"IN THE END, WE WILL CONSERVE ONLY WHAT WE LOVE,
WE WILL LOVE ONLY WHAT WE UNDERSTAND,
WE WILL UNDERSTAND ONLY WHAT WE ARE TAUGHT."
-SENEGALESE ENVIRONMENTALIST BABA DIOUM
Sustainability
Sustainability addresses how individuals and communities live in balance with their ecological, social and economic environments. Designing, building and maintaining sustainable developments enables an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy and prosperous environment that improves quality of life.
Our Goals
Ocean First Divers will achieve sustainability in the built environment not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Our goal is to become as close to energy independent as the existing facility will permit, relying primarily on the addition of solar power and the reduction of electricity and gas consumption to reach that goal. We will address all major sources of energy use and reduce to the best of our ability in each department. Already identified are…
1. Replacing our existing hot water heater with a condensing high efficiency gas boiler with low temperature applications and proven 96% efficiency.
2. Installing a domestic solar thermal panel system to accommodate our domestic hot water.
3. Replacing our pool pumps with solar compatible, low-e, high efficient pumps.
4. Installing PV solar panels to power the building.
5. Replacing all lighting fixtures in the building with more efficient bulbs and transformers.
6. Installing motion sensors in common areas, such as kitchen and bathroom, to reduce unnecessary electricity consumption.
7. Install waterless urinal in men’s bathroom to reduce water consumption.
9. Challenging our suppliers to reduce the amount of packaging on several of their items and refusing to receive items with excess packaging.
10. Whenever possible, we book travel destinations with environmentally minded eco resorts.
Additionally, each year OFD keeps enough materials out of landfills to cover a football field over 8 millimeters high. We are committed to being responsible stewards of our environment and we approach each new project with this responsibility in mind. We have undergone a couple of significant renovation projects in the past two years, having utilized only VOC free paints and recycled or renewable resources such as Trex, bamboo and wheatboard.
We are particularly proud of our ongoing relationship with the friendly and innovative folks at Ecologic Designs. We challenged them to find a way to reuse old wetsuits and they came up with a very clever wetsuit reclamation program. What started as a wish of some eco-minded divers has blossomed into an international program with participants like the Olympics and Patagonia. At Ocean First Divers, we are proud to offer a full line of reclaimed products for sale, along with a multisport reclamation station, and we know this is just the beginning.
What constitutes an environmentally responsible business continues to evolve. As we learn more about the environment, and our impact on it, organizations will have to adapt to ensure their business practices and corporate philosophy keep with the changing times. Too long have companies engaged in greenwashing and publicity stunts to further their image and position in the market. With the twenty-first century comes a new mindset for what constitutes a conscientious business and only those companies that evolve and continue to raise the bar will suceed.
In October 2009, Ocean First Divers lead a trip to the Banda Sea, Indonesia. We spent the last two days muck diving in Ambon Harbor. To our dismay, there were considerable amounts of rubbish both in the water and on the shore throughout the harbor. We felt obliged to contact the owners of the Archipelago and insist that some measures be implemented to try and address this growing concern. They asked that we write letters, as concerned tourists, to the local government to help usher in programs that helped mitigate the refuse in the water and educate the children in the community on the importance of preserving their local environment. After submitting numerous letters to the Archipelago, this was the response we received from their management. Needless to say, we were delighted to hear that swift action was underway and our influences had helped the process of addressing the environmental degradation in the area.
"I have several other divers who have also taken the initiative to become part of the solution, so I’m very grateful and happy about that. I’m getting a decent collection of letters ready for my further meetings with the governor and other officials. I even have contacts with some guys from the World Bank in Jakarta, they have funds for assisting with this kind of thing, so I have put the governor and those people in contact already. I’ve been working with Ken at UDT about this too, hopefully his support on the subject, being someone who has sent many divers to Ambon, will help something happen too.
Lets hope we can make a difference.
Cheers
Andy