Friday, Ewald Biemans, owner/CEO of Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort, accepted a global award on behalf of the resort for its efforts in Aruba to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS), supported by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), held its 16th annual conference concluding with a worldwide awards ceremony. Bucuti & Tara received a Sustainable Cities And Human Settlements Award for the category of Global Low-Carbon Ecological Scenic Spot. The in-person and virtual event based in China highlighted achievements within the 17 SDGs.
Shining the spotlight on Aruba
The GFHS Secretariat learned of Bucuti & Tara’s all-encompassing sustainability success on Aruba when the resort received the Global UN 2020 Climate Action Award and invited it to submit its in-depth program of initiatives to the selection committee. Awardees represent prominent progress and valuable experience for the world to call on in achieving post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
This global agenda is a blueprint adopted in 2015 by 193 countries at the United Nations General Assembly. It contains 17 goals (SDGs), 169 targets and more than 200 indicators. It is designed for every individual, entity and country, to follow and achieve while balancing social, economic, and environmental sustainability, to ensure a more sustainable future.
Taking action on island
This GFHS Sustainable Cities And Human Settlements Award achieved by Bucuti & Tara is attainable for anyone, any entity or the island itself to attain. Resulting from the 2015 worldwide commitment to decrease global warming at 1.5˚C, Aruba created SDGAruba.com, the island’s much-needed resource for showing citizens how to achieve the agreed-upon Sustainable Development Goals.
“It is an honor for Bucuti & Tara to receive this critical Sustainable Cities And Human Settlements Award as a member of Aruba that has created its path of achieving SDGs, and we hope it inspires the government, entities and individuals to call upon the SDG Aruba and to take action with these shared vital initiatives to protect our beautiful island,” says Ewald Biemans, Owner/CEO of Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort. “Aruba along with the rest of the Caribbean contribute minimally to global warming, yet our island home is unfairly among the most vulnerable to its devastating effects.”
Representing Aruba
The three-day provides high-level interactive platforms for insiders to share and spread knowledge and experience, exerting significant demonstrative effects and providing a higher profile to the promotion of the realization of Millennium Development Goals and post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
As an entity, Bucuti & Tara’s net zero success and community partnerships were highlighted as contributions to taking care of its island home. After a brief video presentation, Biemans gave an acceptance speech on behalf of Bucuti & Tara’s Green Team. Highlights included that as a small 104-room hotel on tiny Aruba, this award gives the resort and the island a voice. Having come to Aruba 55 years ago, he witnessed the rapid development, depletion of natural resources and need for sustainable measures to protect the island’s future. He was particularly inspired by the famous Rio Earth Summit in 1992. As a spectator, he never dreamed that his efforts would one day make him an honoree for following the path set forth. Biemans concluded that the regenerative travel experience designed to protect Bucuti & Tara’s Eagle Beach home for generations makes it possible for guests to trade carbon footprints for sandy footprints.
Up next
Biemans will travel next week by invitation to participate in the much-anticipated UN COP26. On Nov. 4, he has been asked to be a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism. On Nov. 9, he will accept Bucuti & Tara’s honor at the in-person ceremony for the Global UN 2020 Climate Action Award. At that event, he will provide a major presentation sharing the resort’s journey of excelling beyond net zero including the successful plan the UN has deemed “highly replicable and scalable” for the more than 1 million hotels around the world to follow.
