MEET THE MENTOR: PORTIA HART
HOTELIER, ENTREPRENEUR AND PASSIONATE SUSTAINABILITY ADVOCATE PORTIA HART RUNS THE LAID BACK BOUTIQUE HOTEL AND BEACH CLUB, BLUE APPLE AND GREEN APPLE, A NOT-FOR-PROFIT SOCIAL ENTERPRISE ESTABLISHED TO IGNITE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE.
Hotelier, entrepreneur and passionate sustainability advocate Portia Hart runs the laid back boutique hotel and beach club, Blue Apple, and Green Apple, a not-for-profit social enterprise established to ignite social and environmental change. Home for Portia is tropical island of Tierra Bomba off the coast of Cartagena and we are honoured that she has agreed to be a mentor for members of The Conscious Travel Foundation’s Collective. We spoke to Portia about life in Colombia, putting goats in Zoom meetings and all things conscious travel.
What is your proudest sustainability moment?
This is a tough question because every time we get somewhere, we realise how much further we have to go. If I have to pick something, I’d say it was when we reached operational break-even in Green Apple - when the income we earned from bottle and compost collections was enough to pay the operational costs, and we still had a waiting list of restaurants wanting to sign up. This was huge because it proved our point that what we were doing had value, didn’t need to rely on charity and even more than that, we saw our whole industry beginning to be interested. That moment, I felt like we could change the world.
How you have survived through covid without visitors and what impact has it had on tourism and how you operate?
This crisis has been a stark reminder of global inequality. We watched as our industry was devastated worldwide, and then we watched as other governments provided businesses with grants and loans, or simply took care of staff with furlough schemes and unemployment benefits. In Colombia, none of this happened. The government actually made it illegal to fire staff, then they made it illegal to put them on forced unpaid leave. Businesses were left in the position of paying unemployment benefits themselves, or simply closing (and having to declare bankruptcy, because there wasn’t enough cash to pay staff severance). It was devastating for everyone, I still can’t believe the government got away with it. We are so lucky to have an amazing connection with our clients, so we started fundraising through a variety of projects, specifically: Tips for Tips, Animal Zoo(m), Helping Hands and #InYourFace and that has kept everyone going. (After 3 months, we were finally able to get a government subsidy (£80 per staff member per month), but this is unavailable to businesses which made staff temporarily redundant.)
How much have you raised through your amazing Animal Zoo(m) and Tips initiatives?
So far we’ve raised a little over £5,500 with the Virtual Tip Jar and renting our goats and donkeys out on Zoom. It doesn’t sound like an awful lot, but everything has gone to our staff. Food for a family of four can eat for about £30-40 / week so the money has made a huge difference. For morale, it’s also been really important for everyone - especially management, who have pretty much dedicated themselves to things like this. We’ve maintained a sense of connection with the team and a feeling that we are supporting each other.
Can you tell us more about your #InYourFace campaign?
Most recently, we launched #InYourFace, and online campaign selling facemasks. We read that the best fabric for making your own facemasks is high thread count cotton - they actually recommend bedsheets. As a hotel, we have sheets that might have a tiny hole or a stubborn stain, that come out of service. It’s so wasteful to bin them. We give them to staff and donate them to hotel training schools as well, but I still always have more lying around. So, we sterilised them and we sent them to a local seamstress who made them into masks. Originally, the idea was to use these for our own staff when we re-open, as part of our uniforms. Then, as Townhouse has always had a connection with the artistic community, I asked a few artists if they’d be prepared to donate a design. So many said yes, and a new project was born. We now print a limited number (50) of each design and sell them for £5 each, of which £4 is profit and goes to our staff. We launched a few days ago so we don’t know how it’s going to go but so far, the feedback has been great and we have more designs coming out this week.
Have you ever tried to implement something wasn’t so successful that others might learn from?
No, because I am extremely stubborn and tenacious. None of these projects happened easily and all of them could have failed. Trying to get the team to make videos from their houses was a nightmare at first - poor internet connection, noisy kids, terrible phone cameras, shyness, despondent staff trying to come to terms with what was happening - it took weeks to get enough content to launch the campaign. With the facemasks, it was logistics. I’m on an island, and I was trying to coordinate the delivery of bed sheets to the mainland, then the seamstress and the printer had to work out their process (they live on opposite sides of town). Eventually we had the masks and now we’ve got daily deliveries to manage. All in the face of one of the world’s strictest lockdowns (people are allowed out once every 10 days, according to their ID number). Our next product to launch is Helping Hands. We have staff living at the hotel in town (Townhouse) and they’ve been working on making an environmentally friendly but effective hand sanitiser. It’s taken weeks to get the recipe perfect and now we’re onto bottling (we are using old glass bottles from the bars) and we are waiting for the pump lids to arrive. Helping Hands will be their brand, with all profits going to them. Blue Apple and Townhouse have committed to using them as our official hand sanitiser supplier, and we hope to sell it to other hotels and members of the public too. Has it been easy, no. Will I let it fail? Absolutely not. My team’s welfare is hanging by a thread. The stakes have never been higher. I can’t let these initiatives fail.
Why is the idea of conscious or sustainable travel so important to you?
I remember when I was in my early twenties and Primark was new. I bought a pair of shoes for about £2. I remember looking at them one day and asking myself how anyone could make a pair of shoes for £2 and make a profit. Even with economies of scale, I just couldn’t see it. I was young and I wanted to earn money because money makes us happy, right? And we spend it and share it around and it lands with other people and it makes them happy. But I kept thinking that my £2 probably hadn’t reached anyone at all. In fact, it had probably done damage.
Being aware isn’t something I apply uniquely to travel. As consumers we all have power in our pockets and we wield that power every time we decide to spend. Conscious travel, conscious living, is about trying to use our power for good wherever we can. In the case of travel, how can I go on holiday and have a fabulous time, while contributing to the wellbeing of the place I’m in? The answer is easier than we think and doesn't need to be about martyrdom or self-sacrifice.
Can you give us a snapshot of the positive impact of tourism on Colombia?
There is a lot of talk about over-tourism in Cartagena, but really it is just poorly distributed tourism, because everyone is trying to do everything within the confines of the Historic Walled City. A million people live here and tourism is vital for the local economy and employment. In the case of Blue Apple, we were the first hotel in the village where we are. 10,000 people live here, and with 50 employees on full time, long-term contracts, we were by far the biggest and most stable employer. In 2019, after 3 years of being open, we estimated that about £300,000 had flowed into the local village economy through wages, tips, souvenirs and activities. When one of your members of staff tells you they’re the first person in their family to build their house out of bricks and concrete (and not corrugated iron), or they’ve just sent their kid to university having never dreamed it possible; when the guy selling souvenirs on the door invites you to his birthday party and you see that his house is one of the smartest in the neighbourhood and he’s paying for 50 people to have food and beers, you see what the positive impacts are.
Can you describe the visible, tangible ways that visitors helped you at Green Apple?
We’ve had some amazing volunteers at Green Apple, one of whom is now our Ops Director and runs the show! But really, I’m not focussed on individual actions. It’s more about creating a system whereby everyone makes a tangible difference just by choosing to come here. I think it’s a great shame if people are taught that you go on a ‘fun holiday’ OR a ‘sustainable holiday’. I’m trying to incorporate all of it into one. Even if you're not particularly drawn by volunteering or making a donation, you should be able to spend money in a way that does good, and feel good about it.
Do you ever see your visitors being positively affected by their own impact?
This is really a question for Domino Volunteers, as that’s what they do. From our perspective, I still get a kick when I see someone crush their rosé bottle after lunch and see it turn into sand, which we then show them, becomes the cabaña that they’re sleeping in. Life should be full of small moments of joy like this. Enjoying yourself and then seeing that something positive came on it.
Are there any messages you want to get out there? Or any ways people can help?
Donations to Green Apple are welcome! While the industry is closed, we are down to zero income. We are working on a scheme to collect glass from residential properties that I think will save us, but some breathing room would be nice (we have to apply for permits, of course). Before the pandemic, we were looking to raise £20,000 to build a workshop where artisans (all women) can safely work (creating souvenirs and gifts from discarded glass), as well as the final stage of their glass-craft course. It would be amazing to continue this project. The glass waste is still being produced!
I think what's really important for me is that everyone understands that I'm not an expert. Blue Apple still doesn't do carbon monitoring. I am not on solar power. I haven't installed a watermaker or a water recycling system. I'm just an ordinary person learning as I go along and working out what I can do with the budget available, and sharing what works because, if I can do it, so can anyone!
Guapo, the donkey, joining a Zoom meeting!
