For years, Property Guide has included a Green Living article in our magazine to suggest ways to protect and conserve the natural beauty of the BVI. As recently as April, for Earth Day, we published an entire green issue. Lately we’ve noticed that more and more of our articles, either from our expert contributors or our own staff, tend to focus on the need for increased environmentally friendly practices in the BVI. When we visit properties on the islands, homeowners and real estate agents are always quick to point out such features as solar panels, cisterns, or energy-conserving materials. Architects and builders tell us about the ways they integrate the natural environment in their designs. Interior designers and furniture retailers use products made from recycled boats and reclaimed wood. All these efforts do make a difference both locally and globally.
In this month’s Property Guide, we sat in on a lively sustainable development seminar sponsored by the Ministry of Finance's Project Support Services Unit. We look forward to many similar discussions in the future and to seeing solutions developed and put into place. At the BVI Go Green Festival, keynote speaker Angela Burnett Penn from the Department of Conservation and Fisheries suggested small measures for residents, business owners and government to conserve and reduce waste. For an article that started out as a piece on lamps, we discovered the disadvantages and inefficiencies of overhead office lighting. The architectural firm of Roger Downing and Partner described the recent renovations to their office space which includes a living rooftop.
We all witness the direct result of non-environmentally practices on a daily basis—roadside litter, brown seas after a hard rain, smoke from Pockwood Pond’s incinerator or even Owen’s recent encounter with floating tires and discarded gas tanks when caught in a street flood. It’s difficult to imagine a pristine BVI, but it’s something we can all strive towards.
Keep it clean.
