Jamaican and Caribbean businesses must strive to ‘build back blue, build back green, build back better’, following the blow dealt to the global economy by COVID-19.
So says Eleanor Jones, who chairs the Energy, Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ).
Vital to that effort is the attention to the marine and terrestrial environment as a resource, and to environmental considerations as essential to the operation and management of any entity.
“The ‘building back blue’ is taking care of the marine environment, which means that we handle our waste treatment (for example) in such a way that it does not end up in the marine environment,” she told The Gleaner.
Jones, who also sits at the helm of Environmental Solutions Limited (ESL), was speaking following her participation in the recent teleconference hosted by The University of the West Indies under the theme ‘COVID and the Environment: For Better or for Worse?’ It was held on World Environment Day, June 5.
“Hopefully, we will revisit our approach to the tourism sector so that we take a look at the green side of it – and not just the natural ‘blue’ assets like mangroves and so on, but also integrate our land assets,” she said.
“If we look at like health tourism, we should be protecting our mountains, all the very distinctive characteristics of our land, and having that be a part of the attraction. We need to protect those natural assets, not just for our people, but also for our visitors,” Jones said further.
The global tourism sector took a severe hit with travel coming almost to a standstill, courtesy of COVID-19, which has infected in excess of nine million people globally and killed more than 473,000.
Other sectors have also had to lay off workers or otherwise significantly cut salaries in response to the financial challenges presented by COVID-19, which has forced a withdrawal from social and economic life as persons had come to know it.
Jones said all companies must now rethink how they do business.
“Within companies, the ‘green’ also refers to energy conservation, water conservation and the overall effective use of resources so that we reduce waste in many ways, not just trash. We have to get businesses to think in terms of their risk management, reducing the exposure to natural hazards, while planning for the continuation of business,” the ESL boss said.
For the PSOJ, she said they were doing their part to help with building back blue, green and better. Included in those efforts is the ongoing sensitisation of their membership about energy resilience, knowledge sharing on recovery planning, and participating in Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ National Tree Planting Programme.
“You have to place financial progress in the bigger picture with environmental stewardship, public health, social well-being, equity, community capacity, vitality and resilience,” Jones said, emphasising the need for businesses to adapt in order to realise “sustainable prosperity”.