Imagine if every container that came out of a vending machine was eco-friendly. You’d definitely feel a smidge less guilty buying a pack of Flaming Hot Cheetos, that’s for sure. Well, one company in Jamaica is making that dream a reality.
Legendary Jamaican music producer Chris Blackwell founded the Oracabessa Foundation in 1995. He started the organization as a catalyst for social and environmental change in the small and desperately needy town of Oracabessa. Since its inception, the Foundation has been recognized for its outstanding work in the areas of health, the environment, education and sports. They’ve become community leaders and continue to take on agricultural, athletic and cultural projects.
About two years ago, the Foundation was asked to help provide concessions to workers on the site of Blackwell’s new hotel and resort, GoldenEye. Jonathan Gosse, general manager of the Oracabessa Foundation, said, “Our plan was to turn that over to local vendors who would earn an income from the venture. We also floated the idea of using eco-friendly food containers rather than the usual Styrofoam that is everywhere here.”
Tonic CEO Pankaj Shah loved the idea so much that he personally donated $10,000 as soon as he heard it. Touched and stunned, Gosse said, “We used part of the funds to do small business training with the 12 local vendors we had selected through a very long, participatory process.” Due to construction delays and project restraints, 18 months passed and the team of 12 vendors was eventually reduced to two.
Just recently, after months of turmoil, the GoldenEye construction project started again and the trained social entrepreneurs were ready. “The Foundation now purchases eco-friendly containers from a company called Earthbound here in Jamaica and we sell them back to the vendors at a price equal to what they would pay for Styrofoam. Pankaj’s donation subsidizes the difference,” Gosse explained.
It was the good idea, perseverance and a little bit of extra dough that made a whole lot of difference in this small Jamaican community. Congrats to the Oracabessa Foundation for some revolutionary work. We hope to congratulate it again in the future when it’s established itself as an eco-friendly role model that has inspired other organizations to follow suit.
Image courtesy of banjoman1 via Wikimedia Commons.