In the midst of our ultra modern technological world the impacts of business as usual and rapid urbanization are becoming apparent in our environment. Some of the major impacts include; mass waste generation and water contamination, CO2 emissions from energy, transport and buildings, over use of water and pollution of our waterways and oceans. In many cases these problems are due to inefficient systems that were put into place without sustainability in mind but there are some very simple mitigation measures that businesses can put into place at little cost to the business and in fact often provide a cost savings.

The purpose of this page is to start a dialogue about ways that business can become more socially and environmentally responsible and provide examples as to how it is being done. One of the ways is to adopt a sustainable business plan is to invest in a green business programme and include a sustainable framework for decision making. In addition for those businesses that build their own offices investing in green building techniques can also provide a cost savings and can be seen as a marketing edge for business.

There are many green business programmes throughout the world but one of the most popular internationally recognized programmes is the Green Globe programme more commonly seen within hotels. In addition to this there is the ISO 14001 environmental management programme for manufacturing processes. Locally we have a new programme that was created through a public/private partnership with the Ministry of the Environment and the local non-governmental organization the Future Centre Trust. This programme called the Green Business Barbados programme is a localized, achievable and affordable programme put in place to facilitate the development of the green economy right here at home.

GBB Approved Green Businesses