How Plaza Beach & Dive Resort Bonaire is working towards a more sustainable future

Bonaire is an island that has everything to lose from poor choices. The reef off the coast is among the best protected in the world, the salt ponds attract flamingos that are not found so close anywhere else, and the underwater world is the reason divers keep coming back. This makes sustainability not a marketing term here, but a logical necessity.

At Plaza Beach & Dive Resort Bonaire, we try to give serious meaning to this. Not with big words, but with concrete choices in the rooms, the restaurant, the energy supply, and the ties with the local community. In this article, we take you through everything we do and why.

It starts in the rooms

Sustainability is most easily visible in the small things you use daily. In the rooms and suites of Plaza, we have invested significantly in recent years in systems that consume less without you noticing it in comfort.

The traditional air conditioning has been replaced by more efficient models that consume between ten and thirty percent less energy per room. They keep your room wonderfully cool but ask one thing of you: turn off the air conditioning when you leave the room. That small gesture makes more of a difference than you think.

The same goes for the lighting. LED lights are installed throughout the resort, in the restaurant, along the pathways, on the beach, and in the offices. In the hotel rooms alone, there are more than two thousand LED lights. Where a traditional incandescent bulb consumes forty watts, an LED does it with five. Per bulb, this seems small, but with two thousand pieces, it adds up.

The most impressive improvement may be in the water heaters. The old models consumed 3300 watts to heat 200 liters of water. The new heat pump water heaters do the same with 800 watts, and they heat 300 liters instead of 200. They use the warm outside air for this and emit cold air that cools maintenance spaces. One water heater is sufficient to provide four Grand Suites with hot water.

Water is precious on Bonaire

That may sound strange for an island surrounded by sea, but fresh drinking water has been a focus on Bonaire for decades. Since a water shortage in the sixties, the island has been extracting much drinking water from seawater, which is then purified twice. The result is water of exceptional quality, with a minimal amount of residual salt. You can drink the tap water on Bonaire.

To reduce the use of plastic bottles, Plaza has installed water dispensers in several places around the resort. At the Palm Beach bar, the Tipsy Seagull Restaurant, Toucan Diving, the Activity Centre, and at the reception you can refill your bottle for free. Bring a refillable bottle and you won't need any plastic for the rest of your stay.

Besides drinking water, we also pay attention to so-called grey water: lightly contaminated wastewater from showers, the kitchen, and the laundry. We treat that water at the resort and then use it to water the gardens. This way, as little clean water as possible is lost for tasks where it is not needed.

In the rooms, we ask guests to think about towels. Towels you still want to use hang on the hooks, towels you want washed you put on the floor. This way, we wash only what is really needed and save water and energy.

Energy from the sun and wind

Bonaire almost always has sun and almost always wind. This combination is ideal for solar panels: the wind cools the panels, allowing them to operate more efficiently than in still air. Plaza has invested in new solar panels that will be installed soon, so that a larger part of the resort's energy consumption comes directly from the sun.

Plaza is not alone in this. Within the Van der Valk group, solar panels have now been installed at twenty hotels in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Bonaire adds a location with exceptionally good conditions.

What happens in the restaurant

In an all-inclusive resort where hundreds of guests eat daily, food waste is a serious issue. Food scraps left over after service are not thrown away but offered to local livestock farmers on the island. This is good for the farmers, good for the animals, and good for Bonaire.

At the Palm Beach bar, we serve drinks in hard, reusable glasses. No plastic disposable cups that can blow into the sea or linger on the beach. For soft drinks, we work as much as possible with postmix bulk packaging, so that the amount of cans and bottles is kept to a minimum.

Waste that does arise is separated into glass, paper, and residual waste. There is no deposit system on Bonaire, but Plaza neatly returns empty beer crates from Zuila to the distributor so they can be reused.

Collaborating with the local community

Sustainability does not stop at the resort's borders. Plaza works with several organizations on the island that are committed to nature and animal welfare.

STINAPA manages the Bonaire National Marine Park and Washington Slagbaai National Park and is responsible for protecting a large part of the island's nature. As a guest of Plaza, you can purchase a Nature Tag at Toucan Diving. This tag is mandatory for anyone entering the water and directly contributes to the management of the marine park. Divers pay 45 dollars per person, snorkelers 25 dollars. The tag also gives free access to Washington Slagbaai National Park and is valid for the entire calendar year.

Fundashon Kunuku Kakelvers is a local animal shelter engaged in the welfare of animals on the island. Stray cats and dogs roaming the resort are picked up and taken to the shelter, where they receive the care they need. Plaza actively supports this organization and contributed to the opening of the cat shelter in 2016.

Additionally, Plaza participates in beach clean-up actions on Bonaire, including the cleanup days organized by IFAW ambassador Nicolette Kluijver. Because a clean beach is not only more beautiful, it's also better for the sea life right at our doorstep.

What you can do yourself

A sustainable stay is a shared responsibility. A few small habits can go a long way. Turn off the air conditioning when you leave the room. Refill your water bottle at one of the taps at the resort. Only put towels that really need washing on the floor. Purchase a Nature Tag before going into the water. And turn off the tap while brushing your teeth.

They are small things, but on an island like Bonaire, every gesture counts.