RIVIERA MAYA AND HUATULCO, MEXICO—From vegetable gardens and green houses to a water purification plant, the Barceló Maya Beach Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico, and Barceló Huatulco Beach in Huatulco, Mexico, have embraced the green revolution to help preserve the environment while simultaneously appealing to their eco-conscious guests. Both resorts have even earned the Certified Gold status from Green Globe, a benchmarking program for sustainability in travel and tourism.
At Barceló Maya Beach Resort, guests are invited to participate in the resort’s sustainability and energy-saving practices. Throughout the complex, guests can read important information about protecting the local environment and visit an ecological information hut to learn about the care of mangrove swamps, reefs and sea turtles. Guests are also offered the option to conserve energy by reusing towels and sheets rather than requesting fresh towels daily.
Other eco-friendly practices involve treating water in filtration plants to be reused for garden irrigation, sorting trash for proper disposal, using energy-saving light bulbs and installing automatic light control in public areas.
The resort complex even has a 3,200-square-foot vegetable garden, “La Huerta del Chef,” where vegetables, herbs and 10 different types of chili peppers are grown. Additionally, a reverse-osmosis plant purifies drinking water, and an on-site nursery produces 60 percent of the plants used in local reforestation.
A Way of Doing Business
For both the Barceló Maya Beach Resort as well as Barceló Huatulco Beach, protecting the beach for future generations and giving back to the community have become regular parts of doing business. During sea turtle season, which begins in May and ends in October, both resorts protect nesting sites with a wire fence and post signage to inform guests about the importance of protecting sea turtles. Once the eggs hatch, guests can even participate in the release of hundreds of newborn turtles on the beach.
To protect the environment even further, Barceló Huatulco Beach built a warehouse for the storage of hazardous materials and also set up a program for resort staff to work with both the state and county governments in monthly beach cleanups.
Barceló Huatulco Beach also supports community events with complimentary facilities and food donations, provides space for local artists to showcase their work, donates to charities and organizations such as the Red Cross and the local fire department, and has established a special recruitment and hiring program for people in the local community.
“We are aware of our guests’ increasing interest in the environment and want to assure them that we are doing everything possible for these resorts to be considered truly eco-friendly vacation destinations,” said Claudio Zboznovits, vice president of Barceló Hotels & Resorts sales and marketing in the United States and Canada. “The environmental practices of these hotels grant guests peace of mind that our resorts will be available for generations of travelers to come.”
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