Years ago, I went on a tour of Costa Rica. Coast to coast. San Jose, Arenal, Quepos, Tortuguero; the Caribbean & Pacific. Rain forests, cloud forests, sandy beaches, tropical rain storms, volcanos and turtles.

I bought a rough-hewn notebook made from the byproduct of the coffee harvesting process complete with a turtle pictured on the front. Nightly, as I traversed this wonderful country, I would muse, at length, on the nature of eco tourism, sustainability, mass tourism, how to protect the rainforests from encroaching farmland and the dangers of indigenous poverty.

I was drawn to Costa Rica because of their advanced rainforest protection policies, reforestation, eco-friendly tourism and their lack of a standing army. An all round good place!

I suspect by this time in my life I’d stopped reading The Guardian and drifted to the slightly more centralist - though Blair supporting - Times (that’s the London Times to you Americans). However, my notebook was still redolent with ‘on the one hand, but on the other’ equivocations beloved of Guardian editorials of old. Basically, I wanted my cake but I also wanted to lecture people about obesity.

My arguments, written from rain drenched huts high in the hills or under siege from ferocious armies of ants, went something like this (I’m summarising a more nuanced argument, but not by much):

Eco tourism good, mass tourism bad. There needs to be some infrastructure in order to shepherd tourists to certain places, to bring in the money to enable the other, more untouched areas to be protected and remain untouched. The tourism paradox.

Noble thoughts. Very 90’s third way. A practical solution to a growing problem. This was before Al Gore started jetting around the world telling us not to fly and before global warming was relabelled to the more research grant friendly catch all, ‘climate change’. However, environmentalism and sustainability (dare one use the word conservation?), is something that should rise above partisan agendas so I’ll not mention the climate lobby again.

Some Early Thoughts

An interesting aside from the 70’s… There was no domestic recycling bin in those days and only cranks and weirdy-beardies out in Hebdon Bridge used to fill up the sparse bottle banks. Not so the Robson household. We’d store all the empty wine bottles in the garage until there were so many we couldn’t access the chest freezer at the back to get out the Sunday roast. At that point we’d pack them all up into the boot of the Lada and drive them down to - seemingly - Rochdale’s only bottle bank and guiltily plop them in one by one (such alcoholics). Ben Shaws pop bottles I used to return to the local shop myself for the 1p fee. The 1p was quickly handed back for 4 Black Jacks or Fruit Salads. (1)

Small example number two: I was taught never to litter and still don’t and neither do my children. There’s nothing so dispiriting than the environment being strewn with rubbish. It ruins urban communities and beauty spots alike. Some preventions are easy to do and so - it seems - as easy to ignore. Throw your rubbish away properly, eh?

As regular readers of this blog will know (hi Tim!) I’ve long been interested in the interplay between the environment, incentives and regulation. It will not surprise anyone that I come down, often - though not exclusively - on the side of enlightened incentives (see Costa Rica example above).

Corporate… Keep it Local

But back to supporting the environment… We’re all aware of green washing, aren’t we? Where corporates extol how very green they are in order to attract investors and customers. It seems very cynical. There’s an element of Danegeld about it; adopt these policies or face the wrath of the social media vikings or ESG hunting mega-funds. But, if there’s a positive impact, then do the ends justify the means?

In a word, no. Or, at least, not to virtue signal.

So, here’s some environmental ideas.

Keep it local and tangible. Benefit the community you work in.
Keep it non political. If it’s perceived to be political you will lose goodwill but you probably won’t know it.
Keep your goals realistic
Involve the stakeholders
- The staff should buy in. Local. Tangible. (2)
- The company should think through the ends - what objective are they trying to achieve? It shouldn’t be abstract nor a box ticking exercise. (3)
- Customers should understand what the company is doing.
Combining these… I believe once a goal, project is adopted, the staff should be involve with their time, talent and treasure. If a voluntary way of customers also helping can be found, then this should be adopted. Regular website updates can be shown to promote the enterprise and the practical nature of the project.

But what about sustainability? Well, let’s start with Reuse, Recycle, Reduce. More to come on this…

Some Notes

1) We may have gained many things over the last few decades but we’ve also lost some. Walking. Kids being responsible. A fully functional system to return glass from whence it came.

2) Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.. – 2 Corinthians 9:7

3) Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.– Matthew 6:2