We're a B Corp certified hotel in Colombia. That's the short version, and it's the bit that fits on a badge. The longer version is more useful if you're choosing where to spend your money, so here it is, including the parts we'd rather not print.
We're an 11 room hotel and beach club in Bocachica, on the island of Tierra Bomba, 25 minutes by boat from Cartagena. Being on an island is why a lot of this is difficult, and also why we bothered.
Why we picked B Corp and not an eco label
We chose B Corp because it still puts making money at the centre of the operation. We're a for profit business, and a certification that pretends otherwise wouldn't last a season out here. The assessment looks at the whole company rather than one visible gesture: how we're governed, what we pay, who we buy from, what we do with our energy and our waste. You can't pass it by hanging a card about towels in the bathroom.
The other reason is that somebody who isn't us does the checking. We've all read enough hotel sustainability pages to know how easy they are to write.
What it means for the people who work here
Nobody who works here takes home less than the established living wage in Colombia, counting tips and bonuses. Our lowest wage is a minimum of 15% above the Colombian national minimum. Most of our team lives on this island or in Cartagena, and those jobs are the main reason we think the boat traffic is justified at all.
Professional development for the team is on the list of things we still owe, not the list of things we've done. We'd rather say that than round it up.
Power, water, and the $20 on your bill
There's no bridge to Tierra Bomba and no public utility connection at our end of it. City hotels plug into the grid and the mains. We generate our own electricity, including from the sun, and run our own water and waste systems on site. That's what the $20 per night resort fee pays for, and we'd rather explain it than bury it in a line item.
It also explains a decision you might find odd in a place like this. We have air conditioning in the rooms. In this climate, in these months, taking it out would mean nobody sleeps. We're not going to dress that up as a virtue.
The parts we're not proud of
We still send about half a ton of waste to landfill each month. Every guest and every crate of vegetables arrives on a fossil fuelled boat. We offset those, which is better than not offsetting and worse than not burning the fuel. And we serve Italian bottled water, which means water crossing an ocean to reach a table with a sea view. That one has been the hardest thing of all to reconcile.
The order of work from here: actually measuring our CO2, which we've been lazy about, then biodiversity, then training for the team, then converting the boats to biofuel or electric.
The kitchen is where most of it happens
Chef Pedro Mosqueda, who trained at the Gato Dumas Institute in Bogotá, runs our kitchens. Most of what he buys is local. We only serve meat that's sustainably raised and ethically treated, including how far the animal travelled, which quietly removes a lot of what you'd expect to find on a Caribbean beach menu. Our farm to table page goes through the sourcing properly if that's your thing.
None of this is meant to be solemn. We play a lot of music, much of it from underrepresented artists, we drink, and then we recycle the bottles. We never understood why consideration had to be dull.
Come and check the plumbing
Our back of house sustainability tour is the honest version of this page. A member of the team walks you through how the place actually runs and where regeneration does and doesn't reach. It's US $10, which goes to our impact fund, it's for guests rather than the general public, and it needs booking in advance because whoever shows you round has a day job. It is the least photogenic hour of your stay and the one we're gladdest to give.
If you want to see the place first, the beach club takes day visitors from 11am to 6pm, and our boat leaves Cartagena from the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11.30am and 5pm. Ask us the awkward questions on WhatsApp before you book. We answer reservations messages between 9am and 9pm.
See you on the boat.