Eco Pousada Baia do Joao is the first Green Key awarded hotel in Brazil. Located in Buzios, a popular tourist destination near Rio de Janeiro, Eco Pousada Baia focuses on educating its guests on sustainable living options while they enjoy a fabulous vacation.
©Patrick Dias
The two owners of the 9 rooms Pousada, Karl Schieneman and Rita Melo, renovated the 30 years old establishment in a sustainable way to protect the local environment. The renovation was run along with a Brazilian designer based in Connecticut. Paying attention to every detail, they replaced all of the toilets, showers and faucets while adding new sustainable and locally made furniture. While replacing the tile in the pool and changing the rotting wooden deck into tile, Rita also decided to replace the wooden fence around the pool with glass. In that way, the ocean is viewable from the pool area and from the metal and wooden pub chairs from their Sunset Bar.
Karl observed, “my hope is that guests will leave Baia do Joao seeing how easy it is to walk or cycle more, to try vegan foods, recycle, and to watch their energy consumption. Hopefully they will take some of these ideas home with them while enjoying an amazing vacation at the same time.”
As an experienced award winning entrepreneur in the legal field, Karl came up with the idea of designing an Eco Game to help guests earn points based on simple positive behaviors they can do to help the local environment. As a result, guests are handed a tri-lingual Eco Game pamphlet and learn how they can win gifts such as an assortment of bamboo and wooden items. They also learn about local vegan restaurants, where to rent bikes, and the location and prices for the convenient bus and van system which go to all of Buzio’s beach areas inexpensively.
Karl, who took on the responsibility of the Pousada’s environmental management said, “one of the things I found most interesting about Green Key is its emphasis on helping guests see how they can impact the environment by staying at a Green Key certified location.”
Along the way, enthusiastic water engineers joined the project and drew up plans for a grey water system. Karl and Rita easily picked water conservation as their Green Key focus for 2019-2020. In a city surrounded by 20 unique beaches, Rita pointed out that “while people notice the water surrounding us in Buzios, they think less of the wasted water when they bath and flush toilets.” After 2 months of work, their Pousada now has the first grey water system in Buzios and one of the few grey water systems being used anywhere in Brazil.
Karl proudly said, “on December 23rd, when we turn the grey water system on, water from many of the showers will flow into a series of tanks, filtered through a series of rock beds, and be pumped back into toilets. Other used water will be diverted and used to water plants in the Pousada, provide showers for animals in a pet friendly park we are building, and to water some gardens we are building below the Pousada.” Rita notes, “this will enable us to increase our water usage in a way which does not hurt the environment and between the animals and plants, in a way which helps the environment.”
©Patrick Dias
The support from Brazil and Buzios since they announced these projects has been huge. Karl and Rita strongly believe that the people of Brazil are very interested in hearing about and supporting sustainable projects. They also have noticed that in several months, it has become easier to find eco-friendly cleaning supplies so they no longer have to fill their truck with cleaning supplies at Walmart in a larger city an hour and a half away. Local stores now carry these products.
Karl and Rita could not be happier to see all of this momentum in Brazil and look forward to having other hotels join them in Green Key to educate their guests on sustainable living options while they enjoy a fabulous vacation at the same time.