Promoting responsible tourism on the Canary Islands | John Dale Beckley from Canary Green

Summary

John Dale Beckley is the founder and manager of the sustainable tourism nonprofit Canary Green. Their mission is to showcase and promote responsible and sustainable initiatives on the Canary Islands, partnering with local businesses and travelers globally to create positive and necessary change. John is an advocate for the idea that tourism is a force for good in the world and is passionate about disruptive ideas, sustainability, and digital storytelling. He is calling from Ten Reef in the Canary Islands and has been living there for 20 years. Around 200,000 Norwegians travel to the Canary Islands each year, making it the perfect place to start a conversation about how to travel better. Canary Green works to help the 15 million people who visit the islands each year to choose where to stay in a way that is more sustainable.


Canary Green is a Tenerife-based business founded to promote sustainable tourism and responsible local businesses. Their platform provides resources such as a website, blog, directory of sustainable hotels, activities, and restaurants, and a magazine called Greenscape. Additionally, they have a podcast that has gained some attention despite not being heavily promoted. They focus on promoting activities that are not harmful to the environment and support local vegan and vegetarian options. They also plan to incorporate more cultural events and history into their platform.


Kennedy Green is a sustainability group that works to promote and create awareness of sustainable and unique experiences in the Canary Islands. They have organized beach cleanups and tree planting, and are currently involved in two projects: making the area a solar farm, and a hydrogen car project called SEA FUEL. They have been producing video content and speaking at events to help promote these projects, but progress has been slow due to a lack of patience and bureaucracy. Research has shown that the local beach Porta is a catchment area for plastic debris, and winds can bring in large amounts of debris. Kennedy Green is committed to continuing their work in promoting sustainability in the area.


The conversation is between two people discussing the environmental issues of the Canary Islands, specifically the growing amount of plastic waste washing up on the beaches. They discuss the work of Nacho Dean, a man who has walked the circumference of the earth and swam all the oceans, who is now measuring microplastics in Spain. The conversation continues to discuss the partnership of the two people with a company called Ocean Born to help with logistical support for their projects. While the conversation is filled with sadness for the current state of the environment, the people are optimistic about the potential of working together in partnership to solve these issues.




Transcript

[: 0:00:09

[0:00:41] A: So this is episode number two and I feel I'm just dipping my toe into this pool of new ways of thinking and acting when it comes to travel. I have learned so much in a very short time and I have started to gather all this information in a kind of a library books, podcasts, articles, research companies and people and tons of knowledge that I want to share with you. You can get access to this library that I'm gradually developing by going to bycous coresources.

[: 0:01:22

[0:02:01] A: This is a very popular place to go. We are talking about the Canary Islands. My guest today is John Dale Beckley. John is founder and manager of the sustainable tourism nonprofit Canary Green, which is the only English speaking nonprofit dedicated to sustainable tourism on the Canary Islands. They want to help around 14 million tourists visiting the islands each year to travel more sustainably. That is why they have made their mission to showcase and promote the responsible and sustainable initiatives on the Canary Islands.

[: 0:02:41

[0:03:10] B: Welcome to roaming roots. John I'm so happy to have you here.

[: 0:03:16

[0:03:18] B: First of all, could you tell us where you are calling from?

[: 0:03:23

[0:03:31] B: This is also where you have your company, Canary Green, where you are the founder of this nonprofit, Canary Green, and also, as you call yourself, a change agent for sustainability in the tourism sector. And when I found you, I thought your physical location was especially interesting. And the reason for that is that so many Norwegians where I come from travel to the Canary Islands. I think I read that last year it was around 200,000 and I think actually it went up after COVID I I hear about so many people going to the Canary Island.

[: 0:04:11

[0:04:30] C: So, Canary Green, we look at it this way. There's 15 million people coming to the Canary Islands each year and what we want to do is to help them choose where to stay. So which places are making the most sustainable effort to choose activities that are not harmful to the environment and are responsible? And then to support local businesses and restaurants and particularly those that are offering vegan and vegetarian options, but that are also local.

[: 0:04:57

[0:05:13] B: So how do people use Canary Green then? Is that kind of a platform that you can go in and find examples and destinations, hotels, restaurants, or how does it work?

[: 0:05:31

[0:06:05] B: Yes. And you even have a podcast. That is actually how I found you at your podcast. I think you said that you're not putting too much of an work into it, but I thought it was good and I found so many interesting people through that podcast interesting.

[: 0:06:23

[0:06:31] B: But could you give some examples of because I've looked into your web page and I see that you do a lot of different things. So could you give some examples of campaigns, events, different things that you take to park in?

[: 0:06:46

[0:07:16] C: But what we do is we find hotels and experiences that are unique and sustainable and then we go to them and we take our team and we have photographers, copywriters media people that will produce content for them and show like them to our audience so that people then can see them across all the social media platforms and things like that. We're now also involved in a project to make this area. So I'm in Costa Deki, which is the municipality, and they want to make this, it's from Eon.

[: 0:07:48

[0:07:50] B: Yes.

[: 0:07:51

[0:08:18] C: And then we also involved in a very interesting project called Sea Fuel, which is a hydrogen car project. It's a 40 million euro project in the south of Tenerife. And basically they're wanting to take seawater with wind and solar into an electrolyzer and converts it to green hydrogen. So that means there's no emissions. And then what they do is they want to change all the renter cars and all the public transport to be green hydrogen.

[: 0:08:46

[0:09:11] C: And so the project will carry on now. But the idea is to have a lot of these electrolyzer charging points and to slowly convert all the cars into green hydrogen. That's the end goal.

[: 0:09:24

[0:09:41] C: Oh, my God, it is crazy. My biggest problem and frustration is patience, especially in Spain. It moves so slowly. Politicians, companies, everyone are so slow to move, to get things to happen, because when I started, I was like, with so much energy that, hey, this is going to happen, and you start taking your fingers and we move fast. But the projects we're working on, that's the hardest thing for me, is to be patient.

[: 0:10:15

[0:10:23] C: Correct. This is long term, and this is not about me or Kennedy Green itself. This is about us being a part of change. And this is going to be for the next 100 years. This is the biggest battle humanity is going to be hunting.

[: 0:10:37

[0:10:46] C: The project is called SEAFUEL.

[: 0:10:48

[0:10:49] C: SEAFUEL EU is the website address, and the other one for the solar panels is Atevarde EU.

[: 0:10:56

[0:11:32] B: What's the status?

[: 0:11:34

[0:11:57] C: And it's so sad to see that. That's the waters of the Canary Islands. And so we have to be careful that this is happening, and it will build up if we don't take stock of it. But when you go onto the beach, even if you pick up the rubbish and you hold up a piece of sand, you can see it's all plastics inside there, and then all those disintegrate into microplastics, and it just stays in our ecosystem. So with the measuring of the microplastics, we only offered logistical support. We went the people collecting the samples and sending it to university and caddies. It was a guy called Nacho Dean, and he's the first person to walk the circumference of the Earth and swim all the oceans.

[: 0:12:39

[0:12:45] B: Wow.

[: 0:12:46

[0:13:13] B: Soon, but we don't all this work. Are you optimistic about how to solve these issues.

[: 0:13:23

[0:13:51] C: And I also think people need to be educated. I think this is all about education. And I think that's the problem we have at the moment is that people aren't being educated, that we have to change, we have to change our lifestyles. Everything has to head towards climate change and reversal of emissions going out. We can't just carry on and we're all just carrying on. I don't see anyone making substantial steps here on the Canary Islands. I think Europe might be a little bit more advanced than us.

[: 0:14:20

[0:14:44] B: It's kind of the same problem we have in Norway. I would say that we're not really feeling the changes directly on our everyday life. So it's hard to take in that things are happening. But it was kind of a little bit not surprising. But I didn't think about it that way, that you really don't see it either. That's a little bit eye opening for me that it's so beautiful there that you don't think about it.

[: 0:15:15

[0:15:47] C: But we've done all the filming already. We just need to edit it all together and have her enunciate. It's all about success stories for others to see and then to follow and be inspired and inspired the way they integrating different facets of sustainable change. Some can be focusing on the wellbeing of their staff and the community around them. One would be almost self sustaining on their energy needs with wind and solar and water boreholes and all different examples of companies really thinking, what is my responsibility of change? And how do I embrace it?

[: 0:16:30

[0:16:37] C: I think when you're waving a finger at someone and saying, hey, you're not doing this, it doesn't inspire anyone. I think with positive reinforcement of showcasing success stories, then it inspires other two. Hey, I want to be a part of that. And I think it influences because we are about influencing people. That's really what this is about. And I think positive reinforcement has a much better chance of influencing people than negative.

[: 0:17:01

[0:17:13] C: Personally, I actually feel like I was in the hamster wheel of life. I went to university marketing and business management. I didn't got into the hamster wheel running, working way too many hours, just trying to accumulate money. And I feel I got lost. And it was only by several things happening in my life that put me in this situation that I wanted to reevaluate what I'm doing and why I'm doing it and what is the point. And of course, all of this is coinciding with climate change reports we were getting.

[: 0:17:43

[0:18:12] C: I want what I'm doing to mean something. And also did you watch that movie? Don't look up.

[: 0:18:20

[0:18:22] C: I feel we live in that movie now.

[: 0:18:26

[0:18:32] C: And what it's allowed me to do is to actually meet people like you and the people I work with now. And really I'm inspired and feel so rewarded. I never feel like I'm waking up and it's like I'm going to work and oh, I've got to do this. Don't feel that at all. I feel totally inspired in what I'm doing. And we've got a lot of volunteers that work for Canary Green. We've got ten working with us now.

[: 0:18:53

[0:19:21] A: Today's travel toolkit contains a podcast. Of course, I had to do my research on other podcasts talking about responsible travel and tourism. And then I found this one with a name that I think is great and quite funny. It's called? May I speak to the manager, please? And it's by Lydia van der Brigg. She shares best practices around sustainability, service excellence, ecological footprint and people development in tourism and hospitality from real leaders around the world.

[: 0:19:57

[0:20:30] B: Since I started this, looking into this space about the future of travel and tourism, I have been thinking a lot about why we travel. So I do feel myself that it's very important to roam, as I say in the podcast title. And I have come up with some answers myself, but I'm wondering about yours. Why should we travel and when should we prioritize to travel?

[: 0:21:02

[0:21:34] C: It's crazy. Like, you won't believe that they're so comfortable just staying there. And I feed to them, you know, I live in the next town, come and see it. It's like amazing. And they live a whole lot of there. So yeah, so I think it always enriches you to travel and to learn.

[: 0:21:49

[0:22:23] B: And others always, I think, have some kind of excuse for why this particular travel is really important and should be prioritized. And this, of course, can create some friction. I feel that myself in the space that I'm working. So how do you look at this yourself? Do you think that we are putting too much of an emphasis on that particular issue or not enough?

[: 0:22:54

[0:23:31] C: So he's working on this project and he says that's the future for short haul flights. So short haul would be between Europe and the Canary Islands, for example. But the panel on the stage, they spoke about biofuels and they spoke about lobbying together to stop the government putting more taxes on them because of and I just thought it's playing defense and protecting what they've got rather than saying, listen, we need to change our fuel.

[: 0:24:01

[0:24:48] C: And they have to embrace it fully. And the pressure needs to come from the tourists, the people using their planes, and the politicians and the partner brands. It needs to be a holistic approach because I could see them all supporting each other and what they were saying is, let's not get more taxes. Let's get together, let's form our own little consortium that we can lobby the politicians in Europe.

[: 0:25:12

[0:25:45] C: He came on stage. And he changed, the whole conference changed because of him, because he said in the Canary Islands, you have wind, sun, and the ocean, sea, waves. You have everything to be self sustaining and renewable energy. What is the problem? The problem is regulation. So we need to deregulate. And the other problem is funding. And the other problem is political will to want to change. So he says, if you can get those three things in order, you can make the Canary Island self sustaining with your energy needs, with your car into green hydrogen, you've got sun.

[: 0:26:21

[0:26:43] C: So that's it.

[: 0:26:45

[0:26:50] C: Lanzarotti is getting the first of its kind, an underwater wave machine that could power the whole island of the east side of the island. And it's coming from India. It's the first of its kind, and if it's under the water and it's not harmful to the marine environment, so that for me, is fantastic. There's another project which I'm speaking to now called Inapta, and they've got a small electrolyzer. So one hotel could have stacks of electrolyzer, whatever their power needs are. So you take the seawater, you convert it to green hydrogen, and you power your hotel.

[: 0:27:24

[0:27:59] C: And everything we're doing at Canary Green, we realize that this actually what we're doing. And the movement we're trying to create is not about our lifetime. It's going to be our children's lifetime and their children. Because for me, climate change and and sustainable change is not we here. There's no finished point. This is an ongoing process. So we're not looking for companies that are perfect, because nobody's really perfect.

[: 0:28:24

[0:28:44] B: You mentioned at the conference the CEO of two E. So how do you think that the major, the big tour operators are changing and taking on this challenge? Do you feel that they are not defensive, that they are thinking forward?

[: 0:29:04

[0:29:49] C: It's all money. So these companies are saying, hey, we'll come. Give me $150, or whatever the month is, and we will put a certificate saying you are eco friendly. Everyone's playing this game of putting certificates and quickly preparing something. Whereas what we want to do is we want to have people thinking, how can we change? How can we act in reality, not in what kind of stickers can we put on our website?

[: 0:30:16

[0:30:41] C: He was head of sustainability for Tui. And he said, we did a study and we found out that the cleaning staff were flushing the toilet 30 times during a clean of a two bedroom apartment. 30 times. And I was like, what? They said, just when you understand that and you change the behavior and the style of cleaning, you save so much money, you save so much water. Because you imagine how many resorts we have, how many rooms we have, how many cleaners we have doing the same thing. It made such a big impact.

[: 0:31:11

[0:31:33] B: It does. It's very interesting that you mentioned Andreas, because I had. Him as a guest on the podcast. So I found him through you? I think so it's like this ripple effect of interesting people that I find he's actually employed.

[: 0:31:50

[0:32:18] B: Okay.

[: 0:32:19

[0:32:38] B: Think it was him who said this. Interesting thing about where the change comes from. Is it the tourists that demand the change are looking for more sustainable options or does the change come from the hotels and the tourist industry in itself? And I think he leaned towards the last one. But what's your opinion on that? What do you think?

[: 0:33:03

[0:33:33] C: And a lot of these people are making decisions and politicians, it's all about money. And until people and the tourists need to realize that it's the same as when you're voting for politicians if you've got to come together and vote the right people in. And so we need to support the right hotels that are making these changes and we need to expose hotels that are just putting. I know one hotel, she was the sub director of a big hotel chain here. They've got four big hotels in Las Americas.

[: 0:34:00

[0:34:47] C: It's so refreshing to see a hotel come with that attitude. Not, I'm going to try and keep them all here. I'm going to try and squeeze every last euro out of them myself because the whole village relies on them coming in and supporting them.

[: 0:35:02

[0:35:38] C: I think learn to research and spend more time researching. And don't just look at pricing, look at I need to know what your brand is doing to be sustainable. Okay. And then obvious things like, I'm not going to go jet skiing or go, we've got Laura Park, which is one of the biggest theme parks in the world here, and we've got all these animals locked up like that. I think Tui came up and said, we're not sending people there anymore.

[: 0:36:08

[0:36:49] C: Like, they're sponsoring local beach cleanups, they're sponsoring cultural events. They've eliminated single use plastic in the hotel. You know what I'm saying?

[: 0:36:57

[0:37:06] C: Think at the moment, everybody is looking, especially at this hotel that I just spoke about, mind Hotel here in Costaji. I think everyone's looking to see, is that model going to succeed? And they're all hoping it's going to fail so they can turn around and see, I told you so. That doesn't work. And so that's why I spoke to the director and I said to him, it's so important for me that you succeed because you are the first one that's coming out saying, everything we do is to think about sustainable change.

[: 0:37:33

[0:38:00] B: Yeah, actually I was looking at that hotel, I think you had a blog post about it on your web page. It looked really nice. So mine hotel, wasn't it? M Y yeah, mine MYMB yeah, looks very nice. So maybe I'll put the link in the show notes so people can look at it.

[: 0:38:20

[0:38:45] C: I don't think it should all sit on the shoulders of Mind hotel. Why can't all the other hotels, us measuring our micro plastics is important for us to know. We can't just be like cavemen saying we're just going to put all this stuff in the sea and not care about it. We have to be thinking what we're doing. Absolutely.

[: 0:39:03

[0:39:17] C: Well, this year our objective is to start something called a membership. So we're thinking of calling it Sustainable Gangsters. So we've been promoting brands for five years and we're going to go back to those brands and say to them, listen, if we have a membership plan, would you offer instead of them booking through booking.com and and you paying commission to booking.com, why don't you offer discounts to our members?

[: 0:39:41

[0:40:16] B: Nice. I would really like that. It's a very good idea.

[: 0:40:19

[0:40:20] B: Yes, absolutely. I would use that definitely. So that can be found on Kennedybean.org.

[: 0:40:27

[0:40:53] C: And if everyone's paying us €10, we're not getting influenced by one sponsor or one funding because then it comes with a holder of rules and terms and conditions. What we want to do is free. And that's why we have a board of advisers of eight people that are leaders in sustainability advising Canary Green. This is the right way to go in these different ways.

[: 0:41:18

[0:41:19] C: Thank you very much for your time.

[: 0:41:20

[0:41:29] C: Thank you. I hope we see you in the Canary Islands.

[: 0:41:33

[0:41:41] A: Oh, yes, I wouldn't mind that at all. This place is quite cold and snowy, so the Canary Islands sounds really, really good, but maybe later. Thank you so much for listening to the second episode of Roaming Roots. I hope that you have gained some insights about responsible and mindful travel and tourism in the Canary Islands, but also in general. As a reminder, please visit bycous Co Resources to peek inside my own library under development.

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