and set her up in her own laundry business.
  • we helped create a new village library using books donated by our guests and we installed the electricity for them and donated all necessary supplies for that job
  • we sponsor the community internet cafe.
  • we run workshops for local people and tourists on solar hot water heating systems, organic farming, and general renewable energy usage.
  • we plan soon to install a micro hydro electricity system and a small bio gas plant.
  • We offer free educational tours for all schools in Dominica and have already hosted a large number of the schools.
  • we have produced a basic educational book on all of our systems for our guest in order to increase their environmental awareness
  • we are about to introduce a new package deal where all of the activities will involve learning about local village life, and each activity will be held in the village and will be run by the villagers who will receive a fair income for their efforts, and our guests will get a true taste for village life.
  • our grey water passes through grease traps, which are changed daily to help our compost system and protect our waste water leachfield soakaways.
  • we monitor daily our water, electricity, gas, solid waste and paper consumption and aim to continuously reduce our usage.
  • Our camping facilities include a composting toilet.

 

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