The world's most responsible hotels

Named after a Jamaican slang term for “brethren” or “brother,” Breds parlays those funds into an eclectic array of projects for the local fishing and farming communities including the construction of homes, classrooms, sports facilities, a computer lab and library, and a repeater antenna to facilitate better ship-to-shore communication. The foundation has also helped Treasure Beach prepare for natural disasters by creating a hurricane relief fund and an emergency response team trained by volunteers from New York’s Bellevue Hospital.

Given the fact that it’s almost impossible to separate indigenous people from their landscape, many of the hotel-based responsible tourism projects incorporate environmental elements.

A good example of this cross fertilization is the Green Futures College at Grootbos Private Game Reserve in South Africa, which teaches disadvantaged local people how to make a living from nature-based sustainable livelihoods like horticulture, ecotourism and landscaping with native fynbos plants. The school was initially funded by the nonprofit Grootbos Foundation and a matching 200,000 euro grant from the German government, but now supports itself through a landscaping business and indigenous plant nursery that employs many of the graduates.

“We decided that we should be doing more for the local community,” says Grootbos owner and managing director Michael Lutzeyer. “Our idea — given that we specialize in plants on this reserve — was to set up a foundation and train local people in indigenous gardening.”

In order to be chosen for the program, candidates from the nearby township must be 18 years of age, unemployed, have at least a ninth grade education and speak some English. “And we also teach them life skills,” says Lutzeyer. “It’s no good that you train someone who doesn’t have a bank account or know how to go onto the Internet, who doesn’t have driver’s license. So we have two teachers — a horticulture teacher and life skills teacher.”

There has been a total of 60 graduates since Green Futures was started in 2003, and the one-year program graduates its fifth class this August. Alums have started to spread their newfound skills around South Africa as nature guides, professional gardeners and native plant experts. One graduate has established a green project at a preschool in Masakhane Township that aims to provide vegetables for local children, raise environmental awareness among the local populace, and generate funds for the school by selling fynbos plants to the public.

American Claude Graves and his German-born wife Petra created a model for a socially responsible resort before they even knew where that resort would be located. “Our vision,” says Claude, “was to create a tourism venture that would be of substantial benefit to its neighboring community.” After scouting locations around Southeast Asia they decided on secluded Sumba Island in eastern Indonesia. The end result was Nihiwatu, a haven for surfers, sun seekers and scuba divers that never strays far from the original humanitarian ethos.

Turtle Island Resort Turning his back on the tumultuous modern world, Harvard-educated Richard Evanson bought an uninhabited Fijian island in the early 1970s and transformed it into the epitome of a rustic chic resort. Along the way he also started the Yasawas Community Foundation to fund local healthcare, employment and education initiatives. Turtle Island also helps local villagers help themselves by providing seed money for backpacker and budget accommodation.

The Sumba Foundation, co-founded by the Graves, has renovated or rebuilt six local schools, erected seven medical clinics that serve more than 15,000 people, provided 200 villages with clean drinking water and thousands of local kids with all the supplies they need for school. Nihiwatu strictly adheres to a policy of 95 percent local staff and stimulates other economic opportunity by sourcing much of its food and building materials locally.

“For many years, no one gave us the time of day,” says Graves. “In fact, every bank and hotel developer we approached for help — and even our friends — thought we were insane for trying to make this work in Sumba instead of mainstream Bali. We have put what seems like a lifetime into this project, and at times we really were close to losing it all. For Petra and I to see our dream of creating a tourism venture, one that gives much more than it takes, to see this model of ours to finally be recognized as something special is very satisfying and encouraging,” he adds. “It just goes to show that timing is everything and persevering with a noble cause is well worth it in the end.”

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