Agent Diary: 'Our jobs are intrinsically linked to the climate'

Scientists tell us that without bees the world would quickly come skidding to a halt, which is why I have six hives at home. 

It’s not completely altruistic, as they pollinate my fruit trees and give me amazing honey. These fascinating creatures run their homes like little resorts. The queen bee, or manager, is the decision maker, holding everything together. Then there’s housekeeping, the bees who keep the place clean and tidy, and those who spend their time outside covering the main tasks of gathering and security, patrolling the entrance to stop undesirables coming in and helping themselves to the all‑inclusive honey buffet. 

Follow pigs’ example

As my bees’ summer season came to a close, the start of our autumn/winter season was heralded by kind locals dropping in with their windfall apples and carved-out Halloween pumpkin heads for the king and queen of recycling: our pet pigs, Winston and Clemmie. Very little goes to waste with these two around! They also love rooting through old horse bedding, into which we mix autumn’s leaf litter and plant waste. They enjoy turning it over for months until it becomes amazing compost, which in turn nourishes our fruit and vegetables.

Winston and Clemmie care nothing for recycling and it’s neither a consideration nor priority for them; their actions are driven purely by their own needs. And that’s OK, because their actions have a positive environmental impact regardless of what motivates them. 

But whether you’re interested in sustainability or not, our jobs are intrinsically linked to the climate. It’s one of our clients’ main concerns when booking, and there is no denying that our job in travel is a whole lot harder than it was 25 years ago because of the impact of climate change. How often now do we find ourselves scrambling around, navigating the ever-increasing number of natural disasters?

Sustainability in travel isn’t only about carbon footprints, single‑use plastics and recycling – it’s also about how we as travellers interact with the communities we visit. After Hurricane Melissa, it was heartwarming to see British tourists working alongside locals, doing what they could to help clean up the devastation. A clear sign that we are all in this together.

Just do something

In the wake of Melissa, the big tour operators launched donation-matching appeals across social media, which is fantastic and I’m sure will be much appreciated. Clearly such initiatives are driven by a wish to help, but a cynic might ask whether there’s also another agenda. Appeals shared so widely are good publicity and the quicker Jamaica can repair the damage, the sooner operators can stop cancelling holidays and get back to business as usual. But if it were my home, I wouldn’t care why, as long as the aid kept coming.

So, if you can’t find a selfless reason to be more sustainable, then perhaps be like Winston and Clemmie and find a self-serving reason to motivate you. At this stage in the game, it doesn’t really matter why you help, as long as you figure out a way to do something.